Book review: "News to Me"

In my early days of blogging, every now and again there would be a little flurry of excitement, as someone would announce, out of the blue, “I’ve got a book deal!” That was a moment, for the rest of us, of smugness and hope. Smugness because we’d think “I’ve known all along that x is a good writer – I wouldn’t be following her blog otherwise”. And hope, because we’d think “Book deal? Aaah, so they do exist”.

The blogging book deals are fewer and farther between now, but here’s one that’s come to fruition. I’d like to tell you about News to Me: Adventures of an Accidental Journalist, by Laurie Hertzel, writer of Three Dog Blog.

(Sorry, you can't click to look inside, but this was the only image I could find of a reasonable size).

To quote from the blurb, “News to Me is the adventurous story of Hertzel’s journey into the bustling world of print journalism in the mid-1970’s, a time when copy was still banged out on typewriters by chain-smoking men in fedoras and everybody read the paper… Hertzel’s eighteen-year career at the Duluth News-Tribune began when journalism was a predominantly male profession. And while the newspaper trade was booming, Duluth had fallen on difficult times… Hertzel describes her climb up the ranks of the paper against the backdrop of a Midwestern city during a time of extraordinary change.”

I enjoyed this book. You can tell it’s written by a journalist. The stories are brought alive by carefully chosen details. Laurie’s writing is intelligent and disciplined, as you would expect from a newspaper reporter. Her style is easy to read; her sentences are crisp and to the point. She has a fondness for the semi-colon.

I’ve never been to Duluth, Minnesota, but we have friends there, and our first summer in the US, we considered making it our holiday destination. I did quite a bit of research, reading about the town and the area, and looking at photos. So I was interested to read about a life lived there. Her fondness for the place and its people is very evident.

The most interesting part of the book for me was Laurie’s trip to Soviet Russia in 1986. A group in Duluth were trying to establish a twin town relationship with Petrozavodsk, near the Finnish border. Their persistent letters and telexes received no clear answer, and so, although the Soviet Union had not approved a twinning for 13 years, they decided to send a delegation to present the request in person. They made plans to fly from Duluth to Moscow, via Chicago and Belgrade, then take the train to Leningrad, and finally an overnight train to Petrozavodsk. For me, the description of the trip provided a reminder of an era that’s easy to forget, when Russia was a very closed book, and a visit such as this was a brave undertaking, full of uncertainty and difficulty.

The other highlights for me were Laurie’s reflections on writing, and what journalism is all about. For example:

“I was interested in tales, and I began to think of myself more broadly – not just as a journalist but as a story-teller… I was drawn to stories about people who would not normally be in the newspaper. Some would call these feature stories, but in my mind there was a distinction between features (which I considered to be fluffy, “nice” stories) and what I was trying to do. I wanted to tell tales about real life – how real people handled change and obstacles and tragedies and successes…

...You cannot approach journalism with the idea that you have everything figured out; you have to approach stories, and people, with a very open mind, lest you run the risk of not hearing what it is they have to say.”

Now, I would NOT make a good journalist. This article is already over 600 words, and I have a Q and A session with Laurie that I want to add. I would NOT be popular in the newsroom. I think what I will have to do is stop here, and save Laurie’s words for tomorrow’s edition. Blog post, I mean.

Meanwhile, I will summarize by saying that I enjoyed the book, and would recommend it as a fast-paced insight into a fast-paced world. It's fascinating to learn about the logistics of how a newspaper used to be put together. If I have a criticism, it's that the writing reflects its journalistic origins, and the material is pared down a bit too much for my taste. Characters from the newspaper are introduced, and I was frustrated that we don’t learn more about them. Stories are told with minimal detail, when I wanted a fuller picture. I read Laurie on another blog saying that this was a criticism her editor made along the way, so I feel a little smug at this point. Always nice to have your own opinion chime in with someone who knows what they’re talking about. Of course the upside of this is that the book is quick to read, and covers a lot of ground in a short space. It's not a book you'll get bogged down in.

Please return tomorrow, to read Laurie’s Q and A session. For those of you who do so, there’ll be an opportunity to win a copy of the book.

Disclaimer: I received two copies of the book, but no other incentive to write this review. (I was sent an advance copy, and when I lost that, a frustrating few pages before the end, Laurie kindly arranged for me to receive another copy, this time a proper hardback jobbie – which is the one I’m happy to give away tomorrow, because I know that other copy will turn up somewhere, sooner or later.)