Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards --

I was sorry to learn (thanks to ALD) that the Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski has died at the age of 74. A foreign correspondent with a knack for showing up in trouble spots -- he witnessed 30 coups, uprisings, and revolutions -- Kapuscinski wrote nonfiction books of a kind unfamiliar to most Americans. Neither of the "objective" sort nor of the New Journalism genre, they're a kind of hybrid of poetry and journalism. They remind me of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's journalism, and of some of Oliver Sacks' writing too. Despite being based in fact, they're evocative and suggestive -- intense fairy tales for adults -- and they can really make the mind and the imagination take flight. "Everything is a metaphor," he was once quoted as saying.

"It's not that the story is not getting expressed. It's what surrounds the story. The climate, the atmosphere of the street, the feeling of the people, the gossip of the town; the smell; the thousands and thousands of elements that are part of the events you read about in 600 words of your morning paper."

"Shah of Shahs," "The Emperor," and "The Soccer War" were very high on my list of favorites from the years I spent following contemporary writing. I wrote a posting about Kapuscinski here. ALD links to obits and reminiscences from The Guardian, the WashPost, the NYTimes, and others. A standout is this obit from the London Times.

Best,

Michael

Evidently, he made shit up.

http://www.slate.com/id/2158315/?nav=fix

Posted by: Peter L. Winkler on January 27, 2007 4:50 PM

So, he's another Bruce Chatwin, is he?

Posted by: Intellectual Pariah on January 27, 2007 11:10 PM

Yeah, he's been suspected of embroidering for a long time, and I think it makes a lot more sense to take his books as literary experiences than as journalistic ones. That said, I've run into some journos who have covered the same places and events that he did and they revere him. So I assume that he can be trusted on tone, atmosphere, subtext -- all that not-too-specific stuff.

Posted by: Michael Blowhard on January 27, 2007 11:50 PM






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