The Food Lede: Recent Episodes
George Giokas
Hemingway lore has him saying this about writing: “It is easy to write. Just sit in front of your typewriter and bleed.” He also said “the only kind of writing is rewriting.”
There have been other quotes attributable to various writers who have said something similar, but the common thread is this: if you think a writer wiles away the day doing nothing really special, well, try it and lemme know how you make out.
I enjoy reading books that use rigid and old-school shoe leather reporting to expand on real news stories. I enjoy the writing when it’s good but I study the reporting.
Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood,” the story about the 1959 murders of a family in Kansas, is a masterful example of how powerful long-form journalism can be.
Capote opened his book with this paragraph:
“The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call ‘out there.' Some seventy miles east of the Colorado border, the countryside, with its hard blue skies and desert-clear air, has an atmosphere that is rather more Far West than Middle West. The local accent is barbed with a prairie twang, ranch-hand nasalness, and the men, many of them, wear narrow frontier trousers, Stetsons, and high-heeled boots with pointed toes. The land is flat, and the views are awesomely extensive; horses, herds of cattle, a white cluster of grain elevators rising as gracefully as Greek temples are visible long before a traveler reaches them.”
Published in 1965, Capote’s book is considered the first “non-fiction novel” and is one of the finest examples of long-form journalism.
I had the same feeling recently when I finished reading “The Devil At His Elbow,” a book by Valerie Bauerlein about Alex Murdaugh “and the fall of a southern dynasty.” Alex Murdaugh was convicted of murdering his son and wife in a highly publicized and sensational story of greed and power in South Carolina. Valerie Bauerlein is a national reporter for The Wall Street Journal who writes about small-town America and Southern politics, economics and culture.
Not many people understand the role of good journalists and how they do what they do, let alone why. You see a story in a newspaper and maybe take a few seconds to glance over it or, if you’re really interested, read it from top to bottom. This is unusual. Most readers who are enticed enough by the headline only read the first paragraph (known as the “lede”) and maybe the second and then move on. Little attention is paid to what the writer/reporter did to write the story.
In Bauerlein’s book, more than 400 pages and published over the late summer, the reporting, also backed up by 409 endnotes explaining the origin of some of the reporting, is explained this way:
“This is a work of nonfiction, based on interviews conducted over several years with more than two hundred sources. Most sources spoke on the record, though some agreed to share information only on background. This held especially true for sources closest to the Murdaughs, given the sensitive nature of the case and the enduring influence of the family. The book is also based on hospital records, newspaper archives, and thousands of pages of court filings, including non-public depositions and exhibits. No scenes or details were invented. The dialogue and quotes are based on published accounts, were witnessed by the author, or were recounted to the author by credible sources. The author attended the six-week trial of Alex Murdaugh in Walterboro, South Carolina, and accompanied the jurors on their visit to Moselle, the hunting estate where Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were killed.”
Read the book. Study the reporting.
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Tom and Gabriella Matheos open a second location in Bohemia with an authentic menu of Greek food.
Joe Peters, of Wading River, Long Island, has been selling apple puffs and other goodies at festivals for years.
A conversation with Chef Fabrizio Perinelli, co-owner of Bella Vie Restaurant in Bay Shore, Long Island.