Overview

"Bestselling author Mike Sager's fourth collection showcases his deftly-written journalism at its best and most mature, a riveting marriage of crime reportage and you-are-there literary anthropology. The book's centerpiece examines the rise and fall of football RoboQuarterback Todd Marinovich-a previously unpublished, thirty-plus thousand-word ""nonvella"" version of his ASME-award-winning Esquire story, the inspiration for ESPN's acclaimed documentary, The Marinovich Project. Other true stories include up-close visits with super-celebrity Paris Hilton, South Asian Republican hopeful Gov. Piyush ""Bobby"" Jindal, Ultimate Fighting Championship impresario Dana White, and coaching phenom Pete Carroll. Plus: A man who spent twenty-nine years in prison for a crime he did not commit. A Muslim immigrant who worked to save the life of the white supremacist who tried to kill him. The best-dressed man in America. An ugly guy in a town that worships beauty. A farm in the mountains where wounded marine veterans are taking care of their own. And ""The Porn Identity,"" where a divorced dad takes to the road to find former starlets and rediscover his mojo. ""Mike Sager writes with uncommon grace and, always, with respect for those who give him their time. His stories cut to the bone of our common humanity."" -Paul Hendrickson, author of Seminary and Hemingway's Boat, on The Someone You're Not"

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9781950154937

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Reviews

Sager plays Virgil in the modern American Inferno . . . Compelling and stylish magazine journalism, rich in novelistic detail. -Kirkus Reviews Like his journalistic precursors Tom Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson, Sager writes frenetic, off-kilter pop-sociological profiles of Americans in all their vulgarity and vitality . . . He writes with flair, but only in the service of an omnivorous curiosity and defies expectations in pieces that lesser writers would play for satire or sensationalism . . . A Whitmanesque ode to teeming humanity's mystical unity. -The New York Times Book Review I once described Mike Sager as 'the Beat poet of American journalism.' The title is still apt. For decades, he has explored the beautiful and horrifying underbelly of American society with poignantly explicit portrayals of porn stars, swingers, druggies, movie stars, rockers, and rappers, as well as stunning stories about obscure people whose lives were resonant with deep meaning-a 92-year-old man, an extraordinarily beautiful woman, a 650-pound man. He became a journalistic ethnographer of American life and his generation's heir to the work of Gay Talese, Tom Wolfe, and Hunter S. Thompson. His imposing body of work today is collected in more than a dozen books and eBooks. -Walt Harrington, author and past head of Journalism at the University of Illinois The sentences flow with a definite rhythm, but Sager's style is unadorned with falsity, unburdened by over-interpretation. He's a natural storyteller. You never get the feeling he's there just to show off, only to entertain you. -Alex Belth, editor of EsquireClassic.com and The Stacks Reader Series Like a silver-tongued Margaret Mead, Sager slips into foreign societies almost unnoticed and lives among the natives, chronicling his observations in riveting long-form narratives. -Performances Magazine Sager has made a career of finding the unexpected story and telling it with empathy and narrative skill. -Publishers Weekly His self-effacing style evokes George Orwell's famous dictum that good writing should be as transparent as a pane of glass . . . Exhibit A for why, in an age of video, writing still matters. -San Diego CityBeat

Author Information

Mike Sager is a best-selling author and award-winning reporter. A former Washington Post staff writer and contributing editor to Rolling Stone, he has written for Esquire for more than thirty years. Sager is the author or editor of more than a dozen books, including anthologies, novels, a biography, and textbooks. In 2010 he won the National Magazine Award for profile writing. A number of his stories have inspired films and documentaries, including Boogie Nights; he is editor and publisher of The Sager Group LLC. For more information, please see MikeSager.com.

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