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sunrays118's review against another edition
3.0
This book is a Collection of essays that are written like short stories. The author is talented and has a way with words that charging into each piece. Each new essay offers some beautiful tragedy that seems to give a hint of universal truth. It is beautifully done. The title is not a poetic choice but a true synopsis of the book. It is a book about ways to die.
I do highly recommend this book with a couple caveats. The first is that the author has a predilection to: 1. Plane crashes and 2. Food. I found the repetition of those themes to border on annoying. The next thing I would caution is that some of the stories are absolutely not for those who have any type of empathy. You cannot walk away ok after reading some of these. Lastly, the book starts so strong but somehow the last several essays just didn’t work. From the second person narrative to old essays reworked to add to this collection, they didn’t fit and felt sloppy.
For those reasons, I’m putting this as a three.
I do highly recommend this book with a couple caveats. The first is that the author has a predilection to: 1. Plane crashes and 2. Food. I found the repetition of those themes to border on annoying. The next thing I would caution is that some of the stories are absolutely not for those who have any type of empathy. You cannot walk away ok after reading some of these. Lastly, the book starts so strong but somehow the last several essays just didn’t work. From the second person narrative to old essays reworked to add to this collection, they didn’t fit and felt sloppy.
For those reasons, I’m putting this as a three.
karnaconverse's review against another edition
4.0
Whatever you call it—literary journalism, narrative nonfiction, or creative nonfiction—Michael Paterniti has been doing it for twenty years and for some of the biggest names in the magazine world (GQ, Esquire, Harper's, The New York Times Magazine). In Love and Other Ways of Dying, he introduces readers to 17 people and the places and events that made these interview subjects who they are. A collection of work like this can sometimes be monotonous to read, but I found the book riveting from page 1 to page 433 because of the variety—in structure (some essays written in first person, some in second person, and some in third person) and in subject matter. Through his keen eye, I was transported from the Ukraine to Nova Scotia to Haiti, China, and Dodge City, Kansas (and more) and into the lives of ordinary people living in, and through, extraordinary circumstances. In an interview with his GQ editor about the book, he says "I’m always looking off to the side to see what’s happening in the margin or to see what’s happening behind somebody." It's this looking-off-to-the-side reportage that captivated me and it's a writing tip I'll keep in mind when working on my own projects. Paterniti has been nominated eight times for the National Magazine Award; this book was longlisted for the 2015 National Book Award.
jenleah's review against another edition
4.0
Like This American Life, but worldwide. Literary journalism, a term I hadn't ever heard (maybe that's weird?), but the blurb on the back described it this way and that's exactly what this is. Profound, chilling. Really well written. I'll be thinking of many of these essays for a long time.
I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. I should probably mention that.
I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. I should probably mention that.
jayegatsby's review against another edition
3.0
a 3.5. Some really great, beautiful writing. I would give a 5 star rating to the following essays: The Giant, The American Hero (in Four Parts), The Accident, Mr.Nobody, Never Forget, and The Suicide Catcher.
anuwolf's review against another edition
5.0
This book took me so long to read because I wanted to cherish and savour every single word. Each sentence was beautiful. At first, I didn't realize these were true stories, non-fiction rather than fiction because of how poetically they were written. The author does an amazing job describing the events in such vivid detail, it's so easy to imagine and to empathize.
Books like this prove that literature is a form of art, and help me remember why I love reading so so so so very much.
Books like this prove that literature is a form of art, and help me remember why I love reading so so so so very much.
mcerrin's review against another edition
3.0
I received a copy of this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
I was teetering between giving this book 2 or 3 stars because it really just did not thrill me. But I decided on 3 stars because some of the stories were beautifully written and interesting nonetheless.
I won’t pretend like I requested the book for any other reason than it looked interesting and I love free books. I had absolutely no idea who Michael Paterniti was and by the time I got the book to read I had actually forgotten what it was supposed to be about. So initially I began reading the book with absolutely no basis. I quickly remembered it was a book of essays but did not realize that it was a compilation of the author’s stories and magazine articles he had published over the last 2 decades. So initially I had a hard time getting into the essays, was a little bored, and didn’t quite understand the points he was trying to make with each story. Once I recognized that these were all true accounts and results of his journalism I enjoyed it a bit more. There were still some stories that I just wasn’t that into however and found myself flipping through them. Sometimes I felt that he was just storytelling and not really making any impactful points or eliciting any emotional response from me. Maybe this is the point of the essays, just to tell his stories, but I tend to want more from journalism. Michael Paterniti writes beautifully regardless of my interest in some of the stories. Sometimes his descriptions got away with him and I felt I lost the essence of the story and the people. Also, some essays were written in the second person narrative as though us, as the readers, were the character which I found hard to follow. But I will be honest in that I read most of these stories without any real knowledge of the people or the situations. Many that I did know about (Columbine, Haiti’s earthquake, Einstein’s brain) it was a treat experiencing it deeply with Paterniti. I also learned much more than I expected.
I would recommend some of the essays in the book and others not so much. If you’re looking for something easy to read that you can leave behind and come back to this is it. You can read some of it and skip some of it. I took a break from it for a little bit to finish another book and since it’s just a compilation of essays it’s perfect for that.
In case you’d like to know, the following essays are the ones I enjoyed from this book:
The Giant
The Accident
The Fifteen-Year Layover
The essays I had hard time getting through/skipped some parts:
Eating Jack Hooker’s Cow
American Hero
Most Dangerous Beauty
I was teetering between giving this book 2 or 3 stars because it really just did not thrill me. But I decided on 3 stars because some of the stories were beautifully written and interesting nonetheless.
I won’t pretend like I requested the book for any other reason than it looked interesting and I love free books. I had absolutely no idea who Michael Paterniti was and by the time I got the book to read I had actually forgotten what it was supposed to be about. So initially I began reading the book with absolutely no basis. I quickly remembered it was a book of essays but did not realize that it was a compilation of the author’s stories and magazine articles he had published over the last 2 decades. So initially I had a hard time getting into the essays, was a little bored, and didn’t quite understand the points he was trying to make with each story. Once I recognized that these were all true accounts and results of his journalism I enjoyed it a bit more. There were still some stories that I just wasn’t that into however and found myself flipping through them. Sometimes I felt that he was just storytelling and not really making any impactful points or eliciting any emotional response from me. Maybe this is the point of the essays, just to tell his stories, but I tend to want more from journalism. Michael Paterniti writes beautifully regardless of my interest in some of the stories. Sometimes his descriptions got away with him and I felt I lost the essence of the story and the people. Also, some essays were written in the second person narrative as though us, as the readers, were the character which I found hard to follow. But I will be honest in that I read most of these stories without any real knowledge of the people or the situations. Many that I did know about (Columbine, Haiti’s earthquake, Einstein’s brain) it was a treat experiencing it deeply with Paterniti. I also learned much more than I expected.
I would recommend some of the essays in the book and others not so much. If you’re looking for something easy to read that you can leave behind and come back to this is it. You can read some of it and skip some of it. I took a break from it for a little bit to finish another book and since it’s just a compilation of essays it’s perfect for that.
In case you’d like to know, the following essays are the ones I enjoyed from this book:
The Giant
The Accident
The Fifteen-Year Layover
The essays I had hard time getting through/skipped some parts:
Eating Jack Hooker’s Cow
American Hero
Most Dangerous Beauty
itsgg's review against another edition
4.0
Some essays require skipping (there are a few about sports figures and people who delight in driving a species of bird to extinction), but those that remain are terrific. Collected over many years, even those that are now outdated are fascinating.
jaclynday's review against another edition
4.0
This book of essays read smoothly, like a glass of good wine, though not all the stories are easy reads. It’s a strong collection and a few were really memorable. I loved the one about his visit to El Bulli in Spain. The Long Fall of Flight 111 Heavy–which you can read here on Esquire–was particularly meaningful to me since I have family in the area.
lizshine74's review against another edition
Love And Other Ways Of Dying by Michael Paterniti is a collection of essays that at first glance may seem disparate, a collection of the author’s best works collected over time. Upon reflection, the pieces come together as the author’s inquiry into mortality, our capacity to love and to endure unimaginable horror and loss, and the root of obsession. The collection begins with an almost unbearable description of the aftermath of a plane crash, then after the reader is gutted by his vivid description of loss, takes an upturn to describe the chef Ferran Adria’s obsession with food and flavor, his inimitable art, his obsessive genius. The collection lifts and dips, and most importantly poses questions. Paterniti masterfully embeds the story of his own obsession with exploring the unusual as a masterful and all-in reporter who is willing to drive across country with the man who stole Einstein’s brain in order to understand him. How will this knowledge make him a better husband? Father? His works reveal the best and worst possibilities of our obsessions and some in between. I love the way Paterniti closes the gap between reader and story by dropping us right into the scene with him. “Go with him,” he writes in “Eating Jack Hooker’s Cow”. “Go into the feed yards with Jack Hooker.” Paterniti’s essays have heart and pull you right in, often painfully close. In this collection you will converse with a giant and a man who spends his time catching suicide jumpers on a bridge because he feels compelled to. You will experience the dark heart of racism, genocide, and poverty and starvation, and so much loss it’s hard to imagine how a person could bear it. This book is beautiful and heart-breaking.
I bought it because of an interview on Writers on Writing I listened to. You can listen to that at http://goo.gl/8KQIDg. I listened to the talk on the way to work, then when I got to work bought it. An impulse buy that paid off!
I bought it because of an interview on Writers on Writing I listened to. You can listen to that at http://goo.gl/8KQIDg. I listened to the talk on the way to work, then when I got to work bought it. An impulse buy that paid off!
anywiebs's review against another edition
2.0
Finally finished with this. It took forever, which I think is okay for essay collections, but it mainly took so long as the more stories I listened to the less I cared about them. Also the narrative style I liked in the beginning really got on my nerves as they were all the same - or at least similar. By the end I just wanted it to be over.