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The Fiddler In The Subway: The Story Of The World-Class Violinist Who Played For Handouts. . . And Other Virtuoso Performances By America's Foremost Feature Writer (2010)

by Gene Weingarten(Favorite Author)

4.3 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1439181608 (ISBN13: 9781439181607)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

Simon & Schuster

review 1: This is a fabulous collection of essays. I first learned of Mr. Weingarten when a friend sent me his essay on Joshua Bell’s stint as a busker in the Washington Metro. The question was “Would people on their way to work in the morning stop to hear the play of music by an exceptional musician?” The short answer: No. But Mr. Weingarten’s account of the 45 minutes that Mr. Bell played and most people failed to listen is fascinating. He won a Pulitzer Prize for this story in 2008. In 2010, he won the Pulitzer a second time for “Fatal Distraction” an essay in which he takes a look at a diverse group of people who have one thing in common--they forgot that they had left their infants in closed cars and the infants died. Mr. Weingarten is known for his wonderful hu... moremorous essays and there’s a nice selection here: an account of the life of “The Great Zucchini,” a man who entertains at children’s parties, a rueful look back at The Hardy Boys, a series of books the author loved as a child, and one man’s attempt to find out what the French really think about Americans. Highly recommended.
review 2: I liked this. So why did I only give it 3 stars you might ask? First off 3 stars is a good rating but with a "to read" list like mine , three stars gets you thrown to the very bottom of the list. This was a book that my book club selected for our next book discussion and while I liked it it didn't read like a novel or even a collection of short stories. It really is a collection of essays by Washington Post journalist Gene Weingarten. Some were very good and some others I didn't really care for that much. My favorites were the "The Great Zuccini" and "The Fiddler in the Subway". Gene is a great writer and I will definitely look and see if he actually has any novels written. less

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