"The Greatest Storyteller Working Today"

[JackReacher]

The other day, I read the one about the guy who may or may not have killed his children in a house fire. Amazing story. Grann's blog updates in the months after the story published were interesting, too.

Gonna read the Guatamala one soon.

 

[holy bull]

Title led me to believe that the George Brett threadjack had evolved into its own thread.

Must get caught up on this Grann fellow.

 

[friend of the friendless]

Sirs, Madames,

Talked to him briefly at a reading when he was touring for Lost City. A very odd guy. Ridiculously uncomfortable even though he had the very warm reception. I thought Lost City was great ... right up to the end, when he sorta backs off going the last mile. When I asked him about it, well, 'testy' doesn't cover it. Started on The Devil and Sherlock Holmes collection. The title story was great ... he finds great stories but as a phrase turner, he's not bad but certainly not the greatest.

YHS, etc

 

[Versatile]

I'm only familiar with him through two or three of his New Yorker pieces, which is the problem with The New Yorker having a paywall. (God bless them for making it work, but I subscribe to enough other stuff [four magazines, two newspapers, Rivals and ESPN Insider] that I just can't justify paying for The New Yorker, too.)

I do wonder how much more exposure Grann would get if the site didn't have a paywall. Either way, the pieces I've read are fantastic, and maybe I'll pick up a book now, too.

 

[friend of the friendless]

Sirs, Madames,

The handle might not be wholly accurate. He tells the greatest stories but that's story detection and selection. Spinner of a yarn, less so than some (eg, Gary Smith), but still very, very good.

YHS, etc

 

[lcjjdnh]

Even if the stories are inherently interesting, I still think he structures them in a way that makes them even more so.

I also wonder how many of his stories only retrospectively seem obviously interesting because he's writing them. Something like along the lines of what Justice Cardozo said when asked how he got so many interesting cases-they only became interesting once I started to think about them.

 

[Simon]

I might be missing something with this guy but sentences like this seem really lazy. Why include the word "had"? He uses "had" all over the murder piece.

His mother had inherited a small fortune, and his father had acquired several businesses, including a popular chain of cinemas. (As a boy, Rosenberg had spent hours in the plush seats, entranced by the latest American films.)

 

[Boom_70]

Sirs, Madames,

The handle might not be wholly accurate. He tells the greatest stories but that's story detection and selection. Spinner of a yarn, less so than some (eg, Gary Smith), but still very, very good.

YHS, etc

And in other news Cindy Crawford would be a "10" if not for that darn mole.