August 19, 1999
I normally don't care for spoken word CD's. The only poetry I like starts with lines like "There once was a man from Nantucket." I'm a fan of essays, myself, like those of my all time favorite writer E.B. White - it's the art of real life storytelling that grabs me, the skill to find the humor and pathos in ordinary existence.
NPR has been running the Sunday program This American Life since 1995, and I suppose I've been too hungover to notice. But the release of this CD has served me notice, and I am instantly a rabid fan. Consisting of 11 monologues on 2 discs but priced as a single CD, this is journalism as high drama. Orchestrated by the restlessly intelligent Ira Glass (whose own monologue shows shades of Woody Allen-style neurotic comedy), This American Life offers fascinating portraits from the fringes of society.
Scott Carrier describes how his job interviewing schizophrenics caused him to doubt his own sanity in the deeply moving "The Test"; comedic essayist extraordinaire David Sedaris tells how he caught the "Drama Bug" to sidesplitting effect; Sandra Loh discusses how her father became a local celebrity by being frequently naked; David Rakoff explains how he was chosen to play "Christmas Freud" in a display window at Barney's in NYC; Dishwasher Pete describes how his quest to wash dishes in every state landed him on Letterman.
"Hands on a Hard Body" may be the most remarkable - the story of a contest, told by the winner, in which 25 men stand around a new pickup truck, each touching it with one hand. They stand there until they literally drop from exhaustion. The last man standing wins the truck. It goes on for three days and nights, and the man tells of the mind games, the physical pain, the temporary insanity that such a feat entails. It's bizarre, horrible, oddly touching and riveting by turns. Much like American life itself, which is exactly the point.
- Jared O'Connor
PS: Most, if not all, of the episodes of This American Life are available for your online listening pleasure at www.thislife.org. Go get a taste and see what you're missing.
journalism as high drama