Day 1,908, Quasi-Quarantine: Interviews, Reminiscences Of The Village Voice Propel "The Freaks Came Out To Write"

 

“The Voice is a place that took things seriously – small things, developing things, emerging things – that other places didn’t. That’s what it always did.” ~Joe Levy

A painstakingly researched work, "The Freaks Came Out to Write" relies on an incredible volume of interviews to re-create the rise and fall of the Village Voice. Author Tricia Romano -- a former staffer -- documents the 70-year history of the iconic publication and its role in historical national touchstones along the way.

“So began an era of demoralizing factionalism at the Voice. After a while there were factions within factions. Writers began to forget the reasons for their feuds, only that they were enemies and wouldn’t speak in the elevator. It felt like a combination of high school and Bosnia. ‘It’s like Yeats's description of Ireland,’ said Richard Goldstein. ‘Great hatred, little room.’” ~Jack Newfield

Subtitled as "The Definitive History of the Village Voice, the Radical Paper That Changed American Culture," the book focuses almost exclusively on the personalities rather than the process. The lack of a narrative throughline compromises the ability of the work to coalesce.

“He was always a vicious, horrible man. Forget about being president. If you’d asked me, ‘Who is the worst person in New York?’ I would have said ‘Trump’ at any time over the last twenty years.” ~Tom Robbins

“You gotta grab the reader by the throat. He’s on the train. It’s hot. He’s trying to hit on his secretary; she’s not giving him the time of day. His wife is mad at him. His kid needs braces; he doesn’t have the money. The guy next to him stinks. It’s crowded. You want him to read your story? You better make it interesting.” ~Don Forst

The overwhelming cast of characters can put a lot of onus on the reader to keep everyone -- and every timeline -- straight. However, the effort is worth it, as the result is an accessible collection of quotes about and memories of one of America's defining journalistic endeavors.

“I was asked years ago to address the elementary school that my son attended and tell them what a reporter did, and I went to the auditorium in a trench coat with the collar up and a notebook in my pocket, baring it to announce that ‘we are detectives for the people.’” ~Wayne Barrett