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A review by carly23r
One Day: The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary 24 Hours in America by Gene Weingarten
3.0
Loved how ambitious this idea was, and loved the acknowledgement of how difficult - impossible - it is to “capture” anything from the outside.
However, Weingarten’s language often veers sexist and I’m not sure it comes off in a “knowing” way. I think reading some of the language used in chapters regarding race, gender identity and sexuality demonstrated (whether deliberately or not) how important it is to have journalists who specialise in different areas.
The use of “love story” as a phrase in a saga about horrific domestic violence - even if you charitably assume it is sarcastic - was pretty sickening.
Also, what is with the cover image? Why include a polaroid of an event that happened in 1986 and not mention it? (Not sure if my copy had an unusual cover.)
Some stories were definitely stronger than others. Unfortunately the last one about Jerry Garcia was arguably the weakest, so not a great note to end on.
I ultimately want to know more details of the research process itself and the conception of the idea! If they put dates in a hat and picked one at random to get the 28th of December 1986, how many dates were in the hat? Why did they choose the dates that they did?
Concept was super cool but seemed more about describing people’s appearances with a side of very light fact-checking than constructing anything new.
However, Weingarten’s language often veers sexist and I’m not sure it comes off in a “knowing” way. I think reading some of the language used in chapters regarding race, gender identity and sexuality demonstrated (whether deliberately or not) how important it is to have journalists who specialise in different areas.
The use of “love story” as a phrase in a saga about horrific domestic violence - even if you charitably assume it is sarcastic - was pretty sickening.
Also, what is with the cover image? Why include a polaroid of an event that happened in 1986 and not mention it? (Not sure if my copy had an unusual cover.)
Some stories were definitely stronger than others. Unfortunately the last one about Jerry Garcia was arguably the weakest, so not a great note to end on.
I ultimately want to know more details of the research process itself and the conception of the idea! If they put dates in a hat and picked one at random to get the 28th of December 1986, how many dates were in the hat? Why did they choose the dates that they did?
Concept was super cool but seemed more about describing people’s appearances with a side of very light fact-checking than constructing anything new.