A review by sujuv
The Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive History of the Village Voice, the Radical Paper That Changed American Culture by Tricia Romano

5.0

I LOVED this book. I briefly worked at the Village Voice out of college and one of my bosses who I honestly knew so little about - Richard Goldstein - is heard from a lot in this oral history so there was nothing about this book that wasn't going to be interesting to me but that said it should appeal to anyone who cares at all about our impoverished media landscape, culture, creativity, and so much more. All I really knew when I interviewed to work at the Voice was that it was cool and so New York and of course specifically New York below 14th street which is where my entire existence was centered but I didn't know the history and what made the paper so important, how willing it was to go up against the powerful and how open it was to alternative arts. Romano has done a remarkable job of bringing all of that to life through oral history. It is just as riveting and exciting as the Voice once was. R.I.P. (though it's still, kind of, alive)