Heroes

by Joe McGinniss

Book Overview

I first met Robert Kennedy in November of 1967, in Washington, just before I went to Vietnam. I was twenty -four years old and writing a column three times a week for the Philadelphia Inquirer. I... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670369055
• ISBN13: 9780670369058
• Release Date: April 1976
• Publisher: Viking
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Underrated and too soon forgotten

'Heroes' was Joe McGinniss's return to the publishing fray after 'The Selling Of The President 1968' made him bestselling sensation in his twenties. It was panned at the time, viewed as self-indulgent and narcissistic. Well, it sure ain't 'Selling 2', and it's easy to understand why many readers didn't like it. But this is actually a masterpiece of confessional journalism. Joe, knocked sideways by the success of his first book, goes on a search for America to find out what a hero is, and whether the hero still exists. His journey turns into a journey into himself. Yeah, I know it sounds like it's going to be cornball self-discovery time. Er, no. The picture McGinniss paints of himself is of a man realising who he is and despising what he has become: a philandering, abusive, egocentric, drinker. He conceals none of this: he offers up the facts about his life, and about what he is trying to do, as if in a confessional. He offers the reader a chance to judge (and how many authors, really, are honest enough to do that? Put it this way: Dave Eggers would never have dared bare so much of his soul in 'A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius') and does not flinch from the verdict you return. It's criminal this book is out of print.