One More Time: The Best of Mike Royko

by Mike Royko

Book Overview

With the incisive pen of a newspaperman and the compassionate soul of a poet, Mike Royko was a Chicago institution who became, in Jimmy Breslin's words, "the best journalist of his time." Culled from 7500 columns and spanning four decades, from his early days to his last dispatch, the writings in this collection reflect a radically changing America as seen by a man whose keen sense of justice and humor never faltered. Faithful readers will find their...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226730719
• ISBN13: 9780226730714
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 322 Pages
• Weight: 1.39 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Let's All Read This Book

Baltimore had its sage in H.L. Mencken. San Francisco had Herb Caen. Chicago surely owes a debt of gratitude to the late, great Mike Royko for his faithful reproductions of the comical tragedians - or is it tragic comedians? - who trod the stage of the City Hall and Cook County Courthouse. To laugh or not to laugh, that was always the Hamlet-like question that begged an answer at the end of every column Royko wrote. Royko won a Pulitzer Prize for his portrayal of the larger-than-life Mayor Daley after years of study. "Boss" was his doctoral dissertation following a decade of undergraduate work turning in blue book after blue book of the myriad shenanigans overseen or overlooked by Daley. Like the guy whose newly-renovated home was demolished by the city who had the wrong address. Or the old lady who was threatened by an alderman for feeding pigeons in the dead of winter which was against the city code, although her real offense was going against The Code, namely, the fact that her voting card was stamped "Republican." Although Royko wore a white collar on the job, you knew he always had a blue collar underneath. His column was often the only obstacle that stood between the little guy and the impersonal Machine that threatened his well-being, job, reputation, property, even pets: "For every honest, inoffensive, harmless citizen, there is a bureaucrat waiting to goof him up." His lunch-bucket instincts extended to all facets of life. He detested yuppies, building inspectors, fern bars, self-important people who use cell phones in the movie theater and ward heelers. He also disdained celebrity worship, Bob Dylan in particular, and movies "that have unhappy endings or movies in which the villain wins, or movies in which the hero whines, or movies in which the hero isn't a hero, but a helpless wimp. If I want to become depressed, why should I spend three dollars at the movies. I can go to work, instead."

Our City's Top Curmudgeon

This book is a treat for Royko fans, and anybody curious about life in Chicago. Our city's greatest columnist, Mike Royko (1933-97) could be funny, bitter, sentimental, and self-deprecating, all in the same column. His use of alter ego Slats Grobnik was masterful. In plain English, Royko took on smug politicians, lazy bureaucrats, hypocrites, crooks and status seekers. He sympathized with underdogs, minorities and tavern patrons. Oddly, Royko favored the rich-yuppie Cubs, but ignored the luckless, blue-collar White Sox. The columns on Jackie Robinson (did Royko really catch that ball?) and the old farmer in Wisconsin are here, but they missed the one about Ben Wilson's death. Sadly, this volume contains a mere 110 of Royko's 7,000+ columns. We could use another, thicker edition.

Compassion and Crustiness

This is a book I'll go back to over and over. Everytime I need a lift, I pull it off the shelf and read through a couple of columns. Royko could be abrasive--most people either loved him or hated him. There was no neutral ground. He never backed down from an argument . He attacked pretension and phoniness like a pit bull. For anyone who has ever felt beaten down and stepped on by bureaucracy or red tape, pick up this book. Mike was on your side.The pieces that moved me most in this collection were the two columns he wrote on the death of John Belushi and the piece he wrote after the death of his wife. If the latter piece doesn't move you, your heart has turned to stone.

Royko was the best

Mike Royko was the best American newspaper columnist ever. Like Johnny Carson did for late night television, Royko DEFINED what it means to be a columnist. Even if you do not reside in Chicago, your heart cannot help but be moved by the columns in which he tried to help the little people against whatever force (bureaucratic, criminal or otherwise) that was trying to trample them. Sometimes humorous, sometimes disdainful, but always full of life, a Royko column was always a treasure. His loss is much lamented and this book is a fitting tribute.

Royko: Voice of Reason, Voice of Chicago

What amazes me about Royko is that his writing was able to penetrate the consciousness of three generations of readers. Studs Terkel, the classic old-time Chicogoan and a very accomplished writer in his own right, writes the forward to this book. Terkel has looked at Royko as the standard by which all writers from Chicago have measured themselves for the past thirty years. Nobody captured the spirit of the city in which he lived more than Royko, Terkel explains. Although Terkel is roughly fifteen years older than Royko, he clearly has looked up to him. Conversely, any newspaper reader who was no younger than eighteen when Royko died would proclaim him the best thing in the paper at the time. That's a span of over sixty years. While Royko aged, all Chicagoans with journalistic aspirations continued to hold him as the unattainable ideal. His articles, which he wrote EVERY DAY, were always dead on. That includes his final one, wherein he tackles the myth that the Chicago Cubs' perennial woefullness was the result of a hex put on them by an old Greek and his billy goat. Royko's musings are memorably preserved in this collection. Whether it was his beloved Cubs, the downtrodden and voiceless, our governments' ineptitude, from the well-dressed, fast-talking, slicksters in Washington to the well-fed, oily-skinned, greedy alderman in Chicago, Royko had the ability, more than any other observer in his day, to capture the the poignancy of everyday, twentieth-century life. Many great writers have borne their craft in Chicago. When it comes to bringing their city to life, however, three stand out as the ones who span this century. In the first third of the century, it was a poet, Carl Sandburg. In the second part, it was a novelist, Nelson Algren. Royko, a newspaper columnist, takes the last part, hands down. If you've never been to Chicago, this book will tell you all you need to know about the past thirty-five years here. Nobody covered it better than Mike.