GENE WEINGARTEN IS THE O. HENRY OF AMERICAN JOURNALISM
Simply the best storyteller around, Weingarten describes the world as you think it is before revealing how it actually isâin narratives that are by turns hilarious, heartwarming, and provocative, but always memorable.
Millions of people know the title piece about violinist Joshua Bell, which originally began as a stunt: What would happen if you put a world-class musician outside a Washington, D.C., subway station to play for spare change? Would anyone even notice? The answer was no. Weingartenâs story went viral, becoming a widely referenced lesson about life lived too quickly. Other classic storiesâthe one about âThe Great Zucchini,â a wildly popular but personally flawed childrenâs entertainer; the search for the official âArmpit of Americaâ; a profile of the typical American nonvoterâall of them reveal as much about their readers as they do their subjects.