"This is a place where grandmothers hold babies on their laps under the stars and whisper that the lights in the sky are holes in the floor of heaven".

If writing gets better than that sentence I look forward to finding it. Writing like that is why I read. Writing like that does not just give you pause; it brings you to a full stop. It brings back memories, it makes it hard to swallow because of the emotion that has grown in you and clings to your throat.

I have read that sentence, that very first sentence from the first story in "Somebody Told Me" dozens of times. I'm convinced it's perfect.

I cannot refer to this collection of short stories as newspaper articles. Newspapers are "the press". Mr. Bragg is not amongst that group except for the fact his stories often appear there.

Mr. Bragg takes you everywhere you want to go, and places you would give anything never to have seen. In a given sentence he makes more powerful and complete statements saturated with emotion than any tabloid could produce in 100 years. That same sentence will cause a reader to feel the full force of what he describes. No tricks, no course language that others use because they lack the inventory, the lexicon to generate such emotion. No exaggeration, no hyperbole, just what is true, just what he sees.

A young girl, bottle caps and New Orleans, ice tea competitions, 50-year high school reunions, and a drive through restaurant with chitterlings. And if you enjoy laughing, The Pig Farmer playing The Dixie Chicks, the pigs (literally) that listen, and The Country Club next door that prefers they need not have to, will leave you gasping.

Rick Bragg is a National Treasure. This book is unconditionally guaranteed to be one of, if not the best piece of reading you will do this year!


A clinic in excellent reporting   May 9, 2000
 69 out of 70 found this review helpful

When you read Rick Bragg, you get the impression not of a reporter, methodically gathering information, quotes and background and then arranging it into a neat story for the copy editor. You get a voice telling you a story about real people, and you can feel the wind in the trees and hear the passing cars on the streets where the people were born.

These people exist, something that is not always possible to discern in a newspaper report. And if a reporter is best when there is a little of every man in him, then Rick Bragg speaks with a voice that is the same as the people in the stories he tells. Enjoy.


It doesn't get any better than this   June 8, 2000
 55 out of 56 found this review helpful

Rick Bragg writes in the introduction to SOMEBODY TOLD ME that he was tickled to death that somebody wanted to put his newspaper stories into a collection. Well, he was not much more tickled than I was, since I've been trying to track down his stories since reading his wonderful memoir, ALL OVER BUT THE SHOUTING. The little snippets of his stories that were reprinted in the book simply whetted my appetite for more!

Whether Rick Bragg is reporting on the big stories like those of Susan Smith and the horrible dragging death in Jasper,Texas, or the little ones like the ice tea contest he is able to get to the human heart of every story and leave an indelible impression on the reader. I don't think I'll ever forget the story of Dirty Red--it broke my heart.

There aren't many books that I read and hold onto to read again. This will be one of the few, just for the joy of reading such finely crafted prose. If I could, I'd give it 6 Stars!


Front-porch storytelling, front-page stories   May 19, 2000
 41 out of 42 found this review helpful

It never stops amazing me. I had the good fortune to work with my close friend Rick Bragg in reporting some of the stories that appear on these pages, and I've read most of these stories a dozen times. Each time, though, they still have the fresh emotion of the people because no one can bring out those people's stories like Rick. Even after being there, the tales seem more real in his words. If you enjoyed his best-selling memoir, "All Over But the Shoutin'," then this collection of his best newspaper stories should keep you satisfied until he releases the follow-up to "All Over," which is already in progress.


a gift   June 18, 2000
 35 out of 38 found this review helpful

I know little of Rick Bragg beyond his tellin' of life in All Over but the Shoutin'. The man may be an angel; he may be a complete jerk. I care little. What matters most to me as a reader is that Rick Bragg has a gift. Folks who talk about such things likely say that he has a "distinctive voice" or that he "communicates the experience through his prose" or some such thing.

Maybe so. What is bottom-line, unalterable, sure 'nuff true is that Rick Bragg possesses the gift of story. This man, be he sinner or saint (or most likely some of both) can use words to paint a picture of life like very, very few are able to do. Pain and joy are equally layered on his canvas and it is all the more meaningful, all the more touching because the words, like the lives they expose, are quite real.

It is a gift. We are lucky indeed that he shares it with us.