Long View

How to tell complex nonfictional stories in print a la John McPhee or Ian Frazier. (TAS)

Over at The Atlantic, I’ve been interviewing Jack Hitt, one of my favorite journalists. If you’ve never heard the This American Life episode The Super, do yourself the favor of consuming it immediately. It’s just damn good storytelling. The same can be said for Jack’s magazine stories. One example is Toxic Dreams, one of the most impressive magazine stories I’ve ever read. The subject is an environmental lawsuit filed by folks exposed to toxic waste that overflowed from a nearby dumping ground. It’s one of those stories where most writers would get hopelessly lost in the almost impenetrable details. Somehow Jack Hitt turns it into a narrative masterpiece.