"Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg has come out with yet another book, this one called 'Every Goddamn Day,' in which he presents 366 vignettes keyed …"
—Axios, Justin Kaufman and Monica Eng, Dec. 2, 2022
Okay, time to play, "You be the author!" in which you get to place yourself within the enormous head of Neil Steinberg and try, for a moment, to see the world through his eyes.
Read the quote atop this page, the opening sentence of a fun Axios Q & A with me. Any word, ah, pop out?
But first, a friendly wave to Justin and Monica. Two of my favorite Chicago media people. Many happy memories of working with Justin, first when he was a producer at WBEZ, then radio host, then after he moved to WGN. A thorough pro.
And Monica. I've known her since she was just a sprite, cutting her eye teeth at the Sun-Times. Also top notch. I particularly appreciated her pulling me in to speak on the moving tribute she produced for Jim Nayder after he succumbed to the demons he had battled successfully for so long.
So no criticism, implied or overt, in today's question concerning their work. All in a spirit of good fun.
However. That opening sentence, well one word did sneak out of line, abandon his brethren, shimmy down the page of type, leap from the computer screen to my shirtfront, haul itself up from button to button, then cling to my beard with one little serif hand while using the other to slap me back and forth across the nose.
Have you found it yet?
Yes, indeed, that's it: "yet."
"Yet another book..."
Like I'm pelting the world with them.
Yes, I've written nine books. Quite a lot really. Though dwarfed by truly prolific authors — Stephen King has published 71. Not to equate myself to Stephen King in any way, beyond I suppose our both writing books, he far more than I, and sharing bilateral symmetry. Perhaps it's that yawning gap between us in popularity that prompts the "yet," the unvoiced rest of the sentence being, "yet another book that nobody asked for but he feels somehow compelled to keep showering us with anyway."
Or maybe that's just me airing the typical why-don't-you-love-me-more? writerly neurosis. Well, I tell writers to be who they are. Which is fine, if you're Stephen King or Jonathan Eig or one of those others who straddle the world like colossuses, waiting for packages with exotic postmarks to arrive so they can line up the translations of their work into Japanese and Norwegian and Farsi on the shelf dedicated to their foreign editions. While with me, well, not so fine, being the sort of guy who wonders: do Stephen King fans groan upon the next arrival? I mean, those King novels, they're hefty tomes. Yes, my new book weighs in at almost 500 pages. But King's just getting started at 500 pages.. "Yet another book..."
It has been six years, since my last one. A respectable interlude. Long enough for readers to recuperate from the last one. "Out of the Wreck I Rise: A Literary Companion to Recovery," written with Sara Bader. A compendium which, now that I think of it, quotes Stephen King several times. I sent him a copy, shipped to his home in Maine, hoping that inclusion would please him somehow. It was, remember, a literary companion to recovery, and knowing that King, despite being such a prolific and skilled writer, can appear cranky and vexed — it isn't just me — by literature's reluctance to admit him to the pantheon, gazing hard at the horror genre, not to forget his wild popularity, like a maitre d' dubiously eyeing a moth-eaten jacket on a prospective luncheon guest. I figured, he might like being grouped with Faulkner and Shakespeare and Dante and such. In recovery himself, perhaps King would appreciate what I was trying to do.
"Neil Steinberg's new book 'Out of the Wreck I Rise' is just the right medicine for the 20 million Americans who struggle with sobriety," is one of the many things King didn't say, having no reaction whatsoever, probably never even seen the thing, buried in the big rolling canvas postal cart jammed with the volumes arriving every day, sent by hopeful authors and trucked directly, unopened, to the Bangor Goodwill. "I encourage everyone who has ever cracked open a book of mine to rush right away to buy Neil Steinberg's excellent, creative and essential book."
Instead I get "yet another book." I suppose it could be worse. "Here comes Steinberg, apparently unsatisfied with writing a newspaper column three times a week in a major metropolitan daily, and ginning up something to run on his blog the other four days, not to forget freelance pieces and the occasional lob of a bon mot on Twitter and Facebook, inflicting yet another book, even more of his increasingly dated, outré, unwelcome and off-point old white cis-gendered male worldview on a city that has already suffered under his lash for 40 years..."
Sorry. I'm grateful for the attention, truly. Axios' "Best Day Ever" feature is lighthearted, and I'm flattered to be included, and hate to use my thumb to pull down the lip of the perfectly beautiful thoroughbred of publicity and examine its teeth. But it is the writer's fate to focus on tiny particulars — my fate, anyway, and boy, sometimes it seems like some condemned-by-Zeus doom, to be chained to a rock for all eternity, noticing molecules as they flit through the air, in that annoying fashion molecules have, all hectic and harried and vectoring off in all directions, swirling like dust motes in the sun...
A word of warning. Wednesday, after turning in the big magazine cover story I've been crafting for the past few months, I wrapped my hands around the thick rope, leaned forward, and started pulling the first huge granite block of the next book I'm working on up the inclined plane at Giza, and sent the first couple chapters off to my agent.
Maybe, my failing to take the hint baked into "yet," this next one will earn inevitable progression to "Please God make him stop!" My apologies. Honestly, I really write them for the pleasure of doing it. "Work is more fun than fun," as Noel Coward once said. The publication part, as I've said before, is just the punishment that fate inflicts upon an author to counterbalance the joy of writing a book. Yes, I suppose, they do seem a sort of significance. At least I try to view them that way, and sometimes even manage to succeed. And yet...
I had a similar reaction when I noted that word in Friday's Axios Chicago newsletter. Yet? Was that really necessary? I am big fans of Monica and Justin as well, and was a bit disappointed. Let's just assume that the rush to publish allowed the potential negative connotation of the word slip through unnoticed.
ReplyDeleteJust finished yet another fine effort of yours. So satisfying. As an old white, sys gendered , male of a certain age, born and raised in chicago ,I found the reminders of events from my youth and before I was born to sometimes be a source of pride sometimes horror and almost always entertaining. I particularly liked the opportunity to learn of events that had previously escaped my attention.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely loved your effort to include as many OTHERS that have contributed , or detracted from the history of my home.
Having been adjacent to several of the events touched upon in the book ,your reporting matches my memory
thanks for the effort Neil
well done
Neil - I always read your column and appreciate it even though I don't post comments as often in the past and wish you had a different name for it. Thanks again for the wit and insight and humor you share with the rest of us. Even though I've read your columns every day, I'll purchase your new book and donate it to the local library so others can enjoy your wit and wisdom too.
ReplyDeletethe book is not a compilation of columns . it stands alone touching on some notable chicago occurrence in history for each and every gosh darn day.
DeleteStephen King wrote a measly 70 books. Isaac Asimov wrote 40 novels and at least 280 non-fiction books, plus hundreds of short stories. So both you & King have a long, long way to go!
ReplyDeleteI believe they used “yet” because they are impressed. Can’t wait to see what the next book is!
ReplyDeleteExcellent reference.
ReplyDeleteNo, the punishment is not the publication of the book, the punishment for me is the marketing of the book. On my first book, I did a lot of self-marketing, but the experience was too reminiscent of my pathetic attempts at dating in high school. So I let the publisher do the meager marketing on the subsequent books (only three, next to your impressive nine).
ReplyDeleteYou make an excellent point. If only I could muster the discipline to do nothing whatsoever to try to sell the thing, I think it would be a lot more pleasant experience. Instead I find myself flailing away, trying to sell a few extra copies. I'm going to try to take your advice to heart.
DeleteMaybe because this column had to do with writing I seemed to notice more metaphors than usual.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I ordered the book on Amazon soon after you announced it and still have not received it. I checked my account and it said, "On the way, but it's running late."
Today was our 30th anniversary. My wife gave me a crisp new copy of EGD. This lifelong Chicago history buff is in heaven. Born and raised in Chicago, and spent 36 years there, so I've lived through a lot of what's on those pages. Only thing missing from it is your signature.
ReplyDeleteThanks for refreshing my memories, Mr. S. I'm learning quite a bit from EGD right now, especially about Chicago happenings that preceded my existence. Just like I've already learned so much from this EGD. Kudos to you on the arrival of your new baby. Can't wait for the next one.
If the phrase "yet another book" were spoken, it would be easier to interpret. The stress and intonation pattern would make it clear whether the comment was meant to be laudatory or not. However, in written English, the phrase is ambiguous.
ReplyDeleteNine books is so impressive. I got my fourth out a month ago, but I know it will be my last one, I feel that in my 79 years old bones.
ReplyDelete