Loud and Clear

LOUD AND CLEAR BY ANNA QUINDLEN RANDOM HOUSE 2004, 288 PAGES, $24.95

A journalist for three decades, Anna Quindlen has authored four novels, two children's books, and this, her fifth nonfiction title. Her introduction details an e-mail message from her college son on the morning of Sept. 11,2001: "I really need to hear your voice." In this book, readers hear Quindlen's voice "loud and clear." In the newspaper business for over 20 years, Quindlen has served as reporter, editor, and columnist--primarily with The New York Times. Her Times column "Public and Private" won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992. Although she "almost insanely" loved her work with the Times, she left the newspaper in 1995 to write books and a biweekly column for Newsweek. In Loud and Clear, Quindlen arranges selected columns and speeches into five sections: Heart, Mind, Body, Voice, and Soul.

In introducing the "Voice" section, a collection of four speeches, Quindlen mentions that listeners often remark that she speaks just as she writes. She defines a good writer and successful public speaker as one who has a distinctive "voice" and a particular syntax and turn of phrase. Quindlen's work certainly is distinctive--she writes with brilliant insight, erudition, and humor. To read her is to know her, and to know her is to like her, even if one disagrees with some of her views. She obviously writes from the heart about ideas and issues that are of deep personal concern. When a critic called her opinionated, she responded that she is paid for having opinions.

The "Heart" section includes 14 articles primarily about kids and parenting. She writes about her three children growing up--but also about poor, disturbed, and hungry children. In "Mind;' she takes on such issues as abortion, the death penalty, homopbobia, politics, the National Rifle Association/gun laws, the "Under God" debate (including a history of the pledge), and the rights of opponents to the war in Iraq.

A "lifelong feminist" and an affirmative action hire at The New York Times, Quindlen discusses "the woman thing" in the "Body" section. Quindlen has a "warm personal relationship with God," and she often pictures "her" as smiling down on we poor mortals. Among the essays about the advance of feminism, one is especially poignant: Quindlen considers the death of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis the apotheosis of dignity. Other issues in this section include sexual assault, attitudes of men, and the abortion bill (not a "womb" was present at the signing). Quindlen feels "men will never understand that there will always be abortions, legal or not." In discussing Hillary Clinton, her new book, and her ambition to run for president, Quindlen asks, "What's the problem?"

Most of the 17 essays in "Soul," the final section, concern grief and loss, some personal, some about 9/11. Some of the lighter essays truly warm the heart. Appropriately, the last essay in this section was Quindlen's final column (Dec. 1994) written for The New York Times. "Every day, Angels" presents examples of individuals "doing good" without expecting rewards or recognition. Quindlen terms such acts "the spectacle of unabashed humanity" and concludes with the assessment "Anne Frank was right, people are really good at heart."

Quindlen always wanted to be a writer--her ambition as a small child was to work for a newspaper. Eventually she wrote the Times column "About New York," remarkable because the author was the first woman and the youngest person to write this feature column. A highly respected and widely read columnist for Newsweek, Quindlen considers herself to be "a very lucky woman" As she tries to influence others through her writing, she finds she often changes her own thinking. Among the fine examples of her work, two essays have great potential to influence. In "17 Going on 18," she gives reasons why a young person should never smoke (in answer to a mother's letter). In her commencement speech "Oh, Godot," Quindlen tells her audience of young people that their lives belong to them alone: they must achieve success on their own terms. "If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your soul, it is not success at all"

Quindlen's superb writing approaches sheer poetry at times. Her voice sounds loud and clear through every line. Even though she believes a girl is like a Swiss watch and a boy is like a sundial--more primitive and easier to read, this book is indeed a very good, refreshing read.

RAYMOND L. FISCHER

Mass Media Editor

COPYRIGHT 2004 Society for the Advancement of Education
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