LAURENCE MACKINreviews Reporting America: The Life of the Nation 1946-2004 and California Trips
Reporting America: The Life of the Nation 1946-2004 Alistair CookeAllen Lane, £25
In 1946 Alastair Cooke was asked to record a 13-week radio series from New York called Letter from America. In 2004, at the age of 95, he recorded his final Letter, and died just two weeks later, leaving behind 2,869 broadcasts in by far the longest-running radio series in history and a glittering journalistic career. This is a collection of Cooke's broadcasts in a handsome print edition, featuring terrific photographs of Cooke and the people he wrote about. Few people got to the heart and soul of the US the way Cooke did; his fascination with those at the top of the power chain and those at the very bottom meant the opinions of the American Everyman were never far from Cooke's mind, and what we have is a stunning collection of work that perhaps better encapsulates life in the US than any other single body of work. Cooke always insisted he was a reporter first and foremost, and this is the US unvarnished and uncompromising in all its glittering and sometimes gaudy glory, distilled through the measured tones and voracious wit of a master of his craft.
California TripsLonely Planet, £14.99
The road trip is as American as hot dogs, and this book is a selection of itineraries that should have you filling up the gas tank and heading out to the wild west of California. The iconic trip listings are familiar favourites (think beaches, wine and rock’n’roll), but it is the more offbeat suggestions that make worthwhile reading. Redwoods and radicals anyone? A decent index lists trips by location, theme and season.
lmackin@irishtimes.com