Road Work: Among Tyrants, Heroes, Rogues, and Beasts

By Mark Bowden

Book Overview

"Painstakingly reported stories about losers, oddballs and con men" from the #1 New York Times-bestselling journalist and author of Black Hawk Down (The New York Times Book Review).

This riveting anthology collects the most diverse and far-reaching of Mark Bowden's award-winning nonfiction--"with fascinating features on Norman Mailer, the war against terror, and even a Philadelphia Zoo gorilla, Bowden's range is broad" (Entertainment Weekly).

Whether traveling to Rhode Island where one of the largest cocaine rings in history is uncovered, or to the Luangwa Valley in Zambia where anti-poachers fight to save the black rhino, Bowden takes us down rough roads previously off-limits: the top-secret world of Guantanamo Bay; Saddam Hussein's post 9/11 days on the run; a pimp's inside track on police corruption in Philadelphia; and Al Sharpton's campaign trail.

Bowden also invites readers along to meet a small-town high school football team, farmers who make bras for cows, the Rocky Balboa statue in Philadelphia, and to see Disney World with a wide-eyed group of terminally ill children.

In Road Work, Mark Bowden "fashion s] prose that reads like good fiction, with the bonus that his stories are true" (The New York Times Book Review).

"Astute character reading and solid research combine with ingenious and stylish prose: a superior portfolio from a journalist who stays at the top of his game." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Bowden is unlike any other journalist . . . Superb reporting, a fine mind conceiving the story line, and a compelling writing style lead to something approaching immortality." --St. Louis Post-Dispatch

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 087113876X
• ISBN13: 9780871138767
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 1.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.5" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

great compilation of his newspaper work

If you like Mark Bowden you'll enjoy this book. Maybe not love it but enjoy it. He started as a sport writer so many of the included subjects are naturally about sports. Since I lost interest in sports a long time ago those arent too interesting to me but still well written. I'd get his other books first and make this your last choice for a Bowden "fix".

Great writer

Mark Bowden has a knack of putting you in the middle of the action. At times it feels like you are actually there in that part of history experiencing everything that all the personnel are going through. He gives you all aspects of the experience from both the good and bad guys perspective.

Heavily recommended

Due to the fact it is a collection of pieces on various subjects, it is difficult to characterize. Nevertheless, it is heavily rcommended, simply due to the author. As far as I'm concerned, Mark Bowden is one of the greatest living journalists. Good writing that's generally free from ideology, and filled with blunt honesty.

Fantastic...

I love these anthology works -- it sure beats hunting down all the pieces online or whatever. The range of subjects is impressive. Saddam... bombing taliban... corrupt cops on the take... Ok... let me confess -- I didn't read every single story in the book. (Sports, not really my thing.) That aside, this book is rad.

Masterful storytelling.

Mark Bowden is an anachronism, a throwback to the glories of earlier decades when skilled writers used magazine pages to tell real stories. How different from the infotainment and self-aggrandizing puff-pieces so common today. Bowden's stories were originally written for The Philadelphia Inquirer magazine, Atlantic Monthly, Rolling Stone and others. His subjects are as diverse as the "Dark Art Of Interrogation" to a study of Norman Mailer, nineteens stories in all and every one fascinating. A wonderful excursion through the eyes of a man who can not only see, but can write as well. Jerry