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A review by finesilkflower
Radio on by Sarah Vowell
3.0
This is Sarah Vowell's first book, before she discovered her thing of narrating history like a story. It's actually in the mold of that "I did a thing for a year and wrote about it" type book that is so popular now. For one year, 1995, Sarah (radio being an intimate medium, I feel like I know her and will therefore refer to her by her given name) listened to the radio each day. She also did some reporting, visiting radio stations, including sitting in on production of WBEZ's "The Wild Room" and "This American Life" (in its first season!), and her own former college radio station. The book is a diary of her impressions and mini-essays on the medium of radio and the type of content found there, including music (oh, the 90s: grunge, rock, oldies. Jerry Garcia dies this year, but the major ghost is Kurt Cobain, who'd died the previous year, and who Sarah loved); news (Clinton, Oklahoma bombing, Michael Jordan); pundits (man, Rush Limbaugh has been around forever); public radio (at a turning point and just beginning to introduce new voices to its staid Morning Edition/Garrison Keillor lineup).
This book is graded on a curve. It's Sarah Vowell! She's young here, 25 or so, but fully herself in all her different sides--the serious but goofy academic, the cool but nerdy music lover, the cynical but hopeful liberal patriot. But the book is hard to get through. It can be dense and meandering, lacks an arc, and the topicality, though interesting (1995 is an interesting year), also makes it quite dated. I admit I didn't read every word. After about the first half, I ended up skimming for the parts about Ira Glass.
There are interesting tidbits here for the This American Life superfan. (Me.) I think it documents Sarah and Ira's first meeting--she sits on on his pre-TAL show, The Wild Room, and then Ira and Anahed drive her home and they listen to Modern Lovers' "Roadrunner," from which she gets the title of her book, "Radio on!" So cute. Later, Sarah observes as Ira, Nancy, and Alix rush to cut together an episode (#4, "Vacations") with five minutes to spare before the to-air deadline. Sarah is a reporter/fan here, but she must have gotten her job at TAL, with her affectionate and admiring title "Consigliere Sarah Vowell", shortly after this book was written.
This book is graded on a curve. It's Sarah Vowell! She's young here, 25 or so, but fully herself in all her different sides--the serious but goofy academic, the cool but nerdy music lover, the cynical but hopeful liberal patriot. But the book is hard to get through. It can be dense and meandering, lacks an arc, and the topicality, though interesting (1995 is an interesting year), also makes it quite dated. I admit I didn't read every word. After about the first half, I ended up skimming for the parts about Ira Glass.
There are interesting tidbits here for the This American Life superfan. (Me.) I think it documents Sarah and Ira's first meeting--she sits on on his pre-TAL show, The Wild Room, and then Ira and Anahed drive her home and they listen to Modern Lovers' "Roadrunner," from which she gets the title of her book, "Radio on!" So cute. Later, Sarah observes as Ira, Nancy, and Alix rush to cut together an episode (#4, "Vacations") with five minutes to spare before the to-air deadline. Sarah is a reporter/fan here, but she must have gotten her job at TAL, with her affectionate and admiring title "Consigliere Sarah Vowell", shortly after this book was written.