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Touch and Go: A Memoir
by
Studs Terkel
The extraordinary life and times of an American icon--the Pulitzer Prize-winning oral historian's long-awaited memoir--a major publishing event.
At nearly ninety-five, Studs Terkel has written about everyone's life, it seems, but his own. In Touch and Go, he offers a memoir which--embodying the spirit of the man himself--is youthful, vivacious, and enormous fun.
Terkel beg...more
At nearly ninety-five, Studs Terkel has written about everyone's life, it seems, but his own. In Touch and Go, he offers a memoir which--embodying the spirit of the man himself--is youthful, vivacious, and enormous fun.
Terkel beg...more
Hardcover, 269 pages
Published
November 30th 2007
by New Press, The
(first published November 1st 2007)
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Studs Terkel's memoir is a cultural history of the 20th century, coverging his career as radio broadcaster-author-actor from the 1930s through the end of the century. Terkel will probably be best remembered for his oral histories, which he started as an offshoot of the WFMT program guide, which published excerpts from his interviews. Andre Schiffrin suggested doing a book on an American "village" in the way Jan Myrdal had written about peoples' lives in "Report from a Chinese Vi...more
Harley
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
writers, leaders and other communicators
Touch and Go is a brilliant, insightful memoir filled with poetic language and great stories by the legendary Studs Terkel. And the amazing thing is that he was 94 when he dictated the book or should I say carried on a conversation about his life.
I first encountered Studs Terkel in the 1970's through his oral history of work. A professor of mine, Nickolas Lindsay, son of Vachel Lindsay, was interviewed for the book. A radio and TV show host early in his career, Terkel was black-listed d...more
I first encountered Studs Terkel in the 1970's through his oral history of work. A professor of mine, Nickolas Lindsay, son of Vachel Lindsay, was interviewed for the book. A radio and TV show host early in his career, Terkel was black-listed d...more
Johnsergeant
rated it
Narrated by Norman Dietz
Unabridged: 9 hrs and 55 mins
Publisher's Summary
At nearly 95, Studs Terkel has written about everyone's life, it seems, but his own. In Touch and Go, he offers a memoir that, embodying the spirit of the man himself, is youthful, vivacious, and enormous fun.
Terkel begins by taking us back to his early childhood with his father, mother, and two older brothers, describing the hectic life of a family trying to earn a living in Chicago. He t...more
Unabridged: 9 hrs and 55 mins
Publisher's Summary
At nearly 95, Studs Terkel has written about everyone's life, it seems, but his own. In Touch and Go, he offers a memoir that, embodying the spirit of the man himself, is youthful, vivacious, and enormous fun.
Terkel begins by taking us back to his early childhood with his father, mother, and two older brothers, describing the hectic life of a family trying to earn a living in Chicago. He t...more
Jennifer
rated it
Recommends it for:
anyone who loves irrascible story tellers with the gift of gab
Recommended to Jennifer by:
Sara
Though I enjoyed reading this book, a slightly wandering collection of Stud's autobiographical musings, it made me hungrier to go back and read his other works like Hard Times, Race, etc. Reading this, I felt like I was sitting across from Studs at the Billy Goat Tavern, listening as he tried to tell the story of his life but was constantly distracted by the lives of others he has encountered. A story from his childhood reminds him of six other stories, five of which he tells. The result feels...more
"Touch and Go: A Memoir" can be placed with Gore Vidal's "Point to Point Navigation" on the shelf of sometimes crisp, sometimes rambling loosely chronological anecdotes of famous leftist public intellectuals.
While Vidal was a part an author foremost, Studs Terkel was a radioman. In "Touch and Go," the man himself tries to examine the roots of his abilities, and other purposes/cross-purposes/no-purposes by describing his family's hotel and his role in run...more
While Vidal was a part an author foremost, Studs Terkel was a radioman. In "Touch and Go," the man himself tries to examine the roots of his abilities, and other purposes/cross-purposes/no-purposes by describing his family's hotel and his role in run...more
We lost a great one in Studs Terkel, but this memoir to me unfortunately lives up to its title: it's a bit touch and go. There are some remarkable sections and then some that seem kind of disjointed and out of the flow of the rest of the book. Studs is rambling a bit in parts. In other parts, you just don't feel like you're getting the whole story.
Still, I doubt I'll be able to do better if I make it into my nineties. This doesn't keep up with all of the remarkable work that Terkel d...more
Still, I doubt I'll be able to do better if I make it into my nineties. This doesn't keep up with all of the remarkable work that Terkel d...more
I was excited to read this for book club. It sounded like it could be full of amazing stories, but it fell short for me. Through all of the first half of the book I was questioning whether I could push through and finish. It reminded me of Kerouac's writing - jumping around and never quite holding onto one story for more than a page or so.
The 2nd half was more enjoyable -- meaning I enjoyed reading some his stories and they began to connect with the next thing he mentioned, and so on...more
The 2nd half was more enjoyable -- meaning I enjoyed reading some his stories and they began to connect with the next thing he mentioned, and so on...more
The best way to engage this book is to listen to the audio book read by Norman Diel ? According to Stud's barber, also my husband's barber, Norman sounds just like Stud's and he even does some mean imitations of Ma Joad and others that add to the delight. One strong recommendation is that you listen to the entire 8 discs of the book. The last chapter on the American alzheimers and "noone laughed" are priceless and important views on where our democracy has gone off the rails. There is...more
I listened to the audio version, which is extremely well read. The narrator speaks just as Terkel thinks and writes - in stream of consciousness. One has to listen hard to keep the mind from wandering as the 95-year old Terkel moves from topic to topic and personality to personality. But this is a vintage work as much for the random walk down the twentieth century as for insights into Terkel's life and career.
Wow. I love Studs Terkel's other books but this was definitely "touch and go" -- incomprehensible in the way it randomly moves from one subject and person to another. I was listening to the audio book and couldn't follow it at all.
Terkel's writing style requires some patience at first (much of the content originated from tape recordings), but you'll find plenty of gems here, stories that encapsulate his life and "ordinary" America. He lived with an eye towards justice, human dignity, and friendship amid the hardships of life. Nobody can read Studs Terkel without gaining something.
The book rambles at the beginning, but it is worth sticking it through to the end. I would love to sit down with Studds and my grandpa when they were both still sharp. :)
"United States of Amnesia", Terkel tried to fight this condition. It is such an entertaining lesson in history and human solidarity, should be mandatory High School reading.
Jerry Zike
is currently reading it
For fans of Studs, this is a must read. His eloquence gives this book a smoothness that is hard to describe.
This is a great conversationalist's book. Reading it is like talking with a friend over a beer or a glass of wine. Studs has been around a long time and seen a lot of changes. He is a lover of humanity and it comes through in everything he talks about. This is a book that will guide the reader to other authors and thinkers - and not necessarily the one's that agree with you - or with Terkel. He helps the reader to appreciate what has come before us and to look foreward to what's coming next. He ...more
Really glad I read this - those who fail to remember history (the Great Depression, Communist witch-hunts) are doomed to repeat it.
Yes. My hero.
I only regret that I didn't discover Studs Terkel until recently.
I only regret that I didn't discover Studs Terkel until recently.
A little too much name-dropping and guess who I saw at the dinner party
I finished Touch and Go some time back. I just didn't enter it in here for whatever reason seemed appropriate, or encompassing at the time. I've since passed the book on, so I don't have it here for referencing. Let me just say that Terkel is Chicago's blessing and a general delight.
Studs covers a lot of ground, he's consciously lived rather than merely existed, as so many of us are wont to do. His portrait of his times and the people he's met is sharp and without any vindictiv...more
Studs covers a lot of ground, he's consciously lived rather than merely existed, as so many of us are wont to do. His portrait of his times and the people he's met is sharp and without any vindictiv...more
Marcy
added it
I'm so sorry, everyone who read this book and loved it. After 67 pages, I felt like I was reading a book in another language. I was incredibly frustrated! I could not relate to most of the people Studs was talking about; I had no previous knowledge about Chicago and its people. I had a hard time following his life, which I was understanding, because he kept throwing in name after name of people I had never heard of! I gave up; I never give up! I think of myself as a reader, and I feel tot...more
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So many interesting stories sometimes get a bit rambling (think Grandpa Simpson), but the stories are interested to keep with it. What an amazing life!
I read about 30 pages of this book and just could not get into it.
Delightfully rambling history.
studs talks about himself and his life in this more than any other of his books. sad that HE didn't have a whole fox network for himself. he was a true american.
Who doesn't like Studs?
Its nice to read about an individual who's main interest in humanity does not involve giving them a carrot of $1,000,000, locking them in a house and then spying on the fallout. Studs deeply loves people...all people...all big and small people...and short and tall, rich and stupid, un-eloquent, passionate, un-passionate and average and sub par and bestial and beautiful..people for their very human humaness
I would love to give more stars to this book, but I had to knock it down a couple because there are several passages that revisit scenes from other Terkel books I've read and loved, so it didn't have quite the punch for me. However, I still wish Studs was my grampa, and it's a great history of lefty activism, community organizing, TV and radio in the 20th century.
Studs Terkel made me realize I am proud to be a commie leftist pinko.
The only issue I had with this book were the last few essays where he was played the starring role of Old Man in the tired old drama Railing Against Youth.
The rest of the book was an amazing foray through Studs' life intertwined with the history he lived through.
The only issue I had with this book were the last few essays where he was played the starring role of Old Man in the tired old drama Railing Against Youth.
The rest of the book was an amazing foray through Studs' life intertwined with the history he lived through.
Terkel steps out from behind the tape recorder and tells us about himself--his diagnosis of what is wrong with U.S. society today, that we have hypnotized ourselves into a national amnesia about not only our history but also our goals and values, rings true. Highly recommended.
What a life. Studs was born in 1912, so this memoir is as much about history as it is about Terkel himself. The book has a conversational, reminiscent feel. My only complaint about the book is that it includes a fair amount of material pulled from his previous books.
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Terkel won the Pulitzer prize in 1985 for his interviews with ordinary people in such books as Working, The Good War, and Hard Times. Often called an Oral Historian, Studs Terkel preferred to be known for playing music on the radio.
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“What I bring to the interview is respect. The person recognizes that you respect them because you're listening. Because you're listening, they feel good about talking to you. When someone tells me a thing that happened, what do I feel inside? I want to get the story out. It's for the person who reads it to have the feeling . . . In most cases the person I encounter is not a celebrity; rather the ordinary person. "Ordinary" is a word I loathe. It has a patronizing air. I have come across ordinary people who have done extraordinary things. (p. 176)”
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“How come you don't work fourteen hours a day? Your great-great-grandparents did. How come you only work the eight-hour day? Four guys got hanged fighting for the eight-hour day for you.”
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