One Day: The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary 24 Hours in America – Gene Weingarten
The premise of “One Day” takes one of journalism’s most tried and true story mining methods — hitting the pavement and talking to people to find a story — and turns it on its head.
In this case, Gene Weingarten, a lauded reporter, selected a random day from a hat (December 28, 1986) and then scoured newspaper clippings to find notable events from across the United States.
Each chapter is an exploration of those events, which ended up focusing more heavily on the macro (social trends, political landscape) versus micro (individual) experiences.
I adored the premise of this book, and in many ways it is a love letter to journalism in its purest form. Weingarten is a gifted writer and researcher who was able to find marvel in both the mundane and monumental aspects of life on that day. There were moments of each chapter that captivated my attention, and there was a clear admiration for most of the subjects.
Yet, as the chapters went on, the whole exercise began to feel tawdry and voyeuristic.
First, the book overwhelmingly focuses on terrible events, such as death, destruction and crime. Granted, those are the events most likely to make the news and easier to track down 20 years later, so it’s not surprising, but it’s also unpleasant to hear people recount the worst day of their lives chapter after chapter.
Second, most chapters are too long as Weingarten stretched an idea or premise by pulling in thematically-related events that may have occurred around the same time but not on the day. In some ways this felt like a premise cop-out.
Finally, Weingarten often told stories of both private and public citizens who are still alive but didn’t contribute to the book. While he used legal methods to craft a narrative — court records, criminal records and interviews with other participants — the fact this was his project and not part of historical record it seems like consent should’ve been paramount to be mentioned. Especially since some folks used the interview as a forum to air dirty laundry.
The best chapters were:
Charlottesville, Virginia, traced the backstory of the first successful heart transplant in the Washington, D.C. metro
San Diego, California, focused on the murder of Cara Knott by a California Highway Patrol officer and the toll it took on her family
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which told the story of Ellen Krug, a transgender lawyer and activist who around that date in 1986 began to embrace her identity
Takoma Park, Maryland, where the political discourse around HIV/AIDS showed the discordant approaches to death among a collection of men — some artists and others involved in politics
Great Neck, Long Island, that included one of the most ridiculous marriage stories I’ve ever heard
The rest? Well, there are moments of intrigue in each but most are bogged down by violence, death or political analysis that began to feel repetitive. While I wasn’t uninterested in some of these topics — like racial unrest and the Cold War — they were decidedly impersonal.
If you’re someone that loves journalism and day-in-the-life storytelling this might be of interest to you. Everyone else can likely give it a pass. Jonathan McClain narrated the audiobook, and his performance was quite enjoyable. While I can’t recommend this book whole-heartedly, if you do decide to read it, listening is the way to go.
Rating (story): 3/5 stars
Rating (narration): 3/5 stars
Formats: Audiobook (library loan)
Dates read: December 15 – December 22, 2022
Multi-tasking: Good to go. I mostly exercised while listening.
