Cold Type - Softcover

Araton, Harvey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1935955713 ISBN 13: 9781935955719

Publisher: Cinco Puntos Press, 2014

Synopsis

Harvey Araton writes, with keen insight, of a time when power was ebbing fast from both newspapers and their unions. It’s an especially bittersweet tale he tells of the people who had grown up in newspapers and unions, as they struggle to adapt to this evolving new order. And, of course, what makes this even more evocative, is that we’re still trying to sort this all out. Frank Deford, author of Everybody’s All-American, NPR commentator

"Father and son face their demons, each other, and a depressingly realistic publisher in a newspaper yarn that made me yell "Hold the Front Page" for Harvey Araton's rousing debut as a novelist." Robert Lipsyte, author of An Accidental Sportswriter

In times of change, American novelists return to old themes. In Cold Type as in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman a son and his father struggle to hold onto what they think is right. It's mid-1990s; and "cold type" technology, a.k.a. computerized typesetting, wreaks havoc among workers in the newspaper industry. A fabulously wealthy Briton buys the New York City Trib and immediately refuses to negotiate with the truck drivers' union. In solidarity, all the other blue collar unions take to the streets. Jamie Kramer is a reporter for the Trib. His father is a hardcore shop steward (unusual for a Jew in Irish-dominated unions) from the old day of "hot type," but who has become a typographer in a world he doesn't understand. His father expects Jamie not to cross the picket line. It would be an act of supreme disrespect. But that's not so easy for Jamie. His marriage has fallen apart, he desperately needs his paycheck for child support, and he needs to make his own life outside the shadow of his father.

Harvey Araton is a celebrated sports reporter and columnist for the New York Times. He authored the New York Times best-seller Driving Mr. Yogi: Yogi Berra, Ron Guidry, and Baseball's Greatest Gift; plus When the Garden Was Eden: Clyde, the Captain, Dollar Bill, and the Glory Days of the New York Knicks. Araton also finds time to serve as adjunct professor in sports writing at Montclair State University in New Jersey where he lives.

About this title

About the Author:

Harvey Araton, a celebrated sports columnist for The New York Times authored the New York Times best-selling Driving Mr. Yogi about the famous catcher's relationship with pitcher Ron Guidry, and When the Garden Was Eden: Clyde, the Captain, Dollar Bill, and the Glory Days of the New York Knicks (one reviewer said Araton writes like Earl the Pearl Monroe played basketball). Cold Type is Araton's first novel. Besides his duties as columnist for the Times, he's an Adjunct Professor at Montclair State University in New Jersey where he lives.

Review:

"New York Times writer and columnist Araton knows newspapers and knows New York, and in his seventh book (and first novel), he explores clashes more personal, more searing, more universal than any of the sports stories he's told before. Cold Type is a tale about collisions: between generations, between classes, between different crafts in a rapidly changing economy, between the past and the future, between father and son." Kirkus Reviews

"Harvey Araton is a gifted novelist whose "Cold Type" is a solid entertainment from first page to last. Very highly recommended." Midwest Book Review

"Araton perfectly captures the painful struggle of newspapers, as the digital age looms." New Jersey Star Ledger

"Harvey Araton writes, with keen insight, of a time when power was ebbing fast from both newspapers and their unions. It’s an especially bittersweet tale he tells of the people who had grown up in newspapers and unions, as they struggle to adapt to this evolving new order. And, of course, what makes this even more evocative, is that we’re still trying to sort this all out." Frank Deford, author of Everybody’s All-American, NPR commentator

"Father and son face their demons, each other, and a depressingly realistic publisher in a newspaper yarn that made me yell "Hold the Front Page" for Harvey Araton's rousing debut as a novelist." Robert Lipsyte, author of An Accidental Sportswriter

"I’ve been waiting almost 25 years for something good to come of the Daily News strike. Now it has. But this wonderful novel captures more than a time and a place. Harvey Araton deftly turns the picket line into a metaphor for other divides, for those that separate journalism and commerce, heroes and goats, and most of all, fathers and sons. Cold Type is a love song to the real New York." Mark Kriegel, author of Namath

"A gripping narrative and an insightful take on family, work, what loyalty means and what it costs. Harvey Araton is a skilled writer who knows his way around the milieus he travels in this novel, whether it’s a newsroom, a labor hall or a living room. But what really makes this worth reading is the heart you can feel beating underneath it all." Brad Parks, author of The Player

"Fans of Harvey Araton’s lively, engaging prose will love this vivid and heartfelt exploration of what it means to be a journalist, a son, a father, and a man." Pamela Redmond Satran, author of Younger

"Memorable and likable characters dominate this realistic and very enjoyable novel a sort of old-fashioned novel, offering a social portrait and a really rich story. Kudos to Mr Araton and Cinco Puntos Press, of El Paso, Texas, for writing and publishing this worthy novel I’m going to be recommending Cold Type for weeks." The Great Gray Bridge

Set during that same period at the fictional New York City Trib, which has been purchased by a filthy rich but not-so-union-friendly Brit, Cold Type is a father-son saga that unfolds on opposite sides of the picket line and explores the psychological dramas of industry-changing technologies, namely the computerized typesetting system from which the novel takes its name.” Joe Pompeo, Capital New York

About this edition

• Publisher: Cinco Puntos Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1935955713
• ISBN 13: 9781935955719
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 280