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Dan Barry: Good Writer (Really Good Writer)

September 1, 2009, 10:18 pm
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Dan Barry has been cited over the last week, first for his story of the Boston parish getting up to speed for an important funeral on Saturday, and then on Sunday his account of the funeral (in which he actually used the words Holy Communion on the front page of the NYT).

But today, he has this. Fans of Dan, and I am one, should read it, and it wouldn’t hurt the rest of you. (Let me also plug his book, Pull Me Up, an amazing story of his chilhood and beyond.)
Today this: My Brain on Chemo: Alive and Alert
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/health/01case.html?_r=2&scp=4&sq=dan%20barry&st=cse

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Comments

  1. Robert Imbelli 09/02/2009 - 7:08 am  subscriber

    Wonderful reflection. I missed it yesterday since I was driving back to Boston — so thanks for linking it. But I think the link doesn’t work.

    Try this: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/health/01case.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=dan%20barry&st=cse

  2. Margaret O’Brien Steinfels 09/02/2009 - 8:38 am  subscriber  contributor

    Thanks Bob. I think I fixed the link; or at least I hope so.

  3. David Gibson 09/02/2009 - 9:53 am  subscriber  contributor

    I am also a Fan of Dan, and he is a seriously serious writer, as well as a good guy. I reviewed Pull Me Up for America, and it is harrowing and loving and with none of the self-pity or self-indulgence of many memoirs.

  4. Bill deHaas 09/02/2009 - 12:49 pm

    Thanks – not only well written but so honest and filled with emotion.

  5. gene palumbo 09/02/2009 - 4:51 pm

    Okay, Gibson, come clean!! Send us the link so we can read your review of his book.

  6. David Gibson 09/02/2009 - 5:32 pm  subscriber  contributor

    Modesty has to start somewhere. Finally. But mainly, his book is way better than my review!

  7. gene palumbo 09/02/2009 - 7:16 pm

    I wanted to read some more by Barry, so I went to google and found an excerpt from Pull Me Up and an interview with him. They’re both good.

    http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=68048

    http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=52&aid=68036

  8. gene palumbo 09/06/2009 - 4:16 pm

    Since our blog mate Gibson stonewalled my request for the link for his review of Dan Barry’s book, I was forced to do some relentless investigative reporting, the fruits of which are as follows:

    http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/article.php3?id_article=909

    Thanks to Tim Reidy at America. I went to him for help on this because, while David said the review was published in America, I couldn’t find it in their archives. Tim happened to remember that in fact it was published in Commonweal back when he was working there.

  9. Margaret O’Brien Steinfels 09/06/2009 - 5:37 pm  subscriber  contributor

    Thank you Gene! Reading the review again reminded my of how good “Pull Me Up Is.”

    Not to open old wounds but it also reminded me why Pull Me Up is so much better than Angela’s Ashes; Barry is both acutely accurate and compassionate.

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