"Jimmy Breslin: The Man Who Told the Truth", by Richard Esposito

This book, published just last year, claims to be the first biography of Jimmy Breslin. To me it doesn't qualify as an actual biography, because it is more about Breslin the writer than Breslin the man. A collection of columns Breslin wrote over the years would be just as informative as this supposed biography.

Esposito's writing style can be off-putting. Consider this passage, from page 144: "This, then, is what Breslin brings to a story...It is people. Living their lives. With you. At a very painful time." Now there may be a point to this sort of staccato-like writing, but if there is, it escapes me.

I have recently read a biography of another journalist which is more successful. That book is "The Skeptic: A Life of H. L. Mencken", by Terry Teachout. The Mencken biography flows smoothly the whole way through, following Mencken's life from birth to death, as a biography is supposed to. It reads like a novel, and held my interest from start to finish. Teachout writes as well as Esposito writes poorly.

As a side note, I have recently read Breslin's book "Can't Anybody Here Play This game", about the 1962 New York Mets season. It is a brilliant piece of writing. Breslin can write with the best of them.