Abstract
In this posthumous publication of Pulitzer prize winner Alex Tizon’s articles, his colleague and friend Sam Howe Verhovek edits a book that highlights both Tizon’s keen eye for a good story and his uncanny ability to draw out the complexity and nuance of seemingly ordinary people in a compelling, compassionate way. Compiling selected pieces from throughout his career, Verhovek doesn’t organize the collection chronologically, which would better highlight the evolution and maturation of Tizon as a writer. Rather, he groups sections around the people that Tizon helped give voice and highlights the major themes in his writing.
The book begins with an excerpt from Tizon’s own book Big Little Man: In Search of My Asian Self and then continues with his last published article and arguably magnum opus, The Atlantic long form article “My Family’s Slave.” According to Chartbeat, it was the most read and engaged online article in 2017 and remains one of The Atlantic’s top stories ever published. By starting with Tizon’s self-reflective pieces, Verhovek sets the stage for the rest of the book’s selections by confronting the reader with the author’s background and lived experience, and how this influenced his world view and writing. Tizon was a first-generation immigrant, moving to the United States from the Philippines shortly before the first large wave of Asian immigration to the United States in the postwar era. His book reads as a memoir, explaining the challenges of being “the other” and his journey of confronting racism and embracing his whole identity.
The organizing themes include section titles such as “Immigrants,” “Natives,” “Loners,” and “Eccentrics.” While the editor frames Tizon’s work in the above categories and Tizon’s unique racial lens certainly informs his writing, both Verhovek and Tizon clarify and expand this point. Tizon says, So I guess you could say I’ve written a lot about one thing as a journalist. But I hardly ever saw it as exclusively about race. To my mind, it was more about telling stories of people who existed outside of the mainstream’s field of vision. Invisible people. Barely discernable beings who lived among us, sometimes right next door . . . who moved through life largely unseen because their stories were largely untold. (p. vii)
Verhovek adds, “If a person was mocked or misunderstood or just ignored, Alex wanted know more about him or her” (p. xviii).
Included are two dozen pieces which begin with insightful and often deeply moving introductions from Tizon’s professional colleagues. These forewords provide insight about him as a person and highlight the great admiration and respect of his peers. Included in the selections are topics spanning “Surfers for Jesus” to a 150-year-old cold case, from a school janitor turned best-selling author to the director of the National UFO reporting center. In these pieces, Tizon’s ability to listen carefully, let people have their say, and then empathically convey and explain their perspectives shines brilliantly. Scott Kraft, former national editor of the LA Times shared, “We had learned, early on, to place a lot of confidence in his eye for a story and, in particular, his ability to find universal themes and lessons in everything he saw, read, or reported” (p. 77).
This collection provides a series of captivating stories about everyday people and the lives they lead. While echoes of Studs Terkel’s Working reverberate, Tizon’s collection has a broader coverage and masterful style. His method of engaging subjects with incisive questions and deep respect, coupled with his poetic ability to craft vivid descriptions and slowly unfold a narrative, creates relatable stories about people whom you want to know and understand better. “As his wife, Melissa, describes it, Alex believed very strongly that every person had an ‘epic story’ within and that his job was to help coax it out” (p. xvii). While not related directly to labor education, I highly recommend this book as an enjoyable read and important reminder for professional educators and union staff alike that all of our students and members have their own epic stories as well.