52 McGs.: The Best Obituaries from Legendary New York Times Reporter Robert McG. Thomas Jr.

When this book was first recommended to me by a friend, I must admit I was a little put off. A book of obituaries? Now there's a fun read! Although I know there are "die-hard" obit enthusiasts out there, I certainly don't count myself among them. All of this is leading to the further admission that I ordered the book with some trepidation. I needn't have worried. This book is an absolute joy. To say that it is well-written would be an understatement of Homeric proportions as Mr. Thomas had a subtle way with words that hints at Twain (I know! I know! They're "just" obituaries, but this gentleman could turn a phrase with the best of them!). Far from being ghoulish or depressing, these 52 McGs are fascinating celebrations of everyday extraordinary lives. Most importantly, each humorous account is filled with such warmth and respect that you don't get the feeling you're snickering at some poor dead guy "behind his back". 52 McGs falls into the category of "little discoveries that you can't wait to share with other people." Heartily recommended as an addition to your library or as a gift to anyone that enjoys highly skilled writing.

Regular readers of The New York Times will have noticed that while the paper's style has a certain consistently, some of its writers stand out anyway. Robert McG. Thomas was one of those writers. He made his mark not with flash, but with grace, and he did it in the most unlikely place of all: the obituary pages. Thomas (who died in early 2000) had an eye for detail, and an amazing touch in telling not just a life story, but the story behind it. Many obit junkies picked up on and actively sought Thomas's obits between 1995 and 1999; one was Chris Calhoun, who has pulled together this excellent collection of 52 of McG's finest offerings. They aren't stories of the most famous figures who passed on during his tenure. Quite the opposite, these are often people you hadn't heard of, but who, thanks to Thomas's style, won't want to forget. He could be serious, and he could be funny. He's as good writing about the South Vietnamese officer who famously executed a Viet Cong prisoner on camera as he is with "The Goat Man." He's as insightful on the woman who helped create soap operas as he is on the Greenwich Village icon who created nothing but a hipster reputation. Every miniature profile here entertains and informs, as the cliché goes. This is a great little collection; one could only wish for more.

Bob Thomas was a fine, generous, kind man with a knack for throwing a great party. He was also one of his generation's most talented observers of modern culture via his legendary NYT obits. While his posthumous descriptions of Americans both great and small are often bitingly amusing, his respect for his subjects was always palpable. It is this combination that makes his writing so uniquely fabulous.

There are two great experiences in newspaper reading, one if the wedding announcements in the Sunday NY Times, the other is the obituary page every day. No other paper does it the way the Times does, putting a smile on my face even as a life passes before us. The greatest NYT obituary writer of all was Robert McG. Thomas; and nobody laughed louder at his witty and ironic observations than Chris Calhoun, the famous book editor at Sterling Lord who compiled this neat deck of 52 of Thomas' wryest and wittiest obituaries. From a Jewish matordor, to the guy who buried Lee Harvey Oswald to a character whose main claim to fame was that he was the guy the three stooges stuck in the eye all the time, Its uproarious. Just a couple of examples: In an obituary of a guy who discovered a stone age tribe in the Philipines, Thomas ponders whether they were really primitives or it was all a hoax. Either way, he writes, "It was a reflection of their rapid acculturalization that in 1988 several members of the tribe filed a libel suit against anthropologists who called them fakers." That one cracked me up. So did the one about a woman who won a lottery. The real story was she loved cats and spent all her money on cats; but they she died because she was allerigic to them. Well, it was funny to me. Then there is one about a famous genealogist who ended up disproving his wife's claime to be a descendant of one of the founding fathers. That one ends with a quote from a son saying he has not interst in the topic noting, " We were victimes of genealogical overkill."Like the subjects of the obits, this is all subtle. These are not obits of famous people, most had brushes with greatness like the skit on the Letterman show. They lucked into an invention or found a famous golf ball or became a whiz at duckpins. My only regret is that there weren't more of them. 93 McGs would have had a better ring to it. The book ends with the obituary of Thomas himself, who died in 2000 at the age of 60. It is unfortunate that the editor didn't include all of the obituaries mentioned in his obituary, since it would be natural that you want to go back and look at them after they were mentioned. But picking 52 out of a collection of nearly 700 is a tough task and Calhoun had to draw the line somewhere. and that is a minor quibble. I found myself reading them all out loud to my wife and daughter, who enjoyed them every bit as much as I did.

For many years I clipped Robert McG Thomas's obits. I cannot remember a mediocre one. He had the rare ability to capture the essence of each person he wrote about. I miss his obits. This is a fine book.