What I've Been Reading -- Dead Lines: Slices of Life from the Obit Beat by George Hesselberg
By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi
May 12, 2023
Milling around the Madison Camper & RV Show a few months ago I stopped at the vendor stand for the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. While my husband dived into the depths of solar panels at the booth across the way, I perused the books for sale by WHS Press. My eyes landed on a title, Dead Lines: Slices of Life from the Obit Beat, by George Hesselberg. "Perfect!" I thought, quickly adding it to the pile I would be taking home with me. Dead Lines is a collection of Hesselberg's news / feature obituaries from his forty-plus years writing for the Wisconsin State Journal. The passages range from profiling prominent Madisonians to local legends to an infamous Sicilian miniature donkey named Mo, who resided on a farm at the intersection of Highways CC and D, just south of Madison. Hesselberg provides a rich array of local history and finds the remarkable in other common people (an animals) who made Southern Wisconsin home. The book is a quick and easy read that elevates the art of writing an obituary.
1 comment:
Many thanks for you kind review of my book. This is a perfect description.
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