Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 28, 1993 TAG: 9302260494
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by JOE KENNEDY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
LOOK INSIDE NPR GIVES MORE THAN YOU MAY WANT TO KNOW
NOAH ADAMS ON ALL THINGS CONSIDERED: A RADIO JOURNAL. By Noah Adams. W.W. Norton & Co. $22.95.Nothing shatters the mystery of National Public Radio quite as readily as a book by one of NPR's stars. It happened with Susan Stamberg when she wrote "Every Night at 5," and it has happened again with "Noah Adams on All Things Considered: A Radio Journal."
Adams is a warming presence on the nightly news program, his gentle, resonant voice providing reason and restraint to the most alarming dispatches. His features and travel pieces - on the lighthouses of Maine, say, or the Great Northern Railway - carry us smoothly to other places, other times.
Truly, there is no one like him on the airwaves. But the secret of radio lies in what is not known, rather than what is known. As any baseball fan of a certain age can tell you, radio requires us to fill in the blanks with our imaginations and memories. The result is something more than a story. It's a personal experience.
Every medium has its tricks, and one of the disappointments of Adams' book is how obvious the tricks become.
After reading "A Radio Journal," you may never again listen to one of Adams' mood pieces without waiting for a mention of the mist, a description of his dinner or the insertion of a sound effect that's altogether perfect.
You may wince upon hearing his trademark, run-on sentences. The memory of their appearance on the page will remind you that grammatically, Adams is incorrect.
If he puts a dog in the story, you'll know he and his producer have quarreled over its presence. (Adams and his wife live with dogs, not children; and they are another of his weaknesses.)
Adams' journal covers a lot of familiar territory. Traveling in Romania at the collapse of communism or journeying to Southwest Virginia during the Pittston coal strike, he finds and talks to real people about real things, capturing the sound and feel of these places in ways that print journalists can only envy.
Remembering his reports and reading about what went into their creation, you'll want to dig into your wallet and upgrade your last donation to your local NPR member station. But when he describes the lobsters he ate on assignment in Maine; the bed-and-breakfast where he stayed on assignment out west; and the Sundays he spends in Washington, brunching and browsing through the New York Times, the image of the dedicated, half-starved public radio servant is suffocated by the aroma of Brie. (Local staffers still fit the image, so keep giving).
Ever since reading "Every Night at 5," I've barely been able to listen to Susan Stamberg without feeling that her I'm-just-a-neighbor-chatting-over -the-back-fence approach is only a pose. Noah Adams has given us another glimpse behind the curtain. I almost wish he hadn't.
Joe Kennedy is a features writer for this newspaper.