The Fiddler in the Subway: The True Story of What Happened When a World-Class Violinist Played for Handouts... and Other Virtuoso Performances by

GENE WEINGARTEN IS THE O. HENRY OF AMERICAN JOURNALISM Simply the best storyteller around, Weingarten describes the world as you think it is before revealing how it actually is--in narratives that are by turns hilarious, heartwarming, and provocative, but always memorable. Millions of people know the title piece about violinist Joshua Bell, which originally began as a stunt: What would happen if you put a world-class musician outside a Washington, D.C., subway station to play for spare change? Would anyone even notice? The answer was no. Weingarten's story went viral, becoming a widely referenced lesson about life lived too quickly. Other classic stories--the one about "The Great Zucchini," a wildly popular but personally flawed children's entertainer; the search for the official "Armpit of America"; a profile of the typical American nonvoter--all of them reveal as much about their readers as they do their subjects.

Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 07/06/2010
Pages: 384
Weight: 0.8lbs
Size: 8.44h x 6.18w x 0.93d
ISBN: 9781439181591


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 03/01/2010 pg. 62
Kirkus Reviews 05/01/2010
Publishers Weekly 05/17/2010 pg. 39
Booklist 07/01/2010 pg. 19
Kirkus Best Books 12/15/2010 pg. 15
Shelf Awareness 01/01/0001

About the Author
Weingarten, Gene: - Gene Weingarten is a nationally syndicated humor columnist and a Pulitzer Prize-winning staff writer for The Washington Post. He lives in Washington, DC.