Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing -- Robert Caro

Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing by Robert A. Caro
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Caro's little volume on his working process, and glimpse into the thought process and questions that drive his work along, is helpful. It both gives hope to the aspiring writer of nonfiction, and dashes cold water into the face of romanticized picture of writing harbored by many.

For here, we see an unsparing portrayal of the thousands of hours of work spent over years of research. You can conjure up a mental image of Caro and his wife, huddled over desks at the Johnson library, turning page after page, hundreds of thousands of them, trying to catch out some tiny, revealing detail that will present a new lead of inquiry, a facet of the story that people have missed.

First, I wonder at this couple's keen minds, to discern a significant lead in the mountains of minutiae. It also strikes me that Caro has had a rare gift over these decades--a wife who was his friend, compatriot, co-researcher, and co-editor through his volumes of work. Many writers spend their careers in long seasons of utter loneliness. Mrs. Caro's companionship and expertise have kept much of that burden off of him. Many don't realize that Mrs. Caro is a skilled writer in her own right, an expert on French history. She has poured meticulous research and great craft into her writing as well; I don't know how she has done it!

There are no shortcuts presented in Caro's book. His biggest advice is a torch that he had passed down to him from a newspaper editor in the early days: turn every single page. You don't know what nuggets are there until you look. This is daunting advice--if you take it seriously, it might be enough to scare away any would-be writer who wants the prestige, but doesn't want the work. Other gems are quite helpful and encouraging. For instance, silence is the greatest weapon in the interviewer's arsenal. People hate silence, and will rush to fill it. If you ask a question, shut up and wait until the interviewee answers it in full. Caro's interview notes are filled with "SU" (Shut Up) reminders, which he would scratch down when fighting the temptation to kill the compelling silence with words of his own. Also inspiring is his insistence that nonfiction should contain the same quality of prose and rhythm as fictional works, and that if you get a deep sense of the places important to your subject, you will understand powerful psychological forces wrought by the environment itself on the subject. In this way, the environment is a major character in Caro's books that have profoundly shaped the motivations of his protagonists.

This book contains reprints of interviews written for other publications, so it's not all original for this volume. It's all invaluable insight, however, but many would say that this fact detracts from the book. Still, I value the wisdom in its pages, and the refined, gracious voice of Caro that permeates the book.

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