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I remember being intrigued by this book by reading a very short review of it in the Briefly Noted section of The New Yorker. I clipped out the review and now I lost it…after I write this review I’ll go look and see what it said. It had to be at least semi-positive…otherwise I wouldn’t have read this. But after reading the book, I was more annoyed and can only give it 2 stars. Perhaps not fair to the author, and after all he was twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize as a journalist for the Washington Post…but I was expecting something different. I was expecting a slice-of-life book…here is what happened to various people on December 28, 1986. That is the date he and his editor Tom Shroder decided on…to comb through newspaper articles in the US and pick stories that intrigued Weingarten. In the inner liner of the dustjacket we are told it took 6 years for Weingarten to research and to write the book.

There were too many malevolent or “bad� stories that were told in this book to my liking. So it wasn’t my cup of tea. Whether it might be your cup of tea, for you to decide. I can break down the book into chapters and make a few observations now and then…one observation is that the book moves forward in time on December 28 from immediately after midnight to late in the night of that date (Dec. 28). Each point in time chosen is a chapter in the book. You do not have to read in the order presented � you can choose a time in the middle of the day of you want and go hither and thither and it won’t matter. I look upon the book as a series of vignettes…things that happened in real life (not stories) but the vignettes are not connected, and for you to understand one vignettes in the evening of the 28th you don’t have to know anything about the preceding times/vignettes.

Actually I know what I’m going to do�. (this review is fluid!)…I am going to rate the vignettes with a spare comment here and there, Let us begin! 😎
� 12:01 am � Charlottesville, Virginia —� A medical story and a chilling murder, if you like to read about what really goes on in open heart surgery this is the vignette for you! 4 stars.
� 3:02 am � Falls City, Nebraska ——I think at this point I was starting to say to myself this is not a slice-of-life book I guess. A man robs banks and tries to save two children in a house fire. 2.5 stars.
� 5:45 am � Bartlett, Tennessee —� A mother is good at video games. 2.5 stars.
� 6:35 am � San Diego, California —� My thoughts as I am reading this: “I feel terrible for the people’s deaths. Why is he dwelling on people getting murdered, or “baked� in a house fire? These are extraordinary events in one day?? It’s all terrible stuff except for the first story. 2 stars.
� 6:40 am � Flagstaff, Arizona —� another sad story about a marriage that does not work out. 1.5 stars.
� 8:15 am � Cedar Rapids, Iowa � A vignette about a transexual and the life he led before and after coming out. 4.5 stars.
� 10:50 am � Dallas, Texas —� (view spoiler)[ Severe burn victim but not a victim anymore. Pretty remarkable story about somebody who by all rights should feel sorry for themselves and does not. I f I could be so good. (hide spoiler)] 5 stars awarded to the protagonist of this vignette.
� 12:05 pm � Queens, New York City � � 2.5 stars. A story about the mayor of New York City, Ed Koch, and how his star was fading because of race relations gone south.
� 1:58 pm � Miami, Florida � � crime in Miami brought on by crack cocaine and a parade. 2 stars.
� 2:10 pm � Takoma Park, Maryland —� sad vignette involving AIDS…and the lack of compassion a lot of Americans showed towards men who were felled by the virus. 3.5 stars
� 4:25 pm � Matlock, Washington —� Helicopter crashing among other potentially disastrous things. Pretty amazing that protagonist lived to tell the tale. 3 stars.
� 5:05 pm � Washington, D.C. —� A vignette about a Washington Redskins game and instant replay. 3 stars
� 6:10 pm � Winslow, Indiana —� You want another murder mystery? Coming right up! 2 stars. (only because I am sick and tired of murders in this book!)
� 6:15 pm � Montego Bay, Jamaica —� Why is this in the collection? Since when did Jamaica become a state? 2.5 stars.
� 7:45 pm � JFK Airport, New York City —� A group of people who came from Russia to America in hopes for a better life decide to go back to Russia. 2.5 stars.
� 8:35 pm � Great Neck, Long Island —� A couple stay alive, and in love, despite everything. 3.5 stars.
� 11:55 pm � Oakland, California ——A vignette about Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. 2 stars.

I am glad that day was over. 😕

Notes:
� Words I had to look up: “They hondled�, Hondle = as to bargain ; “At the perigree of my reporting�, Perigree= the point in the orbit of the moon or a satellite at which it is nearest to the earth; “Gyre of history�, gyre=whirl or gyrate.
� I wonder how long it took for the author to think this up. I sort of found it gross. It was in the Acknowledgement section, and he wanted to give a shout-out to his editor, tom Shroder: “He has been my principal editor at the Post and has edited most of my books. He has the sensitivity of a corduroy condom.� 😑

Reviews:
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� At this link are a number of one-three liners from newspaper or literary magazine or individual’s reviews (e.g., Peter Segal from NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me!):

Post-script: I just read the review in The New Yorker’s Briefly Noted section (November 11, 2019) and it is not at all indicative of the tenor of this book, and it is no wonder I was intrigued by the book (i.e., I feel justified in my choosing this book based on what is said here…but this assessment I feel was not accurate…boo-hiss!): This absorbing snapshot of America draws on more than five hundred interviews about a randomly chosen day in 1986, a quiet Sunday just after Christmas. A nursing student goes in for a heart transplant; two fishing buddies survive a helicopter crash; a girl defies her religious mother to play Nintendo. Weingarten relates these events, and the stumbles and joys of dozens of other people, with compassion and humor.