Gay Talese was born in Ocean City, New Jersey, in 1932, to Italian immigrant parents. He attended the University of Alabama, and after graduating was hired as a copyboy at the New York Times.
After a brief stint in the army, Talese returned to the New York Times in 1956. Since then he has written for numerous publications, including Esquire, the New Yorker, Newsweek, and Harper's Magazine. It was these articles that led Tom Wolfe to credit Gay Talese with the creation of an inventive form of nonfiction writing called "The New Journalism."
Talese's bestselling books have dealt with the history and influence of the New York Times (The Kingdom and the Power); the inside story of a Mafia family (Honor Thy Father); his father's immigration to America from Italy in the years preceding World War II (Unto the Sons); and the changing moral values of America in the period between World War II and the AIDS epidemic (Thy Neighbor's Wife).
Gay Talese lives with his wife, Nan, in New York City.
Praise for The Voyeur's Motel: Named a Best Book of the Year by the
Daily Mail (Event Critics' Selection) "This book flipped nearly all
of my switches as a reader. It's a strange, melancholy, morally
complex, grainy, often appalling and sometimes bleakly funny book,
one that casts a spell not dissimilar to that cast by Janet
Malcolm's The Journalist and the Murderer . . . Gripping . . .
[Talese] lays out what he knows and does not know in sentences that
are as crisp as good Windsor knots. He expresses his qualms, but
trusts the reader to come to his or her own conclusions . . . An
intense book."--Dwight Garner, New York Times "Informative and
intriguing . . . [I] was enlightened and entertained by The
Voyeur's Motel."--Washington Post "This is a weird book about weird
people doing weird things, and I wouldn't have put it down if the
house were on fire."--Washington Times "Whether Gerald Foos is
telling the complete truth is almost beside the point. The Voyeur
is so fascinating a character--insightful, observant and
amoral--that the reader becomes caught up in his
story."--Providence Journal "If you've ever wanted your inner
voyeur to run free, vicariously at least, then The Voyeur's Motel
is for you . . . Motel delves deeply into the taboo world with no
holds barred and no excuses . . . The type of unflinching New
Journalism that Talese helped found three decades ago."--Jackson
Clarion Ledger "Pioneering reporter Gay Talese tells the ultimate
surveillance story in The Voyeur's Motel . . . Talese--a master of
elegant, understated prose--uses an objective reportorial style to
tell the voyeur's story, and it's the right approach for a
narrative that requires no extra spice . . . An unforgettable
book."--BookPage "Foos [is revealed] as a singularly pervy,
grandiose, and strangely eloquent weirdo who would be irresistible
to any writer, let alone one as talented, patient, and thoughtful
as Talese . . . Those seeking a uniquely discomfiting journey
couldn't find a better pair of reprobates with whom to cast their
lot."--Booklist "Undoubtedly creepy and unnerving but also an
entirely compelling slice of seamy American life."--Kirkus Reviews
(starred review) "[A] truly shocking story . . . Not your typical
beach book, perhaps, but you may want to read this compulsive
page-turner--which raises all sorts of fascinating journalistic,
moral and legal issues--under cover of an umbrella."--Barnes &
Noble Review "A provocative and compelling story."--Midwest Book
Review "Talese is a master at finding and reporting intimate
matters in a clean, fine prose style so that the pages fly by. Thus
the odd subject of Talese's book is transparently manifest, without
a biased or judgmental eye, all the better to reveal what Foos has
done."--Psychodynamic Psychiatry "An unsettling read . . . Foos's
notes offer a long-term glimpse into the sex lives of
Americans."--Maclean's (Canada) "The Voyeur's Motel . . . had me
hooked . . . It's an unsettling book, like being trapped in a hall
of mirrors. The reader observes Talese observing Foos observing his
guests. It might make you lose your bearings, but at the same time
it's completely mesmerising, and often darkly funny, too."--Daily
Mail (UK) (Event Critics' Best Books of the Year) "[An] eye-popping
book . . . Completely riveting from start to finish . . . Darkly
comical . . . It is by turns fascinating and illuminating, very
creepy and very funny, and will live in my memory long after many
more doggedly accurate works have vanished into thin air."--Mail on
Sunday (UK) "A riveting page-turner . . . Short and brisk, it tells
a compellingly sordid story, and Foos is one fascinating dude . . .
The book is compulsively readable."--Winnipeg Free Press
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