Remembering Lyman Bostock....

I thought it was fine.

How many of us would have knocked?

 

Not me.

But I also think the way he set that last scene tells us what we need to know about the killer.

 

initially, i was kind of upset that pearlman didn't knock when i finished reading.

but after reading your post, though, i agree. smith didn't deserve the opportunity.

 

I also liked the end.

 

I give Pearlman credit for knocking, and trying to get the guy to talk. For the most part, it was a good read. But the final section came across to me as him showing that he had the stones to knock on the door. To me, it came off poorly.

There was plenty of scene setting and description in the final part that gave a strong glimpse of who Smith is today. I didn't mind that Pearlman included efforts to reach Smith, but I don't think he wrote that part well. No need to include that he informed Smith that he was Jeff Pearlman from ESPN.com. Who cares?

Why couldn't he just write that when Smith was asked about the death of Lyman Bostick, that his response was, "I'm not interested. Have a nice night."

The piece wasn't about Pearlman's struggle to get Smith to speak. It was about Bostick's tragic end. The quotes at the end from Turner were powerful and moving, and would have provided a strong ending on their own. Instead, the ending is about Pearlman, and his decision to drive away.

In the final section, Pearlman refers to himself in the "I" form 15 times. Before that portion of the story, he hadn't done it once. There just wasn't the need to go that route.

If it was totally necessary to put himself into the story, he could've opened the story by setting the scene with him in his car, trying to decide what to do. In that sense, the story would wrap back to the beginning, since Pearlman's presence in the story would have been established.

Instead, the story is about everyone else until the end, when it becomes about Pearlman.

 

I had no idea who he was (was only 5 when he died), but I found the entire story pretty riveting.

As a magazine guy who gets to frequently write first-hand pieces, I had no problem with Pearlman putting himself into the story. Of course, in my newspaper days I'd never have done that except in a column.

And there's no way I'm knocking on that door!

 

Pearlman may be accused of a lot of things, but not having stones will never be one of them...

 

Newspapers, a good number of them, used to attempt these types of stories on a regular basis and often jacked them out of the park.

That was before:
-- Slashing travel budgets;
-- Shrinking news holes;
-- Shedding takeout writers (done in by byline counters, among other things);
-- Forcing remaining staffers to serve 2-3 platforms (blogs, audio, video) while blanketing their beats to chase every Web and talk-radio rumor.

I can count on one hand the number of papers that realistically could pull something like this off more than maybe once a year, the way things are set up today. And the worst part is, most of those that can't wouldn't anyway, because they don't believe an audience exists for this stuff.

 

He drove away. He didn't knock.

 

Drug-free here. I just think it was an unnecessary personal shot at another poster.

But it's OK, because it was a lefty doing it to a righty, no?

 

Good stuff.