The view you have from where you sit is a very good one.
You can see highs and lows, happy things, and improvements to be made. Some of what you spy makes you laugh, while others give you pause or cause concern. From where you sit, you can see for miles – and, as does Peggy Noonan in her new book “The Time of Our Lives,” you can see years into the past.
As a new college graduate in the early 1970s, writer Peggy Noonan says that she received an “unplanned gift” from her first job at a CBS affiliate in Boston: the newsroom was full of “old, semicurmudgeonly correspondents and editors, and they taught me by reading, editing and rewriting my hourly news broadcasts.” She learned how to “clear something up,” change minds, and create stories.
From there she became a “news gatherer,” a speechwriter and author, and in 2000, she was asked to write a column for the Wall Street Journal. When a friend suggested a bound collection of favorite works, Noonan began poring through boxes.
Her first offering: the transcript of a commencement address, in which she spoke of being a Presidential speechwriter.
“It’s heaven,” she says simply, before elaborating with tales of monumental disasters, intuition, and working with Ronald Reagan.
In this book, Noonan eulogizes friends and the famous: Joan Rivers, of whom Noonan says “She had no edit function, which in part allowed her gift” of warmth; the “sweet and austere” Jacqueline Kennedy; writer Tennessee Williams; soldiers Alvin York and Audie Murphy; and former President Reagan.
She shares her views on books, politics, and political scandals. She writes lovingly of her city, post-September 11, 2001, and how New Yorkers dealt with tragedy. She reflects on the Catholic Church, and worshipping there.
And despite that many of these columns were penned years ago, Noonan seems prescient at times. She writes about “safe rooms” at college, immigration, Iraq, terrorism, having a common language as a nation, and other topics that were as relevant when written as they are today.
And that last point, well, there’s a surprise. Have we really been talking about the same things for all these years? Author Peggy Noonan seems to indicate as much, and in this memoir-essay-collection, she weighs in, too.
But first, starting with a brief look at her own life and early career, Noonan writes of former co-workers, elderly aunts, and an America where parents turned their children loose during the day and didn’t expect to see them until dinnertime. She proceeds by remarking on life, events, and how things have changed both politically and socially but she doesn’t rant. In “The Times of Our Lives,” Noonan is obviously opinionated, but respectfully so. In today’s culture of divisiveness, that may come as welcome relief to some readers.
All in all, this book was a pleasure to read and with short chapters, is easily browsable. It’s a calm look at current events and if you’re plugged into those topics, then “The Times of Our Lives” is worth a view.
