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Book Summary and Reviews of The Fiddler in the Subway by Gene Weingarten

The Fiddler in the Subway by Gene Weingarten

The Fiddler in the Subway

And Other Great Pieces You May Have Missed

by Gene Weingarten

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  • Published:
  • Jul 2010, 288 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Simply the best storyteller around, Weingarten describes the world as you think it is before revealing how it actually is—in narratives that are by turns hilarious, heartwarming, and provocative, but always memorable.

Millions of people know the title piece about violinist Joshua Bell, which originally began as a stunt: What would happen if you put a world-class musician outside a Washington, D.C., subway station to play for spare change? Would anyone even notice? The answer was no. Weingarten’s story went viral, becoming a widely referenced lesson about life lived too quickly. Other classic stories—the one about "The Great Zucchini," a wildly popular but personally flawed children’s entertainer; the search for the official "Armpit of America"; a profile of the typical American nonvoter—all of them reveal as much about their readers as they do their subjects.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. A sparkling collection of features ... Every page is a pleasure." - Kirkus Reviews

"Entertaining and funny, Weingarten's stories depict the poignancy of the human condition." - Publishers Weekly

This information about The Fiddler in the Subway was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Gene Weingarten

Gene Weingarten is a nationally syndicated humor columnist and a Pulitzer Prize-winning staff writer for The Washington Post. He lives in Washington, D.C.

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Read-Alikes

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