A Bus Of My Own - Hardcover

The co-anchor of The MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour and author of the One-Eyed Mack series looks back on his life so far, including his love of buses and his 1983 heart attack. This is the portrait of a hard-working, ethical, innocent, ambitious man who seems to have become one of America's preeminent journalists by dint of sheer earnestness. The book begins and ends with buses. Lehrer's father ran a Kansas mom-and-pop bus line that failed--and so Lehrer conceived a lifelong passion for bus memorabilia in all forms, and for buses like the Flxible Clipper, the Aerocoach, and the ACF-Brill--exotic mechanical beasts that plied the midwestern bus routes of the author's youth. He is deft with the small moments and habits of life: He chides a Marine drill instructor for mispronouncing his name; asks a Secret Service agent if they're going to put the bubble-top on Kennedy's limousine in Dallas; eats pastrami sandwiches with mayo; and gets a one-sentence lesson on interviewing politicians from Nelson Rockefeller: ``Look, fella, if people like you could get me to say things I didn't want to say, I wouldn't be here.'' For Newshour fans who always suspected that MacNeil and Lehrer dress that way on purpose, there's an explication of the ``skivvy shirt rule'': ``Nothing should be noticed or absorbed except the information....There is no such thing as a pretty slide, a zippy piece of music, a trendy shirt, a dynamic set, a tough question, or anything else, if it deflects even a blink of attention from the information.'' Lehrer, we learn, was turned on to journalism by a Runyonesque Texas newsman named ``Sticks'' Strahala, and he himself seems to have kept a boyish, wide-eyed cub-reporter enthusiasm intact in the corridors of power. Sometimes hokey, but down to earth, genuinely affecting, and immensely likable. (Eight pages of b&w photographs--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

When Lehrer was 12 years old, his family's inter-city bus company in Kansas went bankrupt, so as an adult the TV commentator and novelist has become an ardent collector of bus memorabilia, and he recently bought a 1946 bus. In this warm, unaffected autobiography tinged with the same irreverent humor that marks his One-Eyed Mack novels, Lehrer writes of life in the Marine Corps ("a ritual to manhood") and of his 10 years as a reporter in Dallas, which taught him that murderers, sexual deviants and embezzlers have faces and families. Assigned to investigate the assassination of John F. Kennedy for two years, he deems both the lone-assassin theory and current conspiracy theories full of holes. Lehrer tells of his slow recovery from a heart attack and bypass operation in 1983, which prompted him to give up smoking. He defends the MacNeil/ Lehrer NewsHour against critics who fault its "rabid evenhandedness" and nonjudgmental approach. Peppered with anecdotes, this self-portrait limns a likable fellow who takes a daily nap, devours Georges Simenon novels and enjoys "aimless driving" through America's small towns. Photos. First serial to Reader's Digest; BOMC alternate; Reader's Digest Condensed Books selection.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.