Nobody Better, Better Than Nobody

Nobody Better, Better Than Nobody is Ian Frazier's trenchant collection of early journalism, and in the grand tradition of A. J. Liebling and Joseph Mitchell, Frazier raises reporting to high literary art. His vivid stories showcase a strange and wonderful parade of American life, from portraits of Heloise, the syndicated household-hints columnist, and Jim Deren, the urban fly-fisher's guru, to small-town Kansas residents who celebrate the centennial of a famous local massacre with outdoor square dancing and a promise that any descendents of their former Cheyenne Indian enemies can go bowling for free.

Praise

"Subtle . . . The unwary reader never knows what Frazier is up to until he's hooked."—The Boston Globe

"Wickedly funny . . . [A] rare combination of humor and empathy . . . More eloquent in their directness than poetry."—The New York Times

"Five extraordinary tales profiling people and events in the coolest, clearest, most wittily perceptive prose you'll find anywhere these days."—Forbes

"Clear and thoughtful—with a fillip of the outlandish. This is the stimulating, ardent writing that one always hopes for and rarely finds."—Houston Chronicle

"Astonishing . . . The reader winds up laughing and knowing a great deal."—Time

"He's one of the funniest, most facile writers working today, and the five long pieces in this new collection prove it."—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

About the Author(s)

Ian Frazier

Ian Frazier is the author of Great Plains, The Fish’s Eye, On the Rez, Family, as well as Coyote v. Acme and Dating Your Mom. A frequent contributor to The New Yorker, he lives in Montclair, New Jersey.

photo: Sigrid Estrada

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Excerpt

NOBODY BETTER, BETTER THAN NOBODY
Authentic Accounts of MassacresThe town of Oberlin, Kansas, is in the northwest corner of the state, eighty-three miles east of the Kansas-Colorado state line and a hundred and seven miles west of the geographical center of the continental United States. Oberlin has a population of twenty-five hundred and a town whistle that blows five times a day--at seven in the morning, at noon, at one in the afternoon, at six in the evening, and at ten at night--and it is the county seat of Decatur County.

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