This is an oral history of journalism in New York City for the iconic weekly newspaper, The Village Voice.

The book is not a narrative, but rather a series of interview statements. While these primary sources are important, I would have preferred a narrative with occasional interviews to understand the history and a more coherent read.

This book contains a lot of New York City history that The Village Voice newspaper covered from its inception. The interviews are interesting and the reader acquires biased information from these interviews. The cast of characters is a necessity and lists who is who with dates is helpful to keep everybody straight.The timeline of the The Village Voice is also a good visual for understanding the production of the newspaper.

If you enjoy reading interviews, this book may be a good fit and I would suggest purchasing the hardcover book over the digitized version. 

The digitized book is awful for viewing. There are many errors in capitalization and spelling, alignment of the text, spacing of words, and it is hard to go back and find something. Make sure you highlight and note! I’m sure these formatting glitches will be rectified prior to publishing. However, this book is a piece of NYC writing history and worth having a hardcopy. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Public Affairs for the e-Advanced Reader’s Copy of The Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive History of the Village Voice, the Radical Paper That Changed American Culture by Tricia Romano. 

Available February 27, 2024
@PublicAffairs
@NetGalley

The Freaks Came Out to Write by Tricia Romano reads like a fascinating oral history of a very particular time in Manhattan, as seen through the eyes and interest of a very particular group of people. I really enjoyed it! 
(FYI, the ARC's formatting was a little wonky. I'm sure this will be fixed for publication and didn't distract from my enjoyment of the book.)

I was really curious to get the a glimpse behind the curtain here, but the format was a real problem for me. The book is basically a series of interview statements, rather than a narrative, and I did not find it conducive to a coherent read. Additionally, on kindle the spacing and alignment were not always right, further complicating things. This one didn't work for me..

This was an okay, interesting read.  Found the format a little hard to follow along with.  Diffrerent from my normal choice in books, but it was still interesting.

I really enjoy reading about journalism in this era, and about those who made it what it was. This book is sure to become a classic.