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Michael Krasny: Interviews
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The interviewee interludes are mostly about writers, but Krasny's autobiographical riffs contain innumerable worthy anecdotes about an extraordinary range of humanity, from scientists James Watson, E.O. Wilson, Stephen Jay Gould and Carl Sagan to financier David Rockefeller, farm labor organizer Cesar Chavez, chef Jacques Pepin and performer Whoopi Goldberg. He relates the agony and the ecstasy of interviews with people of all stripes, from lifer leftists to compassionate conservatives, from the vivacious and verbose to the tongue-tied and timorous. One delicious description is of an interview with Janet Malcolm of the New Yorker, who spoke "with quivering trepidation and near inarticulateness," requiring Krasny "to pull her brain power out through her tangled tongue."
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Michael was gaining prominence as a professor of American literature. His first media opportunity arrived in the form of a public TV interview with Gore Vidal. Michael found he had “a taste for difficult interviews.”
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Krasny's is a life of late-night reading, battling city traffic between studio and university and keeping a constant eye on breaking news and trends. His preparation for "Forum" includes reading the latest novel by any author he interviews.
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Krasny is introspective, endlessly analyzing his strengths and weaknesses, and whether he is a "good man" who contributes to his community and to the world at large. He can be his own harshest critic: "I am surprised at myself for my slight burst of fawning as I conclude the interview" with Philip Roth. Above all, "Off Mike" has good storytelling, related with passion and candor.
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