"New York Times writer and columnist Araton knows newspapers and knows New York, and in his seventh book (and first novel), he explores clashes more personal, more searing, more universal than any of the sports stories he's told before. Cold Type is a tale about collisions: between generations, between classes, between different crafts in a rapidly changing economy, between the past and the future, between father and son." — Kirkus Reviews
"Harvey Araton is a gifted novelist whose "Cold Type" is a solid entertainment from first page to last. Very highly recommended."—Midwest Book Review
"Araton perfectly captures the painful struggle of newspapers, as the digital age looms." —New Jersey Star Ledger
"Harvey Araton writes, with keen insight, of a time when power was ebbing fast from both newspapers and their unions. It’s an especially bittersweet tale he tells of the people who had grown up in newspapers and unions, as they struggle to adapt to this evolving new order. And, of course, what makes this even more evocative, is that we’re still trying to sort this all out." — Frank Deford, author of Everybody’s All-American, NPR commentator
"Father and son face their demons, each other, and a depressingly realistic publisher in a newspaper yarn that made me yell "Hold the Front Page" for Harvey Araton's rousing debut as a novelist." — Robert Lipsyte, author of An Accidental Sportswriter
"I’ve been waiting almost 25 years for something good to come of the Daily News strike. Now it has. But this wonderful novel captures more than a time and a place. Harvey Araton deftly turns the picket line into a metaphor for other divides, for those that separate journalism and commerce, heroes and goats, and most of all, fathers and sons. Cold Type is a love song to the real New York." — Mark Kriegel, author of Namath
"A gripping narrative and an insightful take on family, work, what loyalty means—and what it costs. Harvey Araton is a skilled writer who knows his way around the milieus he travels in this novel, whether it’s a newsroom, a labor hall or a living room. But what really makes this worth reading is the heart you can feel beating underneath it all." — Brad Parks, author of The Player
"Fans of Harvey Araton’s lively, engaging prose will love this vivid and heartfelt exploration of what it means to be a journalist, a son, a father, and a man." — Pamela Redmond Satran, author of Younger
"Memorable and likable characters dominate this realistic and very enjoyable novel … a sort of old-fashioned novel, offering a social portrait and a really rich story. Kudos to Mr Araton and Cinco Puntos Press, of El Paso, Texas, for writing and publishing this worthy novel … I’m going to be recommending Cold Type for weeks." — The Great Gray Bridge
“Set during that same period at the fictional New York City Trib, which has been purchased by a filthy rich but not-so-union-friendly Brit, Cold Type is a father-son saga that unfolds on opposite sides of the picket line and explores the psychological dramas of industry-changing technologies, namely the computerized typesetting system from which the novel takes its name.” — Joe Pompeo, Capital New York
2014-06-01
A story about a newspaper, a family, a strike, and social and economic change—sketched against the backdrop of New York in the 1990s. New York Times writer and columnist Araton knows newspapers and knows New York, and in his seventh book (and first novel), he explores clashes more personal, more searing, more universal than any of the sports stories he's told before. Cold Type is a tale about collisions: between generations, between classes, between different crafts in a rapidly changing economy, between the past and the future, between father and son. These are collisions that no one wanted and that no one could avoid. They break the rules, they break apart families, they create heartbreak. They are as ancient as the hills and as current as today's news—and the existential crisis that surrounds today's newspapers. By crossing a picket line that includes his father, a hard-boiled shop steward, the reporter Jamie Kramer crosses a moral line, as well—and the book's action and its interest revolve around what happens on both sides of those two lines. Tensions rise with the unions out on strike, but management and union defectors ensure that copies of the paper are out on the street. Before long, union workers drift back to their jobs—setting up one of the freshest surprise endings of the stale genre of the newspaper novel.A novel with a strong whiff of the New York Daily News strike of 1990-1991—and with ominous foreshadowings of what the protagonist describes as "this internet thing everybody's talking about.''
