Invisible People: Stories of Lives at the Margins

by Alex Tizon, Sam Howe Verhovek

Overview

“Somewhere in the tangle of the subject’s burden and the subject’s desire is your story.”—Alex Tizon 

Every human being has an epic story. The late Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Alex Tizon told the epic stories of marginalized people—from lonely immigrants struggling to forge a new American identity to a high school custodian who penned a New Yorker short story. Edited by Tizon’s friend and former colleague Sam Howe Verhovek, Invisible People collects the best of Tizon’s rich, empathetic accounts—including “My Family’s Slave,” the Atlantic magazine cover story about the woman who raised him and his siblings under conditions that amounted to indentured servitude.

Mining his Filipino American background, Tizon tells the stories of immigrants from Cambodia and Laos. He gives a fascinating account of the Beltway sniper and insightful profiles of Surfers for Jesus and a man who tracks UFOs. His articles—many originally published in the Seattle Times and the Los Angeles Times—are brimming with enlightening details about people who existed outside the mainstream’s field of vision. 

In their introductions to Tizon’s pieces, New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet, Atlantic magazine editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg, Pulitzer Prize winners Kim Murphy and Jacqui Banaszynski, and others salute Tizon’s respect for his subjects and the beauty and brilliance of his writing. Invisible People is a loving tribute to a journalist whose search for his own identity prompted him to chronicle the lives of others.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781439918302
Publisher:	Temple University Press
Publication date:	11/22/2019
Edition description:	1
Pages:	248
Sales rank:	652,856
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Alex Tizon (1959 - 2017) was a  Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. He wrote numerous articles for publications including The Seattle Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Atlantic. He was also the author of a memoir: Big Little Man: In Search of My Asian Self.
Sam Howe Verhovek is freelance writer and former reporter for The New York Times and TheLos Angeles Times. He is the author of Jet Age: The Comet, the 707, and the Race to Shrink the World. He is also an adjunct faculty member at Seattle University and the University of Washington.
 

Table of Contents

Foreword Jose Antonio Vargas xiii

Introduction Sam Howe Verhovek xv

Part I Alex's Story

An excerpt from Big Little Man: In Search of My Asian Self 3

Introduced Deanne Urmy

Part II Immigrants

My Family's Slave 13

The Atlantic, June 2017

Introduced Jeffrey Goldberg

For Seattle's Cambodian Refugees, Time and Distance Can't Bury Memories of the Killing Fields 36/37

Seattle Times, January 23, 1994

And

Strangers in a Strange Land: The Hmong Orphans of History 36/45

Seattle Times, March 12, 1996

Introduced David Boardman

Death of a Dreamer: A Young Bride from the Philippines Is Murdered 48

Seattle Times, April 21, 1996

Introduced Terry McDermott

A Death in Gaza: Peace Advocate and "a Heart Too Big to Hold" 64

Los Angeles Times, March 18, 2003

Introduced Lynn Marshall

Part III Natives

On Edge: 9/11, a Muslim Family and a Wyoming Town 71

Seattle Times, September 21, 2001

Introduced Jacqui Banaszynski

A Matter of Justice and Honor: The Fight to Clear Chief Leschi's Name 77

Los Angeles Times, December 28, 2004

Introduced Scott Kraft

A World Away in Navajo Nation: Far from the Sept 11 Fallout 86

Seattle Times, September 1, 2002

Introduced Alan Berner

The Fish Tale that Changed History 90

Seattle Times, February 7, 1999

Introduced Florangela Davila

Alaska by Way of Katrina: At the Far Edge of a New Orleans Diaspora 103

Los Angeles Times, March 7, 2006

Introduced Dean Baquet

Part IV Loners

Thom Jones and the Cosmic Joke: Author's Surprise "Success Breeds Misery 113

From the Seattle Times, April 2, 2000

Introduced Nicole Brodeur

Seeking Poetic Justice: A Pacifist Author Leads an Online Antiwar Movement Rooted in Language and Imagery 119/121

Los Angeles Times, March 3, 2003

And

An Iraq War All His Own: An Exemplary Soldier Goes on Trial for Refusing to Fight in a War He Calls Illegal 119/128

Los Angeles Times, February 5, 2007

Introduced Kim Murphy

In the Land of Missing Persons 134

The Atlantic, April 2016

Introduced Denise Kersten Wills

Last but Not Least: The Lonely White House Bids of Two Longshots 153

Los Angeles Times, July 25, 2007

Introduced Sam Howe Verhovek

Part V Villains

John Muhammad's Meltdown 163

Seattle Times, November 10, 2002

Introduced James Neff

The Story of a Drive-by Murder at Ballard High 183

Seattle Times, March 8, 1998

Introduced Jim Simon

Part VI Eccentrics

Onward Christian Surfers: Spreading the Gospel on Waikiki 199/200

Los Angeles Times, May 31, 2006

And

In an Old Nuclear Bunker, This Guy Has the Lowdown on UFOs 199/206

Los Angeles Times, March 28, 2008

Introduced Sam Howe Verhovek

Mrs. Leu, Tear Down That Wall! A U.S.-Canada Border Flap in Her Yard 212

Los Angeles Times, May 26, 2007

Introduced Millie Quan

This Law Ain't No Friend of His: Elvis the Cabbie Fights for Kingly Attire 220

Los Angeles Times, August 24, 2003

Introduced Brian Lindstrom

Part VII Oracles

"Old Ladies Do What We Can": Dispatches from a New Nation 227

Seattle Times, September 18, 2001

Introduced Jacqui Banaszynski

Crossing America: "We Need to Pray Deep" 231

Seattle Times, October 2, 2001

Introduced Alan Berner

Acknowledgments 235

Editorial Reviews

08/19/2019

This collection of pieces by the late Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Tizon (Little Big Man) is both an introduction to his work and a heartfelt tribute by friends and colleagues, who contribute introductions to each article. Standouts include a profile of a Hurricane Katrina refugee who started a new life in Alaska; an entry on the post-9/11 experiences of the only Muslim family in Sheridan, Wyo.; a story about the historical court of inquiry that overturned the 1858 murder conviction of Chief Leschi, the last leader of the Nisqually Indians; and the controversial posthumous Atlantic article for which Tizon (1959–2017) is probably best known, “My Family’s Slave.” It tells the story of Eudocia Tomas Pulido, a Filipina woman who spent her life caring for the author’s mother and her family after having been pressed into involuntary servitude as a young girl, eulogizing her and considering his own youthful complicity in her exploitation. Given that it’s a celebration of Tizon’s work, the collection highlights the praise the piece received and nearly ignores the controversy. Despite that, both longtime fans and those relatively new to Tizon’s work will come away from this collection with an appreciation for his unquestionable ability to narrate unusual stories in memorable ways. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

2019-08-07
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tizon (Big Little Man: In Search of My Asian Self, 2014) honors undersung lives in a posthumously published collection.

As a reporter, Tizon (1959-2017) gravitated toward misfits, eccentrics, and outsiders, all of whom he treats with acute sensitivity in this roundup of articles originally published between 1994 and 2017. Two autobiographical pieces form the book's moral center: an excerpt from his memoir of being Filipino American and the bittersweet June 2017 Atlantic cover story, "My Family's Slave," a loving portrait of a woman who worked for his family as a de facto indentured servant. The other entries consist of newspaper articles demonstrating the wide range of Tizon's sympathies, rooted in his belief that everyone has an "epic story" to tell. This thread ran through all his stories, whether he was writing about the only Muslim family in a Wyoming town after 9/11 or the descendants of a chief of the Nisqually tribe who fought to exonerate an ancestor they saw as unjustly hanged by the authorities. Most of the author's subjects exemplify broader cultural issues, none more heartbreakingly than the story of a Cambodian widow who saw her parents killed by Khmer Rouge soldiers, which reveals both her implacable grief and American psychiatrists' lack of preparation for dealing with trauma of that magnitude. More upbeat pieces include "Onward Christian Surfers," about missionaries on Waikiki Beach, and a profile of "a full-time UFO investigator and possessor of one of the world's most comprehensive, though unofficial UFO databases." Skillfully chosen by Verhovek, all of the pieces have brief introductions by fellow journalists or others. The collection lacks the articles for which Tizon shared a Pulitzer with two Seattle Times co-workers, but they remain available on the paper's website, and many people will want to seek them out after reading this book.

A memorable collection that shows how much journalism lost with the early death of one of its finest.

Kirkus Reviews

“Alex Tizon is the master of the telling detail that penetrates the surface and makes us understand something or someone—and ultimately ourselves—in a deeper way. Tizon’s beautiful book is as powerful as they come.”—Cheryl Strayed

"[B]oth longtime fans and those relatively new to Tizon’s work will come away from this collection with an appreciation for his unquestionable ability to narrate unusual stories in memorable ways."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher