Power Broker Workout

I wanted to watch “Turn Every Page” as soon as I heard about it last year. The film about the editor-writer relationship between Robert Gottlieb and Robert Caro seemed smart and funny. Gottlieb’s recent passing at age 92 moved the documentary higher on my must-see list, and last week I finally got around to watching — and rewatching — it.

In fact, I can’t seem to stop seeking out clips of the film and thinking about it. Probably because it takes me back to a time when, as the trailer says, “publishing was a religion.” I came of age in that time, working as a magazine editor in New York, and it still seems like the way things ought to be.

Early on, one of Caro's editors shared a piece of advice, something that would sustain the young investigative reporter, "Turn every page," the editor said, exhorting him to be thorough. Caro did turn every page, and has continued to, searching through every box of documents, interviewing every subject. Now he is 87 and racing against the clock to finish the fifth and final volume of his LBJ biography series.

The greatest effect the movie has had on me is that I'm finally reading Caro's first masterwork, The Power Broker, which won the Pulitzer Prize. For me, the imperative is not turning every page but turning any page. My edition of this tome is 1,246 pages and weighs almost four pounds. Holding it up and reading it is putting my arm muscles through their paces. I'm calling my reading sessions the Power Broker Workout.