In Endangered Species Lawrence Grobel has compiled interviews with twelve iconic American writers. Each interview is fascinating. Each interviewee has either made history or written it. Grobel asks penetrating questions and his subjects respond. Ray Bradbury comes across with broad ideas and an ego to match. Joyce Carol Oates surprises with her insight into boxing. Elmore Leonard impresses as honest and personable. Alex Haley recalls interviewing the racist head of the American Nazi Party.

All of the writers are highly intelligent. Some provide memorable quotes. Saul Bellow on monogamy: “Love has become a consumerist phenomenon because we judge people as we judge commodities – we can do better, or we can get another one.” On the Unabomber: “As a mathematician you can be very brilliant without really qualifying on the elementary level for membership in the species.”

Norman Mailer on violence and his relationship with other writers: “It’s always fair for one writer to butt another in the head. Writers have hard heads.” James Ellroy on America supposedly losing its innocence: “America never had innocence, that’s bullshit.”

These interviews document the highly articulate thoughts of some of our best writers, many no longer alive. ( )