There were a few feature stories in the latest issues of GQ & Esquire that stood out as particularly interesting and worth remembering.
For Esquire, Chris Jones wrote "The Strange Thing About Bruce Jenner" on the 1976 Summer Olympic Decathlon Champion, known to a younger generation as the dad on the reality TV show Keeping Up With the Kardashians. Best word to describe the piece and Jenner by extension is interesting... it's just interesting to read of someone who reached the pinnacle in an endeavour and has now completely pushed that aside to play a backseat role in what appears (at least in my mind) an illusory public life. Where the real interesting comes into play for me is how Jenner feels about it all. Because the Kardashian public life seems fleeting and vapid doesn't necessarily mean that actual life he leads is, so I can't help but read the piece and wonder whether Jenner satisfied and happy with what he's carved out for himself. He very well may be, just seems an interesting question...
The two GQ pieces of note from the recent issue different greatly from one another in the subjects covered, but both struck me as excellent writing in their own way. Higher on the profundity scale was "The Game of His Life" by Jonathan Segura about his now deceased neighbor, and passed along fandom of Manchester United football. Very heartfelt writing that works in the areas of relationships people can have both with one another and their team affiliation.
Also from this issue of GQ was a piece of writing from Drew Magary that stood out as a different than expected approach. "Man Up, Bieber" is a celebrity profile that reveals the bizarro world of Justin Bieber by detailing Magary trying to write an interesting profile of him. Someone could still like, dislike or have no particular opinion of Bieber as a person after reading the piece, but the overarching thing I took from Magary is what a strange, cloistered and contradictory (with control and impetuousness both at play) world an uber-famous 18 year old pop star lives in.
