My Life In Pieces-Writers, Rogues, The Road and the Rock

"Clancy can uncoil a sentence like a silken rope, snap it like a whip, tie up a complicated thought. He can write long, he can write short, he can build a case, he can murmur a spooky tale.... When you read his GQ profile of Jimmy Breslin, you sense Clancy's presence in the room, just as Breslin did. The great fly on the wall reporters do not totally disappear, rather they fade just enough to be able to wordlessly encourage and prod without intruding. This is an awesome gift.... His touch can be delicate and dark. Read his precise account of Shelter Island's famous homicide, recent enough to be a warm case, as well as the annual Halloween yarns he weaves."
-From the Foreword by Robert Lipsyte
In a career spanning four decades, Clancy's feature writing for major publications-including GQ, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times-has profiled legendary writers, politicians (and other rogues); brought sharp-eyed views of Ireland, Venice, London, Amsterdam, Frank McCourt's Limerick, the New York of Harlem, Queens and the Lower East Side; spent time with a Belfast prize fighter during The Troubles; and hiked a remote peninsula in Greece to stay in mountain monasteries.
Clancy covers everything from Monster Truck rallies to a Long Island "Drunk Train," and takes us to a small island community, examining its history of slavery, small town gossips, an unsolved homicide, and people who have enchanted him along the way. The New York Times, reviewing an earlier work by Clancy, noted his "series of gripping and vividly narrated events ..."
This is a collection with a forceful narrative drive. One to dip in and out of to gain cultural insights from the last 40 years by an accomplished pro, one who knows the duty of a writer is to inform, illuminate, and just as importantly, to entertain.
Ambrose Clancy is the editor of the Shelter Island Reporter. He is the author of the novel, Blind Pilot and, with the photographer Peter Donahoe, The Night Line: a Memoir of Work.
Mr. Clancy has been awarded numerous awards for columns, news and feature writing from the New York Press Association. In 2023 he received top honors from the National Newspaper Association for columns and feature writing.