

Work is a collection of pieces from the Times that introduce you the also rans and little knowns of New York City and the surrounding areas from the late 90's to early 2002.


I made my feelings known about Charlie LeDuff in the review I did for "Detroit: An American Autopsy" and reading the older "Work and Other Sins" did nothing to dampen them. He lives with his wife and daughter near Detroit, Michigan. LeDuff received a bachelor of arts degree in political science from the University of Michigan and a master of journalism degree from the University of California at Berkeley. He speaks decent Spanish and bad Russian. He lived in a tree house in Alaska and slept on the Great Wall of China.

Previously, LeDuff, 42, has worked as a carpenter, middle school teacher and gang counselor in Detroit, a bartender in Australia and a baker in Denmark. “US Guys: The True and Twisted Mind of the American Man” (Penguin Press) “Work and Other Sins: Life in New York City and Thereabouts” (Penguin Press) There, he encounters Nazi youth, a porno director, a Christian housewife, the town good-time girl, the angry Mexican gardener and other all-stars of American life. LeDuff also hosted and co-produced “United Gates of America” for the BBC in 2006 where he moved into a gated city at the edge of the Los Angeles sprawl. Among other things he brawled at a fight party held by an Oakland motorcycle gang, rode a bull at a gay rodeo, became a trapeze clown in a traveling circus of immigrants. In 2005 LeDuff was host and writer of “Only In America” – a 10-part television show of participatory journalism for the Discovery Times Channel. He covered the war in Iraq, crossed the desert with a group of migrant Mexicans and worked inside a North Carolina slaughterhouse as part of The Times series “How Race Is Lived in America,” which was awarded the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. He is a former national correspondent for The New York Times. Charlie LeDuff is a writer, filmmaker and a multimedia reporter for The Detroit News.
