Rating: 
Summary: The Last City Room
Review: As all accomplished artists know how to use colors correctly to shade for effect, Al Martinez knows how to use his rich prose to write an eyewitness description of a doomed newspaper in San Francisco during the '60s. In this novel, William Colfax, a 'Nam veteran, starts as a cub reporter, and during the telling, evolves into an experienced, cynical journalist from his observations of the campus revolution and the corruption in all strata of the city. Colfax introduces the reader to the turbulent Berkeley activists, the scandalous police, the ant-Communist, fanatic power brokers, and the hard-drinking, quirky city room's staff-his family at the San Francisco Herald. For years I've read Mr. Martinez's column in the LA Times and through those columns have learned a little about the man. He saw action in the Korean "conflict" and was a reporter on a Bay area newspaper, so he wrote a story that he knows well. I recommend this book to anyone who appreciates excellent writing while reading a sound story about newspapering and complicity.
Rating:
Summary: Presses Do Stop
Review: For those whose knowledge of how newspapers work begins and ends with television series, Al Martinez sets the record straight in "The Last City Room," the story of a fictional San Francisco newspaper on its last legs. Against the growing drumbeat of campus radicals opposing the Viet Nam War, Martinez pits a fiercely independent right-wing publisher against the "trust-nobody-over-30" students of the 1960s. His dysfunctional "family" of reporters and editors create a fascinatingly true picture of the pre-corporate newspaper business, a time when editorial judgements, love lives and the failures of the world in general were dissected in gin mills across the street from the city room. I feel I knew every one of those characters, and maybe I did. If you lived through that era, you need to read Martinez' book to tweak your memories. If you're younger, it will make you wish you had been there. It will leave a tear in your eye and a smile on your face.Gayle B. Montgomery, Retired Political Editor, Oakland (California) Tribune
Rating:
Summary: Presses Do Stop
Review: For those whose knowledge of how newspapers work begins and ends with television series, Al Martinez sets the record straight in "The Last City Room," the story of a fictional San Francisco newspaper on its last legs. Against the growing drumbeat of campus radicals opposing the Viet Nam War, Martinez pits a fiercely independent right-wing publisher against the "trust-nobody-over-30" students of the 1960s. His dysfunctional "family" of reporters and editors create a fascinatingly true picture of the pre-corporate newspaper business, a time when editorial judgements, love lives and the failures of the world in general were dissected in gin mills across the street from the city room. I feel I knew every one of those characters, and maybe I did. If you lived through that era, you need to read Martinez' book to tweak your memories. If you're younger, it will make you wish you had been there. It will leave a tear in your eye and a smile on your face. Gayle B. Montgomery, Retired Political Editor, Oakland (California) Tribune
Rating:
Summary: Presses Do Stop
Review: For those whose knowledge of newspapers work begin and end with television series, Al Martinez sets the record straight in "The Last City Room," the story of a fictional San Francisco newspaper on its last legs. Against the growing drumbeat of campus radicals opposing the Viet Nam War, Martinez pits a fiercely independent right-wing publisher against the "trust-nobody-over-30" students of the 1960s. His dysfunctional "family" of reporters and editors create a fascinatingly true picture of the pre-corporate newspaper business, a time when editorial judgements, love lives and the failures of the world in general were dissected in gin mills across the street from the city room. I feel I knew every one of those characters, and maybe I did. If you lived through that era, you need to read Martinez' book to tweak your memories. If you're younger, it will make you wish you had been there. It will leave a tear in your eye and a smile on your face. Gayle B. Montgomery, Retired Political Editor, Oakland (California) Tribune
Rating:
Summary: Compelling
Review: From the moment you pick up this book and read the introduction, you are compelled to keep reading. The characters draw you in and you want to know what is going to evolve. Newpapering experience isn't necessary to reading this book. Nor is being a child of the 60's. But it makes you feel as though you were there and have first hand knowledge. The characters become important even if you have never met anyone even remotely like them. Good reading that makes you want more.
Rating:
Summary: the last word on the newspaper biz
Review: Hello Al--You asked me to write a review of your book if I liked it. I do. It's delicious, though gritty, reading. As the L.A. Times columnist "who puts a face on Los Angeles," you have equally given Berkeley and San Francisco a face reflecting the 1960s. Knowing you and your stories, as I do, it makes the reading even more enjoyable because your personal history is woven through this fictional tale. I only wish there were more newspaper men and women still like you out there. Your words ring true and the characters are real enough that I think about them even when I'm not reading your book.
Rating:
Summary: Creative
Review: I found the book interesting and fun to read. Mr. Martinez has a true gift for writing. His play on words and deep insight into the subjects he writes about this book made for a pleasurable easy read. I strongly recommend this book for all lovers of great fiction writing.
Rating: 
Summary: DO YOU WANT TO BE A NEWSPAPER REPORTER?
Review: I must state first, I read few novels all the way through. Eighty percent of the time I read non-fiction. I always check with Amazon critiques regarding all the books I read and usually attempt "5-star" books only when reading novels...and most of those I seldom finish. Well..I finished THE LAST CITY ROOM and enjoyed every page. The characters are developed where you care about them (even the bad guys...to get their due)and the events and personalities are interesting and true-to-life. On one side the reader can see where a reporter could be a celebrity type person where they are in the spotlight and then again the job could be filled with drudgery and danger....as well as low paying to the extreme. This story depicts the times of the sixties and many of the events that went on at that time. For me the "flavor" of a newspaper job was well developed as was the personalities of many of the characters. I don't believe anyone would be disappointed with this book.
Rating:
Summary: Last City Room is Great First Novel
Review: In this page-turner of a first novel, Al Martinez deftly plunges us into the wild and revolutionary days of San Francisco circa 1965. At the center of this novel is the once-great San Francisco newspaper, the Herald, which is dying a slow death. Our "hero" is the young reporter William Colfax who joins the paper after a fighting in Vietnam. We see a world that no longer exists both within the outside of the Herald: student protests, bombings by "revolutionaries," and hard-drinking, computer-free reporters. This novel rings true and benefits from Matinez's many years as a bay area reporter. Bravo!
Rating:
Summary: Last City Room is Great First Novel
Review: In this page-turner of a first novel, Al Martinez deftly plunges us into the wild and revolutionary days of San Francisco circa 1965. At the center of this novel is the once-great San Francisco newspaper, the Herald, which is dying a slow death. Our "hero" is the young reporter William Colfax who joins the paper after a fighting in Vietnam. We see a world that no longer exists both within the outside of the Herald: student protests, bombings by "revolutionaries," and hard-drinking, computer-free reporters. This novel rings true and benefits from Matinez's many years as a bay area reporter. Bravo!
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