Best profile I've read this (very new) year

NONREQUIRED READING

Van Jones is an electrifying speaker. I have witnessed the sparks; I covered an event he spoke at for the Daily Cal about two years ago. I am ashamed to admit I made a dull article duller by failing to quote the guy. With any sense, I would have done what Elizabeth Kolbert did in the New Yorker this week: do nothing but quote the guy.

These kind of profiles--her article is billed as something else, but it really is a profile--must be straightforward. Spend a few days with the person, write up a transcript, insert some transitions, done. Kolbert's no lightweight--her book on global warming is both silky smooth yet informative--but she knows a good verbal sling artist when she hears one. And she knows how to get out of the way.

Sure, the article does not do much to consider the merits of Jones's talk. Just five quick paragraphs in the middle a 6,121-word piece. But that wasn't the point. (The headline and subhead suggest otherwise, but it is clear from the start who is the star of the show.) Read it. Be enchanted.

P.S. The article reminded me of my favorite profile from 2008: Larissa MacFarquhar's serving up of the chef David Chang. She both got the hell out of the way (starting from the first sentence) and--despite an early flash of her talent for brief, distinctive expression: "He is five feet ten, built like a beer mug, and feels that most food tastes better with pork"--turned her prose to simply an extension of his own style of speech. I could quote to display this, but you should just read the article.