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Meet the Author
About the Book
About the Author
Praise for Way Out Here in the Middle
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Way Out Here in the Middle
John Roach
"Enrich yourself. Read this book." —Jacquelyn
Mitchard
About
the Book
Way Out Here in the Middle includes
51 columns Roach wrote for Madison Magazine from 1993 to 2003 featuring
poignant to hilarious observations of life in the slow lane. Roach begins
by extolling the virtues of turning the big 4-0:"I'm not afraid of sex.
I don't have to live with nine other guys. My car starts." And is even
more grateful to reach 50:, "Hell, the only reason I'm living is because
of penicillin." From ice fishing in Minocqua to Bill Clinton's inaugural
in Washington; from the Cannes Film Festival to his daughter's soccer
games, Roach explores the world from the country's "most livable city"
with humor and compassion.
 About
the Author
Roach is a television producer who lives in Madison, Wisconsin. He co-wrote
the screenplay with Mary Sweeney for The Straight Story, the acclaimed
film by David Lynch, for which Richard Farnsworth earned an Oscar nomination
for Best Actor. Roach received an Independent Spirit Award nomination
for Best First Screenplay. Roach created and produced the cult cable hit,
The Sports Writers on TV, which made four crusty Chicago sports
reporters into national celebrities, as well as targets of the famed Saturday
Night Live spoof "Da Bears." He also worked on the show A.M. Chicago,
before it was called the Oprah Winfrey Show.
Praise
for Way Out Here in the Middle
"John has made me laugh since we were six years
old. It was with his Madison Magazine letters that he began to
make me cry; funny, poignant, philosophical, full of bluster and love...a
shot of Irish, neat."—Mary Sweeney, screenwriter, The
Straight Story
"As a man and as a columnist, John has vitality, humor, an awareness
of life's inevitable sadness, a sense of history and a way with a phrase
that makes you wonder why he spent years in television before becoming
a writer. His embrace is large. He is unpredictable. He writes about family,
celebrities, middle age, music, TV, ice fishing and anything else that
draws his interest-and just about everything does."—Doug
Moe, daily columnist, The Capital Times, and author of The World
of Mike Royko
"I've known John Roach since he had one chin. That's a bad joke,
but one the very talented, very perceptive, very appreciative-of-bad-jokes
Roach would chuckle at. And I hope readers of John's collected columns
appreciate his wit and insight and sense of the absurd. His jumpshot may
be gone, his knee blown, his waist expanded, but his writing about Madison
and the world is dead on."—Rick Telander, sports columnist,
Chicago Sun-Times
"John's unique take on life is born out of his Midwestern roots,
after you've spent dozens of winters in Wisconsin, eaten your fair share
of dairy products, and ice-fished, even though there is perfectly good
seafood at a nearby store, you're going to come up with some great thoughts
concerning the world at large. Ralph Lauren only knows cheese as something
to serve at a dinner party, John Roach lives among people who embrace
cheese as fashion."—Garry Meier, WLS
"He writes about the things of Madison most of us take for granted
and, by doing so, he gives weight to these blessings." —Wisconsin
State Journal, December 5, 2003 Read
entire article
"This is the guy you wish would stop by your cubicle more often-funny,
engaged, smart and real. And now, he's got a book out…" —Madison
Magazine, December 2003
Since I began writing for this magazine a certain conversation
has become a constant in my life. People, including my own parents,
ask what I do. I say I'm a writer. They get that "oh, geez" look but
politely ask where I get published. I say Madison Magazine, they perk
right up. "Really?" they ask. "What's it like to work with John
Roach?"
I wish I knew.
Like almost all the writers here, John and I write for the magazine,
but not at the magazine. I've never even seen the guy. Instead, I do
what everyone else does with each new issue: I flip to the back page
first and enjoy the hell out of how John Roach writes. We never know
before we hit the first word of a new column whether we'll be laughing
or crying, outraged or gratified at the end. All we know is that it
will be good, and we'll wish it hadn't ended so soon.
So I understand the "what's it like to work with John Roach"
question. This is the guy you wish would stop by your cubicle more often-funny,
engaged, smart and real. And now he's got a book out, "Way Out Here
in the Middle" (Jones Books, $16.95), a collection of Madison Magazine
columns that do what the best writing has always done, which is show
us our true selves.
John: There's no chance that we won't flip to the back page
first. Only this time it will be worth it to begin at the beginning.
Mary Feingold, Madison Magazine, December 2003
"It was obvious to Madison Magazine's editor at the time-well, it was
me-that the force of Roach's personality and the range of his interests
might be interesting to readers once a month. For once I wasn't wrong".
—The Capital Times, August 22, 2003
Way Out Here in the Middle
John Roach
ISBN 0-9721217-5-7
5.5 x 8.5,176 pages
$16.95 Paperback—Memoir
Foreword by Jacquelyn Mitchard
November 2003
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