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Talese is able to capture the essence of Sinatra through interviews and description without ever actually talking to him by elaborating on the seemingly insignificant details. He begins by describing Sinatra’s surroundings in a club, how he interacts with those surroundings, specifically with the two blondes.

After the first few beautiful paragraphs, Talese starts to write more as if he is writing a biography of Sinatra. Which, on second thought, might be his goal– I could never quite tell. Here, it becomes more like a story or a list about Sinatra’s surroundings, his past, his family, etc. which all boils down to tell a story about Sinatra himself.

Talese shows us the complexities inherent in Sinatra’s character by relating his encounters with people. For example, Talese illustrates Sinatra’s encounter with Jane Hoag, the lady who knocked down the alabaster bird, showing Sinatra as a relatively easygoing, joking person. Yet he then contrasts that almost immediately with Sinatra’s encounter with Harlan Ellison. Sinatra picks a fight with Ellison simply because he doesn’t like the easy Ellison dresses, contrasting Sinatra as a judgmental, arrogant figure.

Talese shows us how the celebrity culture sees him by referencing his CBS and NBC features and also by using quotes by other people, such as his mother. He also does this by illustrating for us people’s reactions towards him, ending effectively with the story of the girl on the sidewalk.