The woman who wrote “Man in the Mirror” sang it to me

Notes on the world echoing back at you

The message came in from out of the blue. A good fraction of the DMs I get feature unsolicited advice about my hair style, or a suggestion to go back to my country (Cleveland). This message stood apart.

It was from a woman who had seen me on “Morning Joe,” talking about a new book called MAN IN THE MIRROR. She had a great interest in that title, which of course comes from a Michael Jackson song. For, as it happens, she co-wrote that very song.

She was going to be in New York this week. I invited her as my guest to my launch at the 92nd Street Y. And then there she was in the crowd, the Siedah Garrett, off to my right; all I could see through the glare from the stage was a shimmering on her head. At one point, I mentioned her presence, as I had done with that of the homeless outreach workers, mental health clubhouse members, and book characters present.

Then there was the book signing, in a small room tucked away. As I was signing, I noticed to my right a dazzling shimmer.

Siedah. It was hard to concentrate on signing books, partly because my children were beside me and seemed to be trying for eye contact with people in the hope that they would be asked to co-sign. Then, as the signing wound down, I got up and met Siedah for the first time. We hugged, and I told her I couldn’t believe this encounter.

I asked her about the backstory of the song, and she told us all about being signed to Quincy Jones as a young lyricist, and Quincy calling her to say Michael Jackson needed one more song for an album he was close to finishing, and Siedah writing what would become MAN IN THE MIRROR, and then singing it for Jackson, who, she said, loved her way of singing it so much that he invited her into the booth to sing it for him, so that he could learn from her.

To understand what happened next, you have to know something about my parents. They love live music like squirrels love trees. They love live music like Republicans love cuts. In whatever city we are in, from my childhood through today, they maintain a kind of auditory Google alert for the sound of live music wafting. If they detect a waft, we must walk towards it. Other families play cards; we chase saxophone.

And so my father, without any shame, asks the Siedah Garrett if she wouldn’t mind — you know — singing. That MAN IN THE MIRROR song. I mean, it is, after all, his son’s book launch, and she did, after all, write the song, and, you know, we’re all here…

And that’s when suddenly it was happening. Siedah, standing a couple of feet from me, began to serenade me and all of us.

I’m gonna make a change, for once in my life.

Have you ever had a moment that you were aware was one of the unforgettable moments of your life even as it was unfolding? Well, this was one of those moments. And I want to share the moment with you:

Perhaps this is the kind of gift you get when you put a work of love out into the world: The world echoes back; and if you’re lucky, the echo will come in the form of a song.

---

That minute with Siedah was only the most dramatic, melodious proof of this idea. This week I sent a book into the world and received the most gorgeous waves back.

I have all of you to thank. You in the Ink community were among the very first to hear about this book, take a leap of faith into it, spread the word, and then you began to show up at the events this week. To meet you in person is to have air become flesh. Thank you for all you have done for this work, which my friend Terry Moran last night said it took him time to realize was a love letter as much as a work of reporting.

Below, I’m going to give you a recap of some interviews I’ve been doing in recent days, in case you’re the kind of person who likes to binge. This section is for you, Mama.

Speaking of my mother, I think she would want me to tell you that today is the last day for orders of MAN IN THE MIRROR to count toward the first-week tally and The New York Times bestseller list. To be clear, her son doesn’t care about those things, as he is above such worldly concerns. But his mother would really like it if he brought the family honor by being on that list. So I felt I should pass along my mother’s strong request that, if you think you might want to read MAN IN THE MIRROR, you order it today. And then we can read it all together, book club-style, in the coming days.

A final note, before the roundup of links. Books are deceptive. They generally have a single name on the cover. This is a lie. If anything has struck me this past week, it is that it takes so many people to make a work like this possible: This book has received from so many hands the gift of research, editing, designing, marketing, publicizing, and such. It has also had the immense fortune of so many friends and journalists and artists and others devoting their precious time to read it in advance, so that they can assess it and share their impressions with others. My book had so many champions who answered my calls to invite their friends and communities to events; they took trust they had earned with people and spent it on me. Nothing meaningful is possible without others; of a book this may be truest.

So, at week’s end, simply thank you. If today I’m the man in the mirror, what I see looking back at me is a grin wide as the glass.

---

And now a few links for those who want to go deeper and/or catch up:

• Come find me on book tour. Cities and dates here

• Join our New York City in-person book club over three months with yours truly, organized by McNally Jackson, which is also offering signed copies

• My “Morning Joe” residency, about cities, family, belonging, mental illness and homeless, and a subway car as a metaphor for a nation, featuring special guests Rev. Al Sharpton, former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, and former New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan: Day 1, day 2, day 3.

• A Q-and-A with The Drift, going deep on an obscure literary technique called “free indirect discourse” and how that method is the spiritual center of this book, and why I wanted to probe the “emotional inner life” of our authoritarian age

• A smart-and-great-vibes chat with Preet Bharara, including drilling deep on the idea of dehumanization and humanization

• A thoughtful review in BookPage; one of those reviewers who just gets the project

• A wonderful NPR conversation

• A very New York conversation about the book on WNYC

• ICYMI: The night I spent in Penn Station: a New Yorker excerpt

• ICYMI: Scott Turow’s review in The New York Times

• ICYMI: The first three chapters of the book, for free, in audio form