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The Author
Stephen Rodrick
Journalist, magazine writer, and author of The Magical Stranger.
Stephen Rodrick is an American journalist whose feature writing and profiles have appeared in Rolling Stone, where he is a contributing editor, as well as The New York Times Magazine and other national publications.
He grew up the son of a Navy pilot. When his father, Commander Peter Rodrick, was killed in a 1979 carrier-aviation accident, Stephen was thirteen. That loss — and the questions it left unanswered — eventually drew him back to the world of naval aviation as a reporter.
The Work
From a magazine story to a book
The Magical Stranger grew out of Rodrick's reporting on his father and the squadron his father had commanded. To write it, he spent extended time with a Navy strike fighter squadron, following its members through training and deployment, both ashore and at sea.
The book became his first, and it carries the marks of his magazine work: close observation, an ear for the way people actually talk, and a willingness to sit with grief and ambiguity rather than resolve them too neatly.
Read his story of the search
The book that grew out of a son's reporting on the father he lost.