Roger Ebert response

Like I've seen someone else point out, Jones starts in third person omniscient and slowly turns into third person limited.  The parts in which Jones's writing really stands out as his own are when he is describing things within third person omniscient, such as describing the action that Roger Ebert is doing or a scene from Ebert's past.  He states the facts while also adding his own writing style to make it more interesting for the reader.  There is a distance in this voice in that Jones is only narrating and this distance allows Jones's personal voice to come out.  An example of this would be in the beginning paragraphs where Jones is describing the theater scene.

Later on in the profile, there is a gradual shift from this distance to a more intimate view of Ebert.  In these sections, the readers see less of Jones's narrating voice and more of Ebert's voice.  Since Ebert's voice is already a well-established one, not only due to the fact that he was a living human but also from his role as a writer, Jones is given the opportunity to sit back and have Ebert speak out.  The italicized paragraphs of direct quotes from Ebert become more frequent and the reader gets a better picture of who Ebert is and what he is thinking when he says something.

There are two "dialogues" from Ebert in particular that really highlight the difference that I'm talking about.  On the first page there is the line "'Too close for me,' Ebert writes in his small spiral notebook."  This line is Jones's voice and tells us nothing about Ebert's voice; it is just stating facts.  Later there is another Ebert dialogue that gives us more insight: "'I've never said this before,' the voice says, 'but we were born to be Siskel and Ebert.'  He thinks for a moment before typing again.  There's a long pause before he hits the button.  'I just miss the guy so much,' the voice says.  Ebert presses the button again.  'I just miss the guy so much.'"  Although Jones is still using his factual voice, he is using less of it and more description of what is going on in Ebert's thoughts.  Not only this, he allows Ebert to come through and speak for himself.  For a guy whose words are very limited and therefore very meaningful, there is much that we learn about his thoughts and feelings from the fact that he "spoke" the last sentence twice.