Talese describes DiMaggio as a kind of male Garbo, referring to the legendary, reclusive

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Review Paragraph 85 and study how DiMaggio is compared to Greta Garbo by Talese.

It’s safe to assume that, based on Talese’s narrative, the society at large finds DiMaggio’s temperament and general attitude intriguing yet captivating. As captured in the piece, “They may wait for hours sometimes, waiting and knowing that when he arrives he may wish to be alone; but it does not seem to matter, they are endlessly awed by him, moved by the mystique, he is a kind of male Garbo,” the crowd’s enthusiasm towards him, even after he decided to lay low on Baseball, is unflagging.

Perhaps, what precipitated Talese’s striking comparison of DiMaggio with the most celebrated actress of Hollywood's golden era Greta Garbo is the former’s judgment to leave and lead a quiet life at the peak of his sports career. Both icons had magnified celebrity by renouncing it.

The quiet, unassuming mystique that DiMaggio exhibits had only caused the public to feel all the more lured to who he is, even only through a peek in his personal daily life. This is further described in the second half of Paragraph 85: “They know that he can be warm and loyal if they are sensitive to his wishes, but they must never be late for an appointment to meet him. One  man, unable to find a parking place, arrived a half hour late once, and DiMaggio did not talk to him again for three months. They know, too, when dining at  night with DiMaggio, that he generally prefers male companions and occasionally one or two young women, but never wives; wives gossip, wives complain,  wives are trouble, and men wishing to remain close to DiMaggio must keep their wives at home.”