Ex-jock and TV commentator and novelist (Titans, 1994, etc.) Green offers a mostly cautious and apologetic look at the behind- the-scenes world of pro football. Green offers many stories about a whole raft of ills plaguing the sport he loves—such as AIDS, drugs, and violence. But rather than study the problems in a detailed manner and propose solutions shaped by his unique vantage point, he dismisses many kinds of indiscretions by players, coaches, reporters (and even referees) as mere examples of ``boys being boys.'' He admits that, yes, as a result of football's ever-present physical pounding and psychological pressure, even he used and misused painkilling drugs and sleep aids—``but nowhere to the point of abuse.'' Other examples of pulled punches include a mash piece to the widely disliked coach Jerry Glanville. He admits that individual and institutional racism still exist in the NFL; he insists that groupies aren't as common as we believe them to be (and, besides, he asks, what kind of guy would want to go out with a groupie, anyway?). Green is more persuasive in describing the day-to-day toll the game exacted from his body, although his description waffles between the pedantic and the folksy. But when he chooses a safe target (as, for instance, the league's arcane and silly uniform policy), Green really lets loose, and the results are truly amusing. Green the football raconteur is tempted to bite the hand that fed him—but Green the television sports commentator doesn't seem to want to draw blood. (Author tour; TV satellite tour)
Pub Date: Aug. 29, 1996
ISBN: 0-446-52033-0
Page Count: 288
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1996
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
