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A review by malvina4321
Foxcatcher: The True Story of My Brother's Murder, John du Pont's Madness, and the Quest for Olympic Gold by Mark Schultz, David Thomas
3.0
2.75 stars
Foxcatcher is a non-fiction account of Mark Schultz' life as a wrestler, which includes his struggle to win National, World and Olympic gold medals. The title of the story is a bit misleading because of the order it is presented in. I thought that the focus would be on his brother, Dave Schultz' murder by crazy billionaire John Du Pont, it wasn't. The focus, or at least first 2/3 of the book were about Mark Schultz climb to the top. While it was interesting - mostly because of how unglamorous it was for an athlete of his caliber to struggle with finances, opponents, etc. I did enjoy those parts - or at least some of them.
To be honest, I got a bit bored of Mark's story and was waiting for him to tell Dave's story. Dave barely features in the first 2/3 except to point out his superior athletic skills every once in a while. But even those points feel like they were there for the purpose of showing how much harder Mark had to work to catch up to his brother. I never felt that his brother was the actual focus of a huge chunk of the book. It was a missed opportunity because while Mark's story was interesting, I think more detail should have gone into Dave's career and the impact of his death.
I listened to it via audiobook on OverDrive and thought the narrator did a good job of keeping me interesting. Mark Schultz' writing is quite weak in some parts but the narrator made those weaknesses less noticeable. If you're interested in this story, I'd recommend the audiobook.
Foxcatcher is a non-fiction account of Mark Schultz' life as a wrestler, which includes his struggle to win National, World and Olympic gold medals. The title of the story is a bit misleading because of the order it is presented in. I thought that the focus would be on his brother, Dave Schultz' murder by crazy billionaire John Du Pont, it wasn't. The focus, or at least first 2/3 of the book were about Mark Schultz climb to the top. While it was interesting - mostly because of how unglamorous it was for an athlete of his caliber to struggle with finances, opponents, etc. I did enjoy those parts - or at least some of them.
To be honest, I got a bit bored of Mark's story and was waiting for him to tell Dave's story. Dave barely features in the first 2/3 except to point out his superior athletic skills every once in a while. But even those points feel like they were there for the purpose of showing how much harder Mark had to work to catch up to his brother. I never felt that his brother was the actual focus of a huge chunk of the book. It was a missed opportunity because while Mark's story was interesting, I think more detail should have gone into Dave's career and the impact of his death.
I listened to it via audiobook on OverDrive and thought the narrator did a good job of keeping me interesting. Mark Schultz' writing is quite weak in some parts but the narrator made those weaknesses less noticeable. If you're interested in this story, I'd recommend the audiobook.