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writesdave's Reviews (364)
Just a beautiful fable of how to go about following one's dreams. Only complaint is he explained each omen and allegory, not letting the reader figure out the signs as they come up. Still, it's just what I needed right now. A classic and a keeper.
It's a nice tale of dropping out from the rat race. Austin Murphy learned about more than just football by taking a fall to cover Division III St. John's. He seemed to have strengthened his family life as well by getting off the treadmill, which sometimes a sports writer needs to do. As a sports writer myself, I could relate to a lot of it.
Thanks to the rarely used second person, Jay McInerney's debut novel puts the reader in the shoes of a 20-something magazine editor who drifts aimlessly through a life of drugs, vapid women and friends, a lousy job and a messy family life. Just when you wished you had a little more, you learn (note the second person?) that sometimes having it all means very little.
Overly sappy semi-romance novel, but given the author's rep I'm not sure what I should have expected. It was very hard to get into this and while I don't regret reading it, I doubt I'll read anything else of his. I'll admit the guy has a very successful formula. Just not my particular brand of vodka.
Another one about a teenager trying to figure out what life's about. For me, it's another book about a place I used to live, which certainly made it for me; I clearly saw every one of those piss-ant Texas small towns along the way between Lubbock and Dallas. Alternately funny and emotive, McMurtry really brought to life a period of time most of us would like to forget but never will. Excellent work.
It's hard to describe, truthfully, because Kahn destroyed all hope of me becoming even a competent sports writer. His approach is absolutely lyrical and his recollection is crystal clear. Cliche as it sounds, I felt like I was there with him as he covered the Giants, Yankees and his beloved Dodgers in the mid-1950s for one of the eight New York newspapers. I hear "Boys of Summer" is better but it will have to go a long way to exceed this one. There's nothing particularly revealing, other than the heretofore-thought-pious Jackie Robinson saying the s-word once, but I love books that can put me in a time and place and this, ladies and gentlemen, is how it's done.
Jen told me it was a funny book that happened to be science fiction. Sorry, folks, but I found it to be a sci-fi book that was funny. Yes, it was very humorous, a laugh a page as one reviewer said, but I can't get past the sci-fi. I'm impressed with any author who can create whole worlds and societies in this way, and making it funny certainkly raises the bar. Sci-fi just isn't my cup of bosco, as I discovered here.
Funny as hell, very insightful. It helps that I lived this life myself (sort of) while covering hockey for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Cohen does a great job of capturing the dreams these guys carry and why they pursue them against all odds in places where there is no naturally occurring ice. It's an interesting phenomenon, hockey in the Sun Belt, and Cohen taps into it better than I could have.
Story of my life as a sportswriter, only a hell of a lot more interesting. Dan Jenkins could write about golf and it would be -- oh wait, he does that and it is. Anyway, it's a year in the life of Jim Tom Pinch, who has appeared in several Jenkins novels previously. This time Jim Tom has the dream job: a columnist at a national sports magazine with three psychotic ex-wives, two crazy lovers, a "shitheel" for a boss, a good-for-nothing itinerant of a son and one terribly interesting and funny year on the job. Until recently, I held this book as the blueprint for my life. Impossible to find outside of used stores (best $2 I ever spent) but if you know me and put up collateral I'll let you borrow it. Priceless.
The first time I read it was my senior year of high school, which could have been the best or worst time to read such a book. I doubt there's anything I can add that hasn't already been said. This was the first book to inspire my wanderlust, and this book, along with the Rand McNally Road Atlas, are never more than a few steps away when I'm home (ironic, eh?). Heat-Moon got out of his van, Ghost Dancing, and met America. A journalism prof and photographer, he was just the guy to do it. He was at a crossroads in life and was likely more prone to introspection than most of us.
It remains in my top five, and will be read again before the summer.
It remains in my top five, and will be read again before the summer.