by Burt Randolph Sugar
A self-descriptive title; this book gives short, often not all that
informative bios of 100 fighters throughout the ages. It was written in
1984, when Mike Tyson was just a wee lad scoring his first KOs, so it's
a little out-dated. Sugar writes well, with humor and his own loose
style, though he gets repetitive at times.
Only a casual fan, I
don't know enough about boxing to disagree vehemently with his
selections, but I do think he should have given the early black fighters
an edge, since no one gave them a chance to prove how great they really
were. Also, there are a few questionable calls: for example,
Mysterious Billy Smith, that out-of-shape dirty fighter with a 28-19
record, ranked one ahead of Wilfredo Gomez, 40-1 with 40 KOs? Hard to
know what the thinking is there.
three stars
Showing posts with label athletics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label athletics. Show all posts
Monday, April 29, 1996
Sunday, November 26, 1995
Jack Johnson Is a Dandy
by Jack Johnson
The autobiography of boxing great Jack Johnson. The man had a fascinating life – marrying four women, two white; opening a cabaret that allowed both blacks and whites; escaping prison through a clever ruse; traveling the globe engaging in various business and athletic exploits; spying for the U.S. government; going back to prison willingly – and so on, all in the early 1900s. His book (and I don't see why he couldn't have written the bulk himself) is very repetitive, patchy, insufficiently explanatory in places, and jumps around chronologically so as to be very confusing. However, it's still readable, and I did enjoy it. There's one section that deals with moderation in diet, the role of "the new woman" and how she should stay home, and the decline of the world due to cabarets and jazz music; this section I cannot believe Johnson wrote as he lead a very strenuous life himself, was hardly temperate, took his wives everywhere with him, and was in fact a jazz musician and cabaret owner. Other than that passage, the book was interesting throughout, and had a touching epilogue by his last wife attesting to his gentleness with women. Now, of course, I have to read a biography of him, to find out what of what Johnson wrote were lies...
three stars
The autobiography of boxing great Jack Johnson. The man had a fascinating life – marrying four women, two white; opening a cabaret that allowed both blacks and whites; escaping prison through a clever ruse; traveling the globe engaging in various business and athletic exploits; spying for the U.S. government; going back to prison willingly – and so on, all in the early 1900s. His book (and I don't see why he couldn't have written the bulk himself) is very repetitive, patchy, insufficiently explanatory in places, and jumps around chronologically so as to be very confusing. However, it's still readable, and I did enjoy it. There's one section that deals with moderation in diet, the role of "the new woman" and how she should stay home, and the decline of the world due to cabarets and jazz music; this section I cannot believe Johnson wrote as he lead a very strenuous life himself, was hardly temperate, took his wives everywhere with him, and was in fact a jazz musician and cabaret owner. Other than that passage, the book was interesting throughout, and had a touching epilogue by his last wife attesting to his gentleness with women. Now, of course, I have to read a biography of him, to find out what of what Johnson wrote were lies...
three stars
Monday, January 16, 1995
K2: The 1939 Tragedy
by Andrew J. Kauffman and William Lowell Putnam
The apparently infamous story of Fritz Wiessner's expedition to K2 in which climber (and financier) Dudley Wolfe and three Sherpas died. It contains new evidence on the story, notably Jack Durrance's diary. Durrance has heretofore been the scapegoat. The book also contained many appendices, like the official report, climbing charts, and so on. The book's writing style is childish: misused words, jumpy, rambling at times. Near the end it got repetitive, like a schoolchild attempting to meet an essay's length requirement. What annoyed me most was its noncommittal stance on its own argument. The book ends with a series of questions that the text ostensibly provided answers for! However, on the whole, it was an informative and surprisingly engaging book. I for one was convinced that Fritz's oft-proven faulty memory is a poor indicator of what happened, whereas Durrance's diary seems to be straightforward and reliable.
three stars
The apparently infamous story of Fritz Wiessner's expedition to K2 in which climber (and financier) Dudley Wolfe and three Sherpas died. It contains new evidence on the story, notably Jack Durrance's diary. Durrance has heretofore been the scapegoat. The book also contained many appendices, like the official report, climbing charts, and so on. The book's writing style is childish: misused words, jumpy, rambling at times. Near the end it got repetitive, like a schoolchild attempting to meet an essay's length requirement. What annoyed me most was its noncommittal stance on its own argument. The book ends with a series of questions that the text ostensibly provided answers for! However, on the whole, it was an informative and surprisingly engaging book. I for one was convinced that Fritz's oft-proven faulty memory is a poor indicator of what happened, whereas Durrance's diary seems to be straightforward and reliable.
three stars
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