A fan’s notes, meticulous and proudly partisan, for Jets fans and devotees of the early NFL.
A longtime fan of the New York Jets debuts with a meticulous analysis of the Jets’ personnel who, on Jan. 12, 1969, defeated the highly favored Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III.
Lederer doesn’t ignore the actual game—he has an early chapter about it and a nine-page play-by-play account in the backmatter, and he and various Jets from the era rehearse key moments—but his focus remains on the team. With a true fan’s passion (that day, according to the author bio, “was the most exciting sports day in his life”), he employs scores of interviews and other necessary research to tell the stories of those who brought about the victory. Not wishing to write yet another tribute to Jets’ star quarterback Joe Namath, Lederer devotes several pages to each individual involved, dividing his chapters into traditional team divisions—coaches, offensive line, defensive line, etc. Although there are names that will resonate with many general sports fans—e.g., Namath, Weeb Ewbank, Don Maynard, Matt Snell—there are many others whom the author rescues from the virtual anonymity that awaits a nonheadliner upon retirement. We learn how each player or coach got to the Jets, what head coach Ewbank thought of them (he kept notes), how they performed in the AFL championship game and the Super Bowl, and what happened to them afterward. More than a few are no longer living, and some died from brain deterioration now recognized as a dire side effect of a career spent in football. Lederer doesn’t conceal the injury situation; neither does he condemn it at length. The text is a little too littered with clichés (“kept his eye on the prize,” “blowing his own horn”), and though he alludes about a dozen times to the “Heidi game,” he leaves its explanation to a writer of one of the forewords.
A fan’s notes, meticulous and proudly partisan, for Jets fans and devotees of the early NFL.Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-279804-6
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
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
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