Vigorous and smart, like its subject, and a special treat for Sooners fans.
An elegantly written, admiring portrait of a still-young but impressive college football coach.
Just 36 at the time of this book’s appearance, Lincoln Riley came to the University of Oklahoma in 2015 as an offensive coordinator. He soon took the head role after former coach Bob Stoops retired—a move that, by sportswriter Sneed’s account, afforded Stoops the chance to hand-pick his successor. Riley is modest about his achievements (and didn’t directly participate in the book, with the reasonable objection that he was too young for such a portrait). According to the author, Riley possesses a kind of iron-trap mind for football, “a unique ability bordering on genius” that enables him, in the words of a colleague, to see “concepts”—i.e., to formulate offensive and defensive formations and play them out in his mind. Football, writes Sneed, is “the art of using your concepts to explore and then exploit the weaknesses of your opponent.” The author’s knowledge of the game is evident throughout this well-paced account, which takes Riley from playing high school ball in a tiny town in West Texas to coaching positions at several schools before landing at Oklahoma. Riley’s deep understanding of the game and the psychology of play is clear, too, evidenced by his nurturing back-to-back Heisman Trophy winners and winning three successive Big 12 championships. Sneed closely analyzes some of Riley’s trademark tactics, including an approach to play that is lightning-quick and that took his players some time to get used to: “Pace had always been one of the most important elements of the Air Raid offense…but Oklahoma wasn’t quite getting there.” That would soon change. The author is especially good at describing some of the changes that technology has wrought on college ball, which now has a vast audience—and also enables fans to get inside players’ heads through instant messaging and social media.
Vigorous and smart, like its subject, and a special treat for Sooners fans.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-62215-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
It's high spirited reading.
When Françoise Gilot, an aspiring young painter, met Pablo Picasso in May, 1943, she was twenty-one years old, he some forty years her senior.
As they grew together, setting about their mutual campaigns upon each other, she proved herself a worthy adversary rather than acolyte. In the ten years which she shared with him, undertaking to assuage his solitude, bearing him two children, meeting his friend and admirers, she maintained a cool comprehension along with her compassion for Picasso the man that shows to delightful advantage here. For Françoise Gilot has the capacity to reveal the man in his intimate and professional dealings, and Picasso is superlative, inimitable copy. Witness Picasso dangling his agents, foremost among them Kahnweller, fancing with his friends Braque and Matisse, playing cat and mouse with the women in his life -- wife Olga, Marie Therese Walter, Dora Marr, Françoise and her successor Jacqueline Roque. But the author has the capacity as well to show Picasso the artist: she quotes him on painting, describes his method of work in painting, sculpture, pottery. Picasso himself is so articulate that he defies other description; au fond, art and the artist are subversive. His re-marks on art include not only his own but that of his foremost colleagues, Matisse and Braque, Miro, Legor, Chagall...All his encounters here are formed by his own formidable temperament, and recalled in satisfying detail by the woman who shared them. An intimate, vivid, above all intelligent and authentic portrait of Picasso, with its twin elements of love and art, this should sell like mad. And rightly.
It's high spirited reading.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9781681373195
Page Count: 384
Publisher: NYRB Classics
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1964
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
Disjointed in spots but thoughtful and often inspirational.
An acclaimed actor “taught not to make scenes” as a young girl explores how “scenes” from her life have made her into the woman she became.
In her first book, Wu, best known for her roles in the TV show Fresh Off the Boat and the film Crazy Rich Asians, reflects on the experiences that transformed her from a shy girl into a self-confident performer able to create meaningful, stereotype-defying characters. The American-born daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, Wu, who dreamed of a professional acting career, assimilated well into the conservative White Virginia suburb where she grew up. Yet the Asian actors she saw often made her want to cringe for the way they brought attention to the “Asian-ness” Wu could not entirely accept in herself. It wasn’t until she began studying drama in college that the author began to dig within herself to find what could truly make her characters come alive. In her personal life, Wu deepened her emotional maturity with lessons in love while also experiencing the turmoil caused by a traumatic sexual experience. “I didn’t feel attacked or assaulted or coerced and I certainly didn’t feel raped,” she writes. “Strange as it sounds, the word ‘rape’ didn’t even occur to me.” After moving to California for her acting career, she began to educate herself on rape culture. Her awakening, however, could not protect her from Hollywood anti-feminism or her own desire to be a “cool girl” who could brush off casual misogyny. As she gained professional visibility and acclaim, Wu found herself at the mercy of an Asian American producer who intimidated and sexually harassed her. The essays—parts of which she cleverly imagines as stage scenes—are intimate and rich in emotional detail. However, the time shifts and occasional lack of thematic connection sometimes limit the impact of the author’s message.
Disjointed in spots but thoughtful and often inspirational.Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982188-54-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
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