A fine collection by a much-missed writer who was just rising to the top of his game.
An assemblage of journalism by the late sportswriter.
Just 49 at the time of his death in December 2022, Wahl, author of Masters of Soccer and The Beckham Experiment, was far more than an ordinary sportswriter: New Yorker editor David Remnick deemed Wahl’s college-journalism profile of Vietnam War correspondent Gloria Emerson “among the very best student papers I’ve ever seen.” Emerson was one of Wahl’s mentors; another was the legendary sportswriter Frank Deford, “a hidebound soccerphobe.” Yet Wahl, who concocted phrases such as “an angry parabola” to describe a particularly noteworthy kick, did more than any other writer to elevate soccer in the national sports conversation, having learned the game as an exchange student in Argentina. Wahl was just as good at writing about basketball, and he was one of the first to recognize the genius of a teenager named LeBron James, who “exists in a weird netherworld between high school student and multimillionaire, between dependent child and made man.” His writing about the world’s game was equally prescient—e.g., he discerned star quality in a little-known defender named Brandi Chastain. Wahl also had a fine eye for the infrastructure of the game: Doha may be a paradise for moneyed fans, but the author dug deep to show the terrible abuse suffered by guest workers in Qatar during the 2022 World Cup. Wahl was at his best when in some dudgeon, but he also enjoyed working a good conceit, reveling, for instance, in an Argentinian TV ad where tango, beer, and soccer meet in a scene “that could easily have been scripted by the writer Jorge Luis Borges”—one that hinges on a miracle that proves that God loves the game as much as anyone.
A fine collection by a much-missed writer who was just rising to the top of his game.Pub Date: June 4, 2024
ISBN: 9780593726761
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A smart, rewarding consideration of football’s popularity—and eventual downfall.
A wide-ranging writer on his football fixation.
Is our biggest spectator sport “a practical means for understanding American life”? Klosterman thinks so, backing it up with funny, thought-provoking essays about TV coverage, ethical quandaries, and the rules themselves. Yet those who believe it’s a brutal relic of a less enlightened era need only wait, “because football is doomed.” Marshalling his customary blend of learned and low-culture references—Noam Chomsky, meet AC/DC—Klosterman offers an “expository obituary” of a game whose current “monocultural grip” will baffle future generations. He forecasts that economic and social forces—the NFL’s “cultivation of revenue,” changes in advertising, et al.—will end its cultural centrality. It’s hard to imagine a time when “football stops and no one cares,” but Klosterman cites an instructive precedent. Horse racing was broadly popular a century ago, when horses were more common in daily life. But that’s no longer true, and fandom has plummeted. With youth participation on a similar trajectory, Klosterman foresees a time when fewer people have a personal connection to football, rendering it a “niche” pursuit. Until then, the sport gives us much to consider, with Klosterman as our well-informed guide. Basketball is more “elegant,” but “football is the best television product ever,” its breaks between plays—“the intensity and the nothingness,” à la Sartre—provide thrills and space for reflection or conversation. For its part, the increasing “intellectual density” of the game, particularly for quarterbacks, mirrors a broader culture marked by an “ongoing escalation of corporate and technological control.” Klosterman also has compelling, counterintuitive takes on football gambling, GOAT debates, and how one major college football coach reminds him of “Laura Ingalls Wilder’s much‑loved Little House novels.” A beloved sport’s eventual death spiral has seldom been so entertaining.
A smart, rewarding consideration of football’s popularity—and eventual downfall.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9780593490648
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 24, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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