Few sports can boast as many old-fangled pleasures as camping and its related activities, and Dennis (The River Home: An Angler’s Explorations, 1998, etc.) beckoningly delineates many of them in these light, silky essays. In 31 short pieces, Dennis sings the praises of outdoor equipment (and to a degree the whole outdoor experience) that will never go out of style, that are both useful and beautiful, products of integrity and passion and attention to detail. What he has in mind are red-and-black checked wool hunting jackets, canvas tents (“the fabric equivalent of oak”), the sheer witchery of duct tape, a canoe paddle shaped by drawknife and spokeshave as opposed to a molded plank of space-age, bullet-proof Kevlar. Dennis sees these items as distillations, centuries in the tinkering, which allow us to reach back to a time when tools didn’t simply get the job done, but were a pleasure to use. He turns the thermos or Coleman lantern or portaging pack lovingly in his mind’s eye, points out its practical merits and its less tangible ones, those heart-gladdening aspects that give soul to any good tool. Dennis can also conjure the elemental sensation of being alone in the far north, and why making that one last hellacious portage may make all the difference in the world. He is less successful when he goes general rather than specific about his outdoor experiences: yes, bugs are pesky; yes, a hat is sometimes useful; yes, maps can be misleading. But he has nothing much else to offer. Dennis admires the fine old goods, but it’s the remote landscapes that clearly have their claws in him. He brings a bright, childlike eagerness to these days on the stream or in the field and forest, burnishing their memory with thoughtfulness and elegance. (illustrations, not seen)
Pub Date: March 8, 1999
ISBN: 0-312-19979-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
An engaging and informative cultural history, on and off the gridiron.
A rich history of the rise of the National Football League from its virtual obscurity at its genesis in the 1920s to its position as an economic and cultural powerhouse today.
Former Baltimore Sun sportswriter Eisenberg (The Streak: Lou Gehrig, Cal Ripken Jr., and Baseball's Most Historic Record, 2017, etc.) returns with the story of how five owners—George Halas, Bert Bell, George Preston Marshall, Art Rooney, and Tim Mara—refused to give up on the struggling league and lived to see (and cause) its current dominance. Thoroughly researched and gracefully told, the story begins with the background of each of the five, then moves chronologically through the early years of the league—struggles, controversies (among the most significant was the arrival of black players), adjustments (to radio and then TV)—to its full arrival in 1958, when 40 million people watched the Baltimore Colts defeat the New York Giants in the exciting championship game. As the author repeatedly points out, these five were fierce rivals, but they knew that to make the league survive and flourish, they could not destroy one another. So they compromised and changed rules to make the game more exciting; all would live to see the league’s vigorous health. (The final chapter deals with the deaths of each.) Although Eisenberg is admiring of the founders, he also recognizes—and highlights—their weaknesses. Marshall, for example, was a racist, the last to bring blacks onto his team, the Washington Redskins. Although the author provides some details about some key games (and iconic players like Red Grange, Marion Motley, and Sam Huff), the narrative is not a rehearsal of games but of the history of a game, a business, and five men who took a chance, lost money, and then found great success.
An engaging and informative cultural history, on and off the gridiron.Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-465-04870-0
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
A fascinating and informative introduction to the sport of cave diving, as well as a dramatic portrayal of a significant...
A compelling look at the people and perils involved in conquering the world’s most treacherous supercaves.
Veteran journalist and PBS’s Great Outdoors host Tabor (Forever on the Mountain: The Truth Behind One of Mountaineering’s Most Controversial and Mysterious Disasters, 2007) wastes no time setting up the race to find the world’s deepest cave as the most important exploratory challenge since the discovery of the South Pole. Whether or not this comparison is significant is irrelevant. What counts is Tabor’s knack for maximizing dramatic potential, while also managing to be informative and attentive to the major personalities associated with the most important cave explorations of the last two decades. The author examines the two polar opposites at the head of each of two major cave-diving expeditions: the win-at-all-costs, classic alpha-male, American Bill Stone, who led Mexican cave dives in Cheve and Huatula; and mild-mannered organization man, Ukrainian Alexander Klimchouk, who spearheaded the exploration of his country’s notorious Krubera cave. Only one of these men came away with the distinction of having descended deeper into the earth’s core than anyone else. Tabor expertly fashions a fly-on-the-wall narrative from the firsthand accounts of Stone, Klimchouk and their supporting casts of death-defying followers. Even the most well-prepared and experienced spelunkers weren’t ready for the exotic dangers presented by these particular cave dives. Tabor leaves little to the reader’s imagination, covering the many ways a caver can die—panic attacks, frequent equipment failure, drowning, disease and starvation, to name just a few. Although the author maintains an objective balance while weighing the different methods of Stone and his rival Klimchouk, the surprising success of the more humble and methodical Ukrainian serves as a mild dig on the megalomaniacal Stone’s less impressive accomplishments.
A fascinating and informative introduction to the sport of cave diving, as well as a dramatic portrayal of a significant man-vs.-nature conflict.Pub Date: June 15, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6767-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2010
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