One of the more successful pieces of narrative nonfiction this year, distinguished by Torgovnick’s impeccable ear and canny,...
Turns out there’s more to college cheerleading than just rah rah rah.
Throughout high school, Torgovnick had nothing but disdain for school spirit, blowing off every mandatory pep rally. Cheerleaders weren’t on her radar, until one of her classmates fell from a human pyramid, bled all over the gym floor and suffered a concussion. Suddenly, the rebellious writer-to-be thought the whole cheerleader thing was kinda interesting. Fast-forward a decade or so, when Torgovnick’s editor at Jane magazine assigned her a story on the rise of cheerleading-based injuries, and the reporter was sucked into a subculture whose members were more obsessive and competitive than she had ever imagined. A book on the college cheerleading scene was essential, she decided, so she followed cheerleaders and their squads at Stephen F. Austin University, Southern University and the University of Memphis through the trials and tribulations of tryouts, the 2006-07 football season and finally the NCAA Nationals competitions. Just as Stefan Fatsis did in Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players (2001), Torgovnick strategically incorporates her subject’s history into the narrative, giving context and even a bit of gravitas to what otherwise could have come off as the print version of a reality show. Also like Fatsis, she finds value and even some charm in off-center, damaged individuals, such as Casi, the anchor for the human pyramid, or Mary, a gaunt former coke sniffer. By the time readers finish “The Cheerleader’s Dictionary,” which closes the book, they’ll have gained real appreciation for the sport—and yes, it is a sport.
One of the more successful pieces of narrative nonfiction this year, distinguished by Torgovnick’s impeccable ear and canny, original choice of subject matter.Pub Date: March 11, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4165-3596-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2007
Longwinded though affecting tribute to resilience and solidarity.
Even a Category 5 hurricane can’t stop a revered coach and his championship high-school football team.
Popular historian Thompson (Driving with the Devil, 2006, etc.) begins in the locker room of New Orleans’ John Curtis Christian School on August 26, 2005. It was the night of the “jamboree” scrimmage that opened the season, and members of the Patriots were hoping to win another state championship for their school. Nationally recognized coach J.T. Curtis, also the school’s headmaster and son of its founder, knew that his hardworking, enthusiastic squad couldn’t compare to last year’s lineup. Many key players had graduated to college ball, and he needed to mentally and physically condition a young, unproven team with efficient, college-level practices consisting of “equal parts Broadway musical and football drills.” The 2005-6 Patriots included an anxious new starting quarterback, a Harvard hopeful, a spiritual heavyweight and a star linebacker whose religion forbade him to play on Friday nights. John Curtis School favored community building and happiness over flashy exteriors, and Coach Curtis reflected those values in his broadminded teaching style and paternal approach to his players’ personal lives. Hurricane Katrina confronted him and his team with the ultimate challenge. Returning to the drowned city, J.T. found the school in miraculously good shape and set out to reunite his squad and get them on the field again. Some players were tempted to join teams in other school districts, and Hurricane Rita tested them once again, but the devoted coach kept on plugging. Thompson deftly profiles a generous selection of players and families torn apart by the disaster and considers the contagious obsession for football shared by participants and fans alike. In a somewhat meandering fashion, he delivers a fully realized interpretative portrait of a coach and a sports organization willing to sacrifice all in the name of football.
Longwinded though affecting tribute to resilience and solidarity.Pub Date: July 31, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-4165-4070-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2007
Familiar headlines rehashed with no value added.
Sportswriter Layden (The Great American Baseball Strike, 1995, etc.) colorlessly recounts Buster Douglas’s 1990 upset of Mike Tyson.
Douglas was a 42-1 underdog when he defeated the fearsome brawler in Tokyo, but this text doesn’t match the excitement of simply watching the fight on video. The truth is, neither Tyson nor Douglas are interesting characters, and Layden’s rambling, often repetitious narrative doesn’t make them any more compelling. Tyson had become the youngest heavyweight champion ever in 1986, and his undefeated record included many first-round knockouts. Douglas, meanwhile, despite growing up in a family of boxers (his father was a tough middleweight), was a reluctant warrior who would have preferred a career in basketball. Prone to weight gain and often passive in the ring, he somehow summoned one great night of boxing that, coupled with Tyson’s taste for fast living and disdain for prefight training, propelled the unknown fighter to the title. His success was short-lived. The following year, Evander Holyfield knocked out Douglas, who promptly ate himself into a near-fatal diabetic coma. He gamely recovered and returned to the ring for several forgettable bouts, finally retiring in 1999. Tyson, imprisoned on a rape conviction following his loss to Douglas, fought with mixed success until 2005, but his aura of invincibility had been erased on that fateful day in Tokyo. Layden walks us through the milestones of both fighters’s careers and provides some revelations concerning infighting among Douglas’s ever-changing handlers. He rarely provides interesting behind-the-scenes material about the sport. Quotes garnered from interviews with the two principals (Tyson’s via cell phone) prove only how inarticulate and unappealing they both are—which may the book’s most lasting revelation.
Familiar headlines rehashed with no value added.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-312-35330-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2007
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