Sharp, thoughtful reflection on a long-reverberating moment in sport and society.
Scottish music writer Cosgrove portrays the year of 1963-1964 as a brief period that reflected many fault lines of the American 1960s, with Cassius Clay’s transformation into Muhammad Ali serving as one of the significant processes during that time. The author confidently connects Ali’s tumultuous rise with broader themes of soul music, boxing, organized crime, and the struggle for civil rights, utilizing the social simmer of Miami, London, Detroit, New York, and Louisville for dramatic settings throughout. This book, he writes, “portrays a man in compression, in the days when the young fighter was exploring his identity, molding his image and forging advantageous friendships with Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and the media.” Cosgrove also provides a thrilling narrative of a tattered sport battling intensifying racial cross-currents and involving Ali’s conservative White backers, Black moderates, and emerging radical voices. “The politics of race was being played out in nearly every arena of American life,” writes the author, “not least in boxing, where the heavyweight rankings were increasingly written about as a battle of perceived racial typologies.” But boxing was seen as particularly flawed, with a backdrop of ring deaths and syndicate control of the athletes and their fights. Although Ali honed a public persona that captivated many, even releasing an album of music and poetry, “there was growing resentment towards the young contender who was seen by many [traditionalists] as flighty, opinionated, and insubstantial.” Ali fitfully concealed his religious convictions, understanding that “his increasing closeness to the Nation of Islam posed a threat to his reputation and therefore his livelihood.” These many narrative strands conclude with the controversial “Big Fight” with Sonny Liston, after which the new champion “finally announced his membership of the Nation.” Cosgrove packs his lean account with remarkable characterizations and vibrant storytelling.
Sharp, thoughtful reflection on a long-reverberating moment in sport and society.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64160-354-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Lawrence Hill Books/Chicago Review
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
Of great interest to Didion completists, though a minor entry in the body of her work.
The late novelist and journalist records her innermost, deeply personal struggles.
Didion died in 2021. Afterward, a file of private notes was discovered among her things, including notes addressed to her late husband, John Gregory Dunne, recounting sessions with the noted Freudian psychiatrist Roger MacKinnon, “a staunch defender of talk therapy.” Talk they do, with Didion serving up a battery of problems and MacKinnon offering wise if perhaps non-actionable responses to them, for instance, “Nothing about families turns out to be easy, does it.” It’s not easy, for sure, and Didion’s chief concern throughout is her daughter, Quintana Roo, who died after a long illness, the subject of Didion’s 2011 memoir Blue Nights. Indeed, so many of the conversations concern Quintana that Didion—by design, one supposes—skirts her own issues, although MacKinnon identifies some: “I did think you might have developed more self-awareness,” he says, referring to Didion’s habit of squirreling herself away whenever difficult subjects arose. Didion counters that she cherishes privacy, adding that she sometimes left her own parties to shelter in her office and admitting that her long habit of overwork was a means of emotional distancing. It’s not wholly that Didion lacks that self-awareness, but that the keenest insights about her come from others, as when she records, “I said a friend had once remarked that while most people she knew had very strong competent exteriors and were bowls of jelly inside, I was just the opposite.” That Didion was constantly anxious, sometimes to the point of needing medication, will come as no surprise to close readers of her work, but the depth of her anguish and guilt over her inability to save her daughter—she threw plenty of money at her, but little in the way of love—is both affecting and saddening.
Of great interest to Didion completists, though a minor entry in the body of her work.Pub Date: April 22, 2025
ISBN: 9780593803677
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: April 21, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
Basketball fans will enjoy Pippen’s bird’s-eye view of some of the sport’s greatest contests.
The Chicago Bulls stalwart tells all—and then some.
Hall of Famer Pippen opens with a long complaint: Yes, he’s a legend, but he got short shrift in the ESPN documentary about Michael Jordan and the Bulls, The Last Dance. Given that Jordan emerges as someone not quite friend enough to qualify as a frenemy, even though teammates for many years, the maltreatment is understandable. This book, Pippen allows, is his retort to a man who “was determined to prove to the current generation of fans that he was larger-than-life during his day—and still larger than LeBron James, the player many consider his equal, if not superior.” Coming from a hardscrabble little town in Arkansas and playing for a small college, Pippen enjoyed an unlikely rise to NBA stardom. He played alongside and against some of the greats, of whom he writes appreciatively (even Jordan). Readers will gain insight into the lives of characters such as Dennis Rodman, who “possessed an unbelievable basketball IQ,” and into the behind-the-scenes work that led to the Bulls dynasty, which ended only because, Pippen charges, the team’s management was so inept. Looking back on his early years, Pippen advocates paying college athletes. “Don’t give me any of that holier-than-thou student-athlete nonsense,” he writes. “These young men—and women—are athletes first, not students, and make up the labor that generates fortunes for their schools. They are, for lack of a better term, slaves.” The author also writes evenhandedly of the world outside basketball: “No matter how many championships I have won, and millions I have earned, I never forget the color of my skin and that some people in this world hate me just because of that.” Overall, the memoir is closely observed and uncommonly modest, given Pippen’s many successes, and it moves as swiftly as a playoff game.
Basketball fans will enjoy Pippen’s bird’s-eye view of some of the sport’s greatest contests.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-982165-19-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
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