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HEART OF HOME

PEOPLE, WILDLIFE, PLACE

Kerasote's acclaimed Bloodties (1993) contrasted trophy and subsistence hunting; these essays stake out a middle ground between those poles, posing hard questions about the ethics of hunting and fishing practiced by America's ``recreational'' outdoorsmen. Though a columnist for Sports Afield, Kerasote loathes the image of rugged danger promoted by sporting mags. His outdoor adventures—hunting elk at home in Wyoming's Gros Ventres or chasing exotic trout while climbing mountains from the Himalayas to Patagonia—aim for something between extremes. As a boy he sought ``a niche between Theodore and John'' (Theodore Roosevelt, great white hunter and father of the conservation or ``wise-use'' ethic, and John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club and the preservation or ``no-use'' ethic); as a man he seeks a place between ``the far left of the animal welfare movement which wants to eradicate all fishing and hunting, and the far right of the hunting community, which wants to circle the wagons and defend all of it.'' He finds his ground by taking a wide view of our role in nature, a perspective that goes so far as to reject the standard division of matter into sentient and nonsentient. Where that leads him—toward questioning the morality of catch-and-release fishing (because increasing scientific evidence suggests fish feel pain) and apologizing to rocks and dead pines displaced by his cabin—may seem kooky to some. But his tough questions make it clear that everyone, vegetarians included, has a stake in death, and the questions are too fundamental and too-long unasked to dismiss. Kerasote's clear-eyed inquiry into the ethics of hunting and fishing, and, more importantly, the prescriptions he offers for saving those activities from overzealousness, is everything good outdoor writing should be: rigorous, thoughtful, free of sentiment but open to natural beauty, considerate of the sporting tradition but unstinting in its examination of the sustainability of current practices.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1998

ISBN: 0-679-45012-2

Page Count: 220

Publisher: Villard

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1997

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WHEN THE GAME WAS OURS

Doesn’t dig as deep as it could, but offers a captivating look at the NBA’s greatest era.

NBA legends Bird and Johnson, fierce rivals during their playing days, team up on a mutual career retrospective.

With megastars LeBron James and Kobe Bryant and international superstars like China’s Yao Ming pushing it to ever-greater heights of popularity today, it’s difficult to imagine the NBA in 1979, when financial problems, drug scandals and racial issues threatened to destroy the fledgling league. Fortunately, that year marked the coming of two young saviors—one a flashy, charismatic African-American and the other a cocky, blond, self-described “hick.” Arriving fresh off a showdown in the NCAA championship game in which Johnson’s Michigan State Spartans defeated Bird’s Indiana State Sycamores—still the highest-rated college basketball game ever—the duo changed the course of history not just for the league, but the sport itself. While the pair’s on-court accomplishments have been exhaustively chronicled, the narrative hook here is unprecedented insight and commentary from the stars themselves on their unique relationship, a compelling mixture of bitter rivalry and mutual admiration. This snapshot of their respective careers delves with varying degrees of depth into the lives of each man and their on- and off-court achievements, including the historic championship games between Johnson’s Lakers and Bird’s Celtics, their trailblazing endorsement deals and Johnson’s stunning announcement in 1991 that he had tested positive for HIV. Ironically, this nostalgic chronicle about the two men who, along with Michael Jordan, turned more fans onto NBA basketball than any other players, will likely appeal primarily to a narrow cross-section of readers: Bird/Magic fans and hardcore hoop-heads.

Doesn’t dig as deep as it could, but offers a captivating look at the NBA’s greatest era.

Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2009

ISBN: 978-0-547-22547-0

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2009

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BACK FROM THE DEAD

One of the NBA’s 50 greatest players scores another basket—a deeply personal one.

A basketball legend reflects on his life in the game and a life lived in the “nightmare of endlessly repetitive and constant pain, agony, and guilt.”

Walton (Nothing but Net, 1994, etc.) begins this memoir on the floor—literally: “I have been living on the floor for most of the last two and a half years, unable to move.” In 2008, he suffered a catastrophic spinal collapse. “My spine will no longer hold me,” he writes. Thirty-seven orthopedic injuries, stemming from the fact that he had malformed feet, led to an endless string of stress fractures. As he notes, Walton is “the most injured athlete in the history of sports.” Over the years, he had ground his lower extremities “down to dust.” Walton’s memoir is two interwoven stories. The first is about his lifelong love of basketball, the second, his lifelong battle with injuries and pain. He had his first operation when he was 14, for a knee hurt in a basketball game. As he chronicles his distinguished career in the game, from high school to college to the NBA, he punctuates that story with a parallel one that chronicles at each juncture the injuries he suffered and overcame until he could no longer play, eventually turning to a successful broadcasting career (which helped his stuttering problem). Thanks to successful experimental spinal fusion surgery, he’s now pain-free. And then there’s the music he loves, especially the Grateful Dead’s; it accompanies both stories like a soundtrack playing off in the distance. Walton tends to get long-winded at times, but that won’t be news to anyone who watches his broadcasts, and those who have been afflicted with lifelong injuries will find the book uplifting and inspirational. Basketball fans will relish Walton’s acumen and insights into the game as well as his stories about players, coaches (especially John Wooden), and games, all told in Walton’s fervent, witty style.

One of the NBA’s 50 greatest players scores another basket—a deeply personal one.

Pub Date: March 8, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-4767-1686-2

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016

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