PDF The Cost of These Dreams Sports Stories and Other Serious Business Wright Thompson Books
Download As PDF : The Cost of These Dreams Sports Stories and Other Serious Business Wright Thompson Books
The instant New York Times bestseller!
From one of America's most beloved sportswriters, a collection of true stories about the dream of greatness and its cost in the world of sports.
"Wright Thompson's stories are so full of rich characters, bad actors, heroes, drama, suffering, courage, conflict, and vivid detail that I sometimes thinks he's working my side of the street - the world of fiction." - John Grisham
There is only one Wright Thompson. He is, as they say, famous if you know who he is his work includes the most read articles in the history of ESPN (and it's not even close) and has been anthologized in the Best American Sports Writing series ten times, and he counts John Grisham and Richard Ford among his ardent admirers (see back of book). But to say his pieces are about sports, while true as far as it goes, is like saying Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove is a book about a cattle drive. Wright Thompson figures people out. He jimmies the lock to the furnaces inside the people he profiles and does an analysis of the fuel that fires their ambition. Whether it be Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods or Pat Riley or Urban Meyer, he strips the away the self-serving myths and fantasies to reveal his characters in full. There are fascinating common denominators it may not be the case that every single great performer or coach had a complex relationship with his father, but it can sure seem that way. And there is much marvelous local knowledge about specific sports, and times and places, and people. Ludicrously entertaining and often powerfully moving, The Cost of These Dreams is an ode to the reporter's art, and a celebration of true greatness and the high price that it exacts.
PDF The Cost of These Dreams Sports Stories and Other Serious Business Wright Thompson Books
"I loved the stories but the more I read the more I felt bad as these successful people never found happiness,"
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The Cost of These Dreams Sports Stories and Other Serious Business Wright Thompson Books Reviews :
The Cost of These Dreams Sports Stories and Other Serious Business Wright Thompson Books Reviews
- I have read sports books… sports sections… sports magazines… literally non-stop for sixty-years… and I had never heard of this writer. I… of course stopped reading ESPN the Magazine a decade and a half ago. So why did I buy this book? Because I saw a brief part of an interview with him on ESPN… and in the part I saw… he spoke passionately about his Father and other Fathers. Being that I’m a Father and a Son… and miss my Dad every single day he’s been gone for the last thirty-nine years… I am enticed by the opportunity to share other’s feelings… when they talk or write from the heart about this hallowed subject.
Am I happy that I bought this book? Yes I am. There was a writer whose true glory days were before my time… but who was always quoted with his feathery yet powerful prose in almost every sports book of historical consequence that I read growing up. Then about six years ago a five-hundred-page “Very Best Of†book… was published with his writings. I read it and was blown away! His sports writing was like a velvet trip down a highway of polished steel. That sportswriter’s name… was Red Smith. The author of “The Cost of These Dreamsâ€â€¦ Wright Thompson… just got done taking me on a similar journey.
All stories in this book are not about Fathers and Sons… but each story is written almost like a slack-jawed wonder… of how someone turned out the way they did… or what they’re trying to turn into… or how they’re floundering… or at least yearning to… turn into something they’re not… or something that they used to be. There are no sure shot discoveries or pronouncements… in some stories the author becomes a determined investigator…. How does one of the men that fought Muhammad Ali seem to defy the bounds of earth and simply disappear? How does one of the greatest soccer players in the world almost leave no touchstone by his original hometown fans… how a former college basketball standout… winds up dead while trying to escape his paranoia in a Brazilian jungle?
The answers… and the demonizing… non-answers… are majestically described and shared… with the ever so wonderful… symphonic orchestration of words… and feelings by the author. Some of our most idolized world sports stars are extremely unhappy… and many don’t even know what they’re truly searching for… and probably wouldn’t realize whether it was what they really needed if they were able to corral it in their grasp. The author comes to some conclusions that are not sugar coated cotton candy days at the beach. Sometimes… the things that made someone great in their sport… makes it impossible to be happy in life.
The author himself… is at times… searching for his own possible balance … of his life… where he came from… and the “true†makeup of his for-bearers… in the absolutely tremendous story “GHOSTS OF MISSISSIPPIâ€. Tied together in one sad… gripping… historically enlightening… segment… about the 1962 integrating of Ole Miss… by James Meredith. The ugliness of America’s south… the author’s hometown Mississippi… the politicians… local and national… the sheriffs… the police… the National Guard… the only undefeated team in Ole Miss history… and the moments when Wright Thompson… has to look directly into his families mirror… not ethically being able to turn away… and really peer inside his family’s history… and see what they were really made of… as human beings.
And in the end… aaahhh yes! The touching story of the author… unable to live out a final dream with his beloved Father… walking together on the grass of Augusta National during the Masters. But the loving son… wearing his **DAD’S†shoes… and carrying other tightly held artifacts… both animate… and inanimate takes his life’s… most important… touching… and yet… at times empty… walk… with the memory of his Father. With the author’s heavenly blessed ability to magically put together words… that can make countless others think… AND… feel… sends his aching happiness… and yes regrets… to his Father in heaven… just as I have constantly tried to do to **MY DAD" for the last thirty-nine years! - It's all pre-published, but it's a good anthology. My only question is, how on Earth did he not include his 2018 profile of Ichiro in Kobe?
- Some good ones. Some not so good. Loved the Tiger and MJ expose but who cares about some forgotten Mohamed Ali oponent?
- Each of his stories leads you into the hidden world of a hero. His search for "Sweet Jimmy" brings you to the inside of a life that is never recovered. This is a great book for a sports fan.
- I loved the stories but the more I read the more I felt bad as these successful people never found happiness,
- Wright Thompson may be the best writer in America. He seeks and finds great stories.
- Eloquent stories about the high cost of fame and its loss.
- Great book. Great read!
