Coach: Lessons on the Game of Life by Michael Lewis
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Book Reviews of Coach: Lessons on the Game of Life
Book Review: Great story....weird choice of photography
Summary: 3 Stars
I know. I know. I read the magazine article too. I was a bit disappointed that the book did not expand more on the story. It's a short, quick read. It does provide an emotionally satisfying lift as we observe Coach Fitz go through the travails of dealing with teen-age athletes and their doting and obnoxious (for the most part) parents.
I had a real problem with the photography in this book. Now, I understand that a full-page photograph was probably necessary to fill-out this book. As it is, with all the photos, it's still less than ninety pages. The photos, though, are mis-guided, ham-handed shots of kids staring of into space, kids in repose, kids....doing nothing at all, really. Certainly not in relation to what is going on in the book. There are a couple of shots of Coach Fitz and one of the author in his high school days. Those are fine. The rest just seem like stock shots, used to fill the rest of the book up. It was distracting to me.
Worth a read. Probably be in the bargain bins in a couple of months, though. Kind of like chinese food - no matter how good it is, you're hungry two hours later.
Book Review: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Coach
Summary: 3 Stars
Despite the fact that I am always fascinated by whatever Michael Lewis writes about, I had not planned to read Coach. In the bookstore, it looked like one of those "inspirational" books they stock at the checkout counter, next to the gift books about angels and cats.
But then I heard an interview with Lewis on NPR radio. The book was originally a magazine article in the New York Times Magazine. He summarized the story in a few minutes. A coach he had at his prep school (I didn't even catch what sport Lewis was playing) had changed his life by treating him, in a critical moment in a must-win game, as if he was the clutch player Lewis and every other kid dreams of being. Lewis rose to the occasion and the confidence he gained from the experience radiated to his academic work and beyond. But now, twenty-some years later, the parents at the private school are pressuring the headmaster to oust the coach. They say his heavy-handed ways are hurting their kids' self-esteem. Lewis ended his radio summary by revealing that publicity from the New York Times article had resulted in the coach keeping his job, although the school was now looking for a new headmaster.
What a great story. It was short and had conflict as well as a satisfying ending. But then I read the book, which is simply the article, unchanged.
In it, the coach has a temper that seems uncontrolled and frightening, even to the adult Lewis. Coach takes a second-place trophy his team won and smashes it on the locker room floor, indicating his disgust at not winning first. He refuses to drive home when the team has lost, obsessively walking miles through New Orleans at night (yikes) to punish himself for being a loser. When the team doesn't hustle enough, he makes them practice sliding headfirst on concrete-hard dirt until they are bloody and bruised.
Lewis's interviews with former students of the coach sound like Stockholm Syndrome sufferers, people who've been kidnapped and held hostage but come to sympathize with their captors. The former players speak with admiration as they describe how Coach intimidated them. Lewis tells of being on the mound in another clutch situation as Coach shouts ridicule at him from the dugout, distracting him enough so that he misses a grounder that hits him in the face, causing him to black out. But when Lewis regains consciousness, he loves Coach, just as Winston loved Big Brother.
Lewis mentions that when he was a young pitcher, the coach had him put Ben Gay on the bill of his cap, to use for spitballs when his fastball wasn't doing the trick. I'm not familiar with prep league play, but isn't throwing a spitball against the rules? The more I read, the less I admired the coach.
As usual, Lewis's writing is compelling, and once you start Coach, you won't be able to put it down. You just may not find it as inspiring as Lewis meant it to be.
Book Review: Short and Sweet, Simple and Powerful
Summary: 5 Stars
I first read this when it appeared in the New York Times magazine, but felt compelled to own it in an official book form, so that I could pass it along to someone at the right time. I like the brevity and the power of the central message, simple but effectively communicated by the author. This book is not long, but that is it's strength. Instead of getting distracted by details that don't really matter just to add pages to the book, the author chose a format that you can knock out in a day, and then pass this lesson along to the so many that need to hear it.Book Review: What's Here is Good, There's Just Too Little of It
Summary: 2 Stars
One does wonder why Mr. Lewis allowed a great article to be transformed into a razor thin volume, augmented with a few pictures. Hopefully his superb article on the California recall election in 2003 won't be packaged as a hardcover in the near future. Then again, pictures of Arnold Schwarzenegger will surely move many copies.
The profile of Coach Fitz feels rather incomplete, relying almost solely on the author's own memory and its conflict with the current win-at-all-costs mentality of today's parents. If there is a real story to be had here it is the increasing social acceptability of parents as hyper-advocates for their children in school, sports, and pretty much any artistic or creative endeavor. That is a subject that deserves book-length treatment (and not just a hardcover pamphlet, either).
Assuming that readers of "Moneyball" haven't yet done so, they would do well to pick up "Liar's Poker" instead of this book.
Book Review: Moneybook
Summary: 1 Stars
This "book" is nothing more than a repackaged article first published, to much deserved acclaim, by The New York Times Magazine. The only "new" things you get is a pretty nice cover.
Michael, did you just do it for the money?
Michael Lewis is one of our best authors, but this is nothing more than a pretty lame attempt at cashing in for Father's Day. Save your money. Find the story of Coach Fitz on-line (or through a news search engine), and read it all for free.