Ruffian: A Race Track Romance by William Nack
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Book Reviews of Ruffian: A Race Track Romance
Book Review: Crosses The Wire Much Too Quickly
Summary: 4 Stars
Essentially a long essay - the text slightly more than 100 pages - William Nack weaves autobiographical recollections with the oftentimes brutal tragedies and brilliant triumphs of equine athletes, and recollections on the life & times of Ruffian.
For readers seeking a biography of Ruffian, this is not the course to traverse. Also, the book - published by ESPN Books - is not a movie tie-in to the ESPN-produced, made-for-TV movie, Ruffian.
It is artfully written and to truly be savored, the book needs to be meticulously read. But in the end, the brevity is the greatest disappointment.
Book Review: Not a gold standard...
Summary: 3 Stars
I was eagerly waiting for this book. Hadn't I read Nack's "Secretariat - The making of a Champion" barely being able to put it down ?! Well, his book on Ruffian is really only a romance... short and not much to it (the book has 107 pages). It reads like if Nack had put some puzzle pieces together, here a papersnip, there a few words from trainer or jockey so and so, but forgot to make a story with them. There are six pictures, only one of them shows Ruffian :( I don't really understand what that double wide picture of Secretariat's Belmont win (the one that we all know) has to do there. He writes he was jealous of Ruffian because she took the room that Secretariat had left . Also, Secretariat's Trainer Lucien Laurin said she was better as a two year old than Secretariat had been. Nack seems to have a dualistic relationshop with Ruffian. At one point he states his jealousy only went away when she was dead. Elsewhere in the book one can feel he admired her a lot.
I can't really recommend the book. It's really NOT what I had expected from William Nack, certainly not after "Secretariat" !
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