Haphazard Notes on Reading Books from January 2010
| Books
A View from Above by Wilt Chamberlain The Other Side of the River by Alex Kotlowitz The Book of Basketball By Bill Simmons The Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne |
Events
New Year’s Eve / Day “Project Project” Haiti Earthquake MLK Day USA Politics – MA Election / State of the Union Apple Tablet (iPad) |
New Year’s Eve is my least favorite holiday by a fair margin. I don’t have any rational reason for disliking the day, but, nevertheless, I do. The past few years I’ve retreated from it, opting for a quiet solitude rather than all the noise. Being neither a malcontent nor a sociopath, I’m as perplexed by all this as you are!
So, when I found a copy of “A View from Above” by noted malcontent Wilt Chamberlain in the “free” box outside of Powell’s Books on New Year’s Day, I knew that I had to read it! Chamberlain, the famous basketball player, had authored (or authorized) several biographies after his playing career had ended. “A View…” (1992) had gained some notoriety for being the vehicle for his assertion that he had had sex with at least 20,000 women during his life, his preference for short asian women (who purportedly viewed him as sexual challenge), as well as for his commentary on the contemporary NBA. The book itself was expectedly uneven, even by the standards of sports autobiographies, and revealed an almost stereotypical machismo that screamed “overcompensation”.
Chamberlain was the most physically dominating player in the NBA for most of his career, to the extent that the league changed its own rules to limit his impact on the game, but he never enjoyed the team success (or the personal adoration) of his rivals. The Chamberlain that comes across in “A View…” is so defensive about this that it overwhelms all of his writing about his playing career. The contrast between the bitterness about his NBA days and his joy for his days with the Harlem Globetrotters or his involvement with the new Pro Volleyball league is stark. I’d feel bad for Chamberlain, the unappreciated giant, but he reportedly got his satisfaction(s) along the way.
Chamberlain’s “woe is me” routine was being read in the background during the first week of January, while I was writing a serious piece for a project (a classic “low probability / high impact” effort, which you’ll hear about in April if anything comes from it). It seems to have been a good match, as Chamberlain’s story served as a cautionary tale about how not to take your failures to heart and diminish your successes.
Next, I finally got around to reading “The Other Side of the River” by the incomparable Alex Kotlowitz. From a purely “quality of writing” standpoint, I admire Kotlowitz. There were passages in “Other Side of the River” that I’d go back to afterwards and say to myself “how on earth did he think to tell this story in this way?”. The story itself, an account of the circumstances and history around an unsolved death, touched deftly upon the open sore that is (still) the state of race relations in this country. I feel bad giving the details of the story such scant mention, but still heartily recommend “Other Side of the River” to anyone who wants to read a masterfully done, nuanced, and fair look at how these issues play out in the real world. Journalistic literature of the highest order. I’ve got Kotlowitz’s “There are No Children Here” on my “NEXT” shelf and am looking forward to reading it in the Spring.
I grew up reading NBA biographies, so I jumped at the chance to get Bill Simmons’ 700 page “the Book of Basketball” on swaptree.com in exchange for a CD. Simmons epitomizes the brashness of internet writing, and he makes no concessions to printed page. While Simmons’ gimmicks and homerism (as a kid he had season tickets to 80s Celtics games) can grate at times, you’re almost buoyed along by his rampant enthusiasm for the game. I enjoy reading his internet columns, and the big book of Basketball functioned as a colossal monument to those columns. At 700 pages, it enforces its insistence that you be a serious fan to begin with. It’s not for me here to question the details of Simmons’ gimmicks (“The Secret”, “The Pantheon”, his rankings of the all-time greats, etcetera), but simply to say that there is clearly enough to keep a serious fan entertained.
I had an opportunity to hear Professor Harris-Lacewell give the University of Chicago’s Annual MLK day address in the immediate aftermath of the terrible earthquake off the coast of Haiti. Her speech, starting off with Haiti (and Pat Robertson) essentially reminded us that MLK was a pragmatic tactician that was often attacked by his left (not unlike President Obama), then took an interesting turn to remind us that there is a role for faith in the public discourse. The quality of her address has me starting to read her articles at The Nation. The earthquake off the coast of Haiti brought forth some of the best that is within people, but now as the immediacy of it recedes, we start seeing the full range of reactions, including what you could only term as the misanthropic backlash. I hope the sum total of the response to this disaster remains positive.
I read Ross King’s “Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling“ and David Byrne’s “The Bicycle Diaries” alternately. Byrne doubtlessly lost out in the comparison, so I’m hesitant to be too harsh in my treatment of the Bicycle Diaries. It wasn’t bad in any way, it simply wasn’t engrossing. Byrne’s writing here is almost more webloggish than literature, it possesses the unevenness of the mundane interspersed with a handful of epiphanous realizations… none of which are necessarily going anywhere. He’s interesting, and has an entirely unique perspective, but the Bicycle’s Diaries simply isn’t worth running out to read. It’s not this year’s “Chronicles, V1“. Ross King’s “Michelangelo….” though, assuming your interests include medieval history, art history, or biography, is worth running out to read. I read Brunelleschi’s Dome a few years ago and was impressed by the seemlessness of the connections between the history, art, and architecture. “Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling” is more character-driven (Michelangelo, the Pope, Raphael) than Brunelleschi’s dome, but that only amplifies King’s ability to expose the richness of the stories.
Apple’s Tablet announcement (the very cool but unfortunately named iPad) could have ramifications for how we read books. As a books person, I’m not really inclined to believe that we’ll really ever see the “end of books”. As an educator, I’d like to see some textbooks (and most textbook policies) go the way of the dodo, and have hoped for some technological innovation that would bring us closer to one to one computing in schools (so that technology does not remain another one of society’s uneven playing fields). Finally, as a gadget enthusiast, I’m always intrigued by the next leap forward. I liked the first look at the tablet, and am looking forward to seeing how well it works when it is released.
Finally, Joe Sacco’s graphic novel “Footnotes in Gaza“ demonstrates yet again how powerful the medium of graphic novels has become. It’s a well told story that educates about history and exposes you to unpopular points of view.
