Home and Away: Memoir of a Fan - Softcover

Simon, Scott

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0786886528 ISBN 13: 9780786886524

Publisher: Hachette Books, 2001

Synopsis

The #1 Los Angeles Times bestseller from the host of NPR's Weekend Edition--"absolutely spectacular--wise and intimate, often funny, always touching" (Scott Turow)--now in paperback,

In a beautifully written narrative that runs from childhood to adulthood through times of war and peace, Scott Simon movingly traces his life as a fan--of sports, theater, politics, and the people and things he holds dear.

Sports Illustrated columnist Ron Fimrite says of Home and Away, "Rarely do you find in books of this genre a clearer look into mysteries and confusions of childhood . . . moving and often amusing portraits . . . insights into the complex and often corrupt world of Chicago politics, the city being this book's true protagonist. There are compelling scenes from Simon's years as a war correspondent, roving reporter, and political operative . . . There is also an emotional account of Michael Jordan's last championship season with the Bulls that is a book within a book . . .

"The writing is uniformly superb. This is, in fact, a memoir of such breadth and reach it compares favorably with another book that is allegedly about the nature of sports allegiance, Frederick Exley's A Fan's Notes. And that, believe me, is saying something."

About this title

About the Author

Scott Simon has won every major award in broadcasting for his personal essays, war reporting, and commentary. He has reported from all fifty states, scores of foreign countries, and eight wars. He hosts Weekend Edition with Scott Simon Saturday mornings on National Public Radio (which the Washington Post has called "the most literate, witty, moving, and just plain interesting news show on any dial") and numerous public television and cable programs.

From Booklist

With the exception of the Chicago Bulls' NBA championship run in the nineties and the Bears' 1985 Super Bowl, Windy City sports fans have been doomed to a perpetual cycle of preseason excitement, midseason frustration, and late-season despair. Simon, host of NPR's Weekend Edition and the recipient of virtually every broadcast journalism award for his political and war reporting, is a lifelong Chicagoan, if not geographically, at least by sports affiliation. As a Chicago youth, his father was pals with Hall of Fame broadcaster Jack Brickhouse. Later, his journalism credentials placed him in contact with some of the city's sports legends, but for the most part he rooted from afar. Simon recounts the Cubs' heartbreaking collapse in 1969, the Bears' buffoonish mediocrity from their NFL title in 1963 to the arrival of Iron Mike Ditka as coach in the early 1980s, and the rise of the Bulls in Michael Jordan's early years. Fully half the book is devoted to Simon's adoration of the championship Bulls, but his memories go far beyond the rose-colored highlight reel one might expect from a googly-eyed fan. Often Simon was working as a correspondent in one war-torn corner of the world or another as the Bulls rolled to title after title, and it is a testament to the power of sport that, in the midst of death squads and mass graves, there is still a part of us that can care about athletic competition. Fortysomething Chicago fans will most closely identify with Simon's sporting life, but fans everywhere will discover in his passionate yet analytical prose the kernels of truth that will help them define their own fandom. Wes Lukowsky

About this edition

• Publisher: Hachette Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0786886528
• ISBN 13: 9780786886524
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 364