The Sporting Life: Horses, Boxers, Rivers, and a Russian Ballclub - Hardcover

Barich, Bill

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1558219358 ISBN 13: 9781558219359

Publisher: Lyons Pr, 1999

Synopsis

Presents a collection of the New Yorker essayist's profiles of figures and phenomena from the sporting world.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Bill Barich's widely praised work doesn't get any better than these intimate glimpses into the stories behind the stories, the real lives behind the public facade of the sporting world. Barich delves into both participatory and spectator sports, examining three different types of horse racing: down-and-dirty bush racing in Cajun country; an elegant steeplechase at Ascot, England, and a big-time Santa Anita thoroughbred heading for the Kentucky Derby; two boxers from radically opposite ends of the spectrum: Pat Lawlor struggling to make it in San Francisco, and Mike Tyson battling his emotions; two fly-fishing adventures on legendary California rivers; and the world's strangest baseball club, the Moscow Red Devils, barnstorming the United States with Soviet trinkets for sale and skills on par with a good American high school team. Every piece shines with Barich's distinctive voice, and approach that splendidly balances both enthusiasm and intelligence with healthy doses of humor. The result is the very best kind of sports writing - from one of the master prose stylists of our time. (61/4 X 91/4, 164 pages)

Reviews

YA-A collection of engaging true-life stories about horse racing, boxing, fishing, and baseball. In a polished and prose-filled style, the author presents his views of spectators and competitors, amateurs and professionals, bettors and bystanders. The book begins with a rousing race and friendly postulating of the horses at Royal Ascot in England. Readers can feel the nip of the weather, the excitement of having the Queen Mother in the stands, and the thrill of watching the fate of a wager on a favored equine. Colorful description and dialogue reveal the emotions and fervor attached to life in the boxing ring. Barich writes about the travails of an Irish amateur who has more heart than skill, and more skill than publicity. It is as clear as the sweat on the boxers' faces how they feel about their sport and how Barich rates them. When turning his attention to Russia's first attempt at baseball, he is also respectfully caring. The Moscow Red Devils tour the United States, stopping at high schools and junior colleges to display their prowess, even though perseverance is all that shows. They pick up more experience and English phrases than wins. Whether fishing solo or with a friend, Barich enjoys every minute of the play between man and fish, and sometimes between fisherman and fisherman or between fly caster and bait seller. His love of nature is evident. Throughout the entire book, the author comes across as a good-humored guy fascinated by the sporting life.
Karen Sokol, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A slim volume collecting the acclaimed New Yorker essayists profiles of figures and phenomena from the sporting world. Normally a writer for publications with effete appeal, Barich in these previously published essays, dating back to 1985, explores unique facets of games with the manliest appealhorses, boxing, fishing, and baseball. In the short essay that precedes the entriesthe only new writing that appears in the bookthe author reveals his connections to the events he covers. As it turns out, Barich rarely follows the obvious angles. In Chasers, for example, he profiles the opening of Englands jumping, or horse steeplechase, season by recounting his time spent at Ascot in the company of his friend, Andrew, a charming, eccentric jack of all trades. In Going to the Moon, Barich heads out on the road with a barnstorming baseball team, the Moscow Red Devils, a Soviet squad who are crisscrossing America spreading good will, picking up valuable pointers on their beloved adopted game, and selling Russian souvenirs to make ends meet along the way. In Feather River Country, Barich revisits a subject that often finds its way into his work, either literally or metaphorically: fly fishing. And in In Prime Time, a 1988 New Yorker piece on the Mike TysonMichael Spinks prizefight in which the former won a heavyweight crown, readers get an insiders view of the circus-like atmosphere of a big-time prizefight and the curious demimonde of Atlantic City casino life. This time, Barich casts a somewhat jaundiced eye on the influence that pay cable television, crooked promoters, and uninterested competitors exert over the fight game. As ever, Barichs prose is stunning: even-keeled, observant, honest, though seldom trenchant. Since the entries in this book all appeared earlier in large circulation periodicals, there is nothing new herebut for those who missed them the first time around, theyre new to you. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Barich is a throwback writer who seems able to write gracefully and knowingly about wherever he is and whatever he happens to be doing: flyfishing in the Sierra Nevadas, watching the English Ascot Steeplechase, sizing up Donald Trump ringside at the 93-second Mike Tyson-Michael Spinks heavyweight championship, or enjoying Cajun quarter horse racing at a Louisiana bush track. As with his literary ancestors Pierce Egan and William Hazlitt, most Barich adventures involve the author's journey to the event. The author of the lovely racing memoir Laughing in the Hills (1980), Barich might have found the larger audience he deserves by now if he had specialized as just a racing or fishing author. Instead, he has remained the special favorite of fellow writers and editors. This small, diverting collection of his literate travels (many of which appeared first in The New Yorker) may not get Barich a wider readership, either, but it shows an undersung writer exploring his world while keeping his prose chops in shape. For sports, travel, and literature collections.ANathan Ward, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A little of Barich's prose gives a lot of pleasure, so it would be churlish to complain about the length of this slight volume. Still, you can't help wanting more. Nobody writes better about the peculiar joys of fishing than Barich, yet there are only two brief essays on the subject. The same can be said about thoroughbred racing, yet there are only three. They do include, however, a classic piece about the country's last entirely unregulated race track: The Quarter Pole in Rayne, Louisiana, where the purses are put up by the participants, the bets are made between patrons, and the rules be damned. Barich delves into boxing as well. There is an uncannily perceptive profile of Mike Tyson and an equally insightful view of an obscure San Francisco junior middleweight named Irish Pat Lawlor. Throw in an offbeat account of a barnstorming Russian baseball club, and the collection makes for a delicious appetizer. For those fortunate enough not to have read Barich's previous six books, the main course lies ahead. The rest of us can only wait, with eager anticipation, for his next offering. Dennis Dodge

Edition details

• Publisher: Lyons Pr
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1558219358
• ISBN 13: 9781558219359
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 154