Reviews

Playing Through the Whistle: Steel, Football, and an American Town by S.L. Price

erinkelly's review

2.0

Extremely long and a hard plot to follow since only the football coaches carried through. Way too long and detailed for the topic

victoriac's review

3.0

Thanks to Grove Atlantic and Netgalley for the ARC of this non-fiction title. Having grown up, while not in Aliquippa but in an almost indistinguishable other Western PA mill town with a strong football tradition, I was really interested in the subject matter. I had no idea how many big name sports and other celebrities hailed from Aliquippa and I enjoyed the author's theories about why the town produced so many high achieving sports teams and people, although I felt this was possibly repeated too many times thoughout the book. My only real criticism of the book was its length. Perhaps some tighter editing could have cut down the volume. Towards the last 1/4, I was finding it a struggle to get through to the end. Recommended for readers who enjoy things like David McCullough's books.

mcf's review

4.0

This was a weird one for me. It was fascinating, well-researched, and seamlessly told, and yet it was a SLOG to get through it, something that usually only happens with books that don't have all those other qualities. I'm giving it four stars for the writing and research, but when I finished it my main reaction was to wonder why I'd read it. It's an interesting story, certainly, but there's nothing singular about it. Instead, Price simply uses a small, PA town to walk the reader through the ups and downs that much of industrial American experienced in the 20th century. In other words, for those who study history even superficially there are few surprises here, just faces and names to go with the events and trends about which you're already aware.