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maa_pix's review
2.0
Sad to say, this is a pretty poor book. What could have been a great retrospective on 40 years of Michigan Football was instead a series of repetitive name-dropping platitudes. Only my Michigan roots keep me from giving it 1 star.
The focus of the writing was haphazard at best, flitting from one topic to another within the span of paragraphs, or even sentences. The rambling nature of the narrative, especially in the opening chapters, almost made me set the book aside. For example, in the chapter about recruiting, the authors don't even mention recruiting until the fourth page of a seven page chapter. The first pages are spent rambling about how Bo and Falk handled retirement, how Carr liked to chew the fat with Bo, how Bo liked to tease Falk, how the rise of social media has changed players' behavior over the years, everything but recruiting. Get to the point already.
The philosophy of "show, don't tell" was totally set aside by the authors. They repeatedly *say* how Falk was, or how Bo was, or how the players were, but don't consistently follow through with stories that illustrate those assertions. There are a few good stories -- Falk cleaning out Bo's locker, "Woody Passed the Ball", "Did You Rob That Bank?", "Enemy Found and Captured", Iowa's pink locker room -- which come mostly in the later chapters. But many of the stories are repeated throughout the book, sometimes changing from telling to telling. Like the story about Jim Harbaugh's guarantee of a Michigan victory over Ohio State in 1986. In one telling, when first hearing about the guarantee, Bo rolls his eyes at Harbaugh's bravado, and in another he gets a twinkle in his eye and says, "That's my boy!" Two totally different takes on the same event. Makes one start to doubt the narration altogether.
A book about Michigan's storied football program, about one of the mainstays of that program, who is vaunted as being such a great storyteller, should be nothing *but* great stories from cover to cover. By that standard, this book is a failure. One wonders what a good editor might have been able to do with this material, or what further gems could have been coaxed out of Falk's memories.
P.S.: Also, no index. A book like this, about people and events across 40 years of history, should absolutely have an index.
The focus of the writing was haphazard at best, flitting from one topic to another within the span of paragraphs, or even sentences. The rambling nature of the narrative, especially in the opening chapters, almost made me set the book aside. For example, in the chapter about recruiting, the authors don't even mention recruiting until the fourth page of a seven page chapter. The first pages are spent rambling about how Bo and Falk handled retirement, how Carr liked to chew the fat with Bo, how Bo liked to tease Falk, how the rise of social media has changed players' behavior over the years, everything but recruiting. Get to the point already.
The philosophy of "show, don't tell" was totally set aside by the authors. They repeatedly *say* how Falk was, or how Bo was, or how the players were, but don't consistently follow through with stories that illustrate those assertions. There are a few good stories -- Falk cleaning out Bo's locker, "Woody Passed the Ball", "Did You Rob That Bank?", "Enemy Found and Captured", Iowa's pink locker room -- which come mostly in the later chapters. But many of the stories are repeated throughout the book, sometimes changing from telling to telling. Like the story about Jim Harbaugh's guarantee of a Michigan victory over Ohio State in 1986. In one telling, when first hearing about the guarantee, Bo rolls his eyes at Harbaugh's bravado, and in another he gets a twinkle in his eye and says, "That's my boy!" Two totally different takes on the same event. Makes one start to doubt the narration altogether.
A book about Michigan's storied football program, about one of the mainstays of that program, who is vaunted as being such a great storyteller, should be nothing *but* great stories from cover to cover. By that standard, this book is a failure. One wonders what a good editor might have been able to do with this material, or what further gems could have been coaxed out of Falk's memories.
P.S.: Also, no index. A book like this, about people and events across 40 years of history, should absolutely have an index.
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