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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
emotional
informative
slow-paced
I'm not one for sports, but Thorpe's life is so epic and tragic and captures a pretty vivid moment in history. Maraniss keeps the book moving at a fast pace and portrays Thorpe as a realistic, whole person, never shying away from the ways racism affected his personal and professional life. Descriptions of how Thorpe influenced the sports of his day, including descriptions of several games, were accessible to me, a person who does not watch sports. It held my interest.
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Grief, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Pandemic/Epidemic
adventurous
challenging
informative
medium-paced
An amazing work by Maraniss on one of the more complicated and somewhat tragic stories in American sports. Thorpe represented so much about what was right and wrong about America as it related to its original inhabitants.
(One note: the book went to press after Thorpe was fully reinstated as a double gold medalist in 1912. He had previously been reinstated as a co-champion, but that is no longer the case.)
(One note: the book went to press after Thorpe was fully reinstated as a double gold medalist in 1912. He had previously been reinstated as a co-champion, but that is no longer the case.)
This was so long and detailed that I couldn't finish it. I was looking for an inspiring story of an amazing athlete, and wasn't expecting all the minutely detailed historical research and politics that were included. Jim Thorpe was not the centerpiece of this book. I will look for a lighter read that is more focused on Jim Thorpe.
I don’t know that I learned anything new in this book, but Jim Thorpe is certainly worthy of the time I took to read it.