A review by htruck
Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe by David Maraniss

2.0

In July of 2022, IOC announced that it would reinstate Thorpe as the sole winner of the 1912 Olympic pentathlon and decathlon. This book feels like a rushed attempt to capitalize on that news.

There's a lot included in this book, and the entire time I read it I found myself re-outlining all of the information into better chapters. In one lone time line format, it was chaotic, and often difficult to follow, with too many characters and too many side stories. I know there's no way to tell Thorpe's story without discussing the Carlisle School, and Pop Warner, and the plight of the Indian in America at that time... but with all of those subjects, and many more, stuck into so many areas of the time line, it felt like I was both receiving both too much information, and not enough, all at the same time.

And that's from someone who knew a good deal about Thorpe's life before reading the book.

I can't fault the author for the contradictions of Thorpe's life, but in the way they were presented, it didn't make the book any more readable.