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

3.0

I am very mixed about this book. On one hand, Maraniss, as he notes in his epilogue, spent a long time consulting Indigenous activists and experts alongside librarians and archivists in order to complete this book, and there are references in the back which is appreciated. The book is nearly 600 pages and Maraniss goes to great lengths to contextualize a lot of the events Thrope went through. Some are more important than others (i.e. which football team first began using the forward pass!). But, on the other hand, I think Thorpe's own life, voice, and place get lost - with the exception of two chapters that are largely just letters he wrote to a partner. My final issue is that while this book goes to lengths to point out the racism and stereotypes Thorpe faced, it still very much is a western narrative of an Indigenous man in America. Perhaps other books or authors provide an Indigenous worldview on Thorpe's life that this book does not engage with - indeed, Thorpe's Indigenity sometimes falls to the wayside as Maraniss focuses on other tangents and topics.