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A review by aasplund
A Guy Like Me: The John Scott Story by Brian Cazeneuve, John Scott
2.0
2.5 stars.
The overall effective of this book was great - I laughed at the ending and had fun sharing the full story with people. John Scott's story is definitely a real life Rocky Balboa scenario and I really enjoyed getting to know about it.
But there was also a lot of boring info to slog through before I got to the final couple chapters.
Overall, there wasn't exactly anything wrong with this book. It was a decent read and had some interesting information about hockey that I hadn't realized before. But so much of it was full of exactly the kind of things I hate about memoirs:
Endless namedropping is seriously one of my least favorite parts of a memoir or biography. If it's a rock 'n' roll bio, then I'll at least recognize most of the names, so it's not as bad. But here, when I know very little about hockey, it's just annoying. And fills pages with dumb information that doesn't really matter to the person's story.
Really dry and dull biographical information is another part that always sucks about memoirs. There are always pages and pages of "So I grew up in such-and-such town and my parents were this or that way and my siblings did this." There can be interesting aspects, but when most of the book is full of basic information about families that aren't that interesting, it can be a lot to read. This book was one of those. John Scott seems like a decent guy, but his upbringing was very dull to read through.
A lot of memoirs have no personality. I'm sure John Scott is a fascinating guy, but there wasn't a lot about his writing that showed any personality at all. It makes for a boring read to hear long lists of uninteresting events told in a really dull way. This was a flat read, in large part due to John Scott's lack of writing skills.
Overall, this can be a really fun book if you care about hockey. But don't expect anything wonderful or fascinating from this that you wouldn't expect from a typical memoir.
The overall effective of this book was great - I laughed at the ending and had fun sharing the full story with people. John Scott's story is definitely a real life Rocky Balboa scenario and I really enjoyed getting to know about it.
But there was also a lot of boring info to slog through before I got to the final couple chapters.
Overall, there wasn't exactly anything wrong with this book. It was a decent read and had some interesting information about hockey that I hadn't realized before. But so much of it was full of exactly the kind of things I hate about memoirs:
Endless namedropping is seriously one of my least favorite parts of a memoir or biography. If it's a rock 'n' roll bio, then I'll at least recognize most of the names, so it's not as bad. But here, when I know very little about hockey, it's just annoying. And fills pages with dumb information that doesn't really matter to the person's story.
Really dry and dull biographical information is another part that always sucks about memoirs. There are always pages and pages of "So I grew up in such-and-such town and my parents were this or that way and my siblings did this." There can be interesting aspects, but when most of the book is full of basic information about families that aren't that interesting, it can be a lot to read. This book was one of those. John Scott seems like a decent guy, but his upbringing was very dull to read through.
A lot of memoirs have no personality. I'm sure John Scott is a fascinating guy, but there wasn't a lot about his writing that showed any personality at all. It makes for a boring read to hear long lists of uninteresting events told in a really dull way. This was a flat read, in large part due to John Scott's lack of writing skills.
Overall, this can be a really fun book if you care about hockey. But don't expect anything wonderful or fascinating from this that you wouldn't expect from a typical memoir.