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makekinda 's review for:
The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth
by Leigh Montville
Read for the category of a biography of someone born in the 1800s.
I knew Babe Ruth was a massive celebrity, but I didn't really know the story of his life. And now I do. I guess that's the point of a biography, huh? But a theme of this book is that even a famous person is pretty much unknown. The celebrity of Ruth was created in news articles that embellished or completely fictionalized his activities. Almost nobody knew the truth, and very little of the reality of his life was recorded for posterity.
"This was the apogee in the age of new heroes. They were delivered to the front door now, these heroes, consumed like breakfast cereal. They weren't long-ago characters of mythology or simple words on paper; their voices could be heard on the radio, their pictures could be seen in the paper, in the news shorts at the theater. They were personal, exciting friends of every family. In 1927 A.D., America chewed up heroes, swallowed them whole."
I knew Babe Ruth was a massive celebrity, but I didn't really know the story of his life. And now I do. I guess that's the point of a biography, huh? But a theme of this book is that even a famous person is pretty much unknown. The celebrity of Ruth was created in news articles that embellished or completely fictionalized his activities. Almost nobody knew the truth, and very little of the reality of his life was recorded for posterity.
"This was the apogee in the age of new heroes. They were delivered to the front door now, these heroes, consumed like breakfast cereal. They weren't long-ago characters of mythology or simple words on paper; their voices could be heard on the radio, their pictures could be seen in the paper, in the news shorts at the theater. They were personal, exciting friends of every family. In 1927 A.D., America chewed up heroes, swallowed them whole."