5 comments about Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany (Vintage).

1. Anyone who has ever worked at a continental-style restaurant should read this book.
   
   I picked up "Heat" in the interests of reliving my experiences in two continental restaurants, run by two totally different-in-temperament chefs, one Austrian, one Swiss. Neither one embodies quite the insanity exhibited by Mario Batali, the owner/operator of Babbo in New York City,and known via TV as The Iron Chef. I must confess I have never watched The Iron Chef, although I have heard of him; but most of what goes on here does not impact him in that show.
   
   Mr Buford, who seems to have had an open-ended commitment with his real job at the New York Times, decides upon interviewing and further visiting with Mario Batali, that he would like to apprentice to him, to learn the art of Italian cooking. Mr Buford knows just enough about cooking to get into trouble, and it doesn't take long for him to do so when he arrives at Babbo to begin his apprenticeship. I found myself nodding my head at the things that happened to him; I recognized all the personalities in the restaurant, all the petty jealousies, all the various traumas that go on in a busy, popular restaurant on a weekend night. Mr Buford's traverse through the stages of hierarchy was entertaining to say the least. Some things that went on there made me cringe; I'm pretty sure some of the things Mr Buford reported have never occurred at the restaurants I worked at, but it's possible; I was never on the line, but my chefs were nowhere near Mario Batali in style or performance either. (And I mean that in a good way; the man is clearly nuts.)
   
   My favourite part of the book, however, was when Mr Buford, in the interests of furthering his education as a butcher, went to Italy to study under Dario Cecchini in Tuscany (further indication that Mr Buford has ample funds stored up to entertain these conceits about becoming a chef, as it seems apparent that he wasn't earning anything in Italy either). His style of writing made the little hill town where he was very vivid in my mind; the personalities he encountered were highly likable; and overall I wanted to pack up and go over there for a protracted visit myself. It didn't make me any more enamoured of pigs or their products (I only had to find out what pancetta was to know I didn't need it in my diet), but I was greatly entertained by his excursion over there and, having long wanted to visit Tuscany, it just makes me want to go there even more.
   
   Mr Buford is a thorough examiner of his environment, and I felt like I knew everyone he worked with afterwards. The joy of food, the joy of the preparation of food (or not), is clear throughout the book, and while I found hilarity within it, I also found great insight in the entire restaurant experience, from cooking to management. I'm not sure I could work with Mr Batali, but I have a greater insight into the world of food preparation for the public, on all levels. A very entertaining book. I felt like I had a pretty good education in the topic at the end of it.



2. In reading through the 1 star reviews, I'm awfully confused. There's not much "foul" language, particularly if you contrast it with Bourdain's books. I'm 7/8 of the way through and can't think of anything other than a very few sprinkled f-bombs at all. For the folks who complain about the lack of an in-depth look at French food and life in France - well, its title is pretty much the major clue - pasta and Tuscany don't scream French cuisine. I'm constantly amazed at people's ability to complain. That said, I enjoyed it but it's not a great book. It offers one person's experiences in a celebrity driven kitchen (I've never watched Mario Batali on TV and I am less likely to now) and in some other settings. I never caught his passion for cooking - it seemed more like an adventure so he would have something to write about than an adventure of his life.



3. This is a very fun book. It is especially fun for those of us who have worked in restaurants. The literary images of poor Mr. Buford being thrown to the fire--quite literally--is a delightful ride. It is a foodie's paradise and a self-deprecating memoir of the author's offbeat culinary education (at a somewhat mature age).



4. Bill Buford writes a highly entertaining book. Heat is good for 3 reasons.
   
   One, Bill is humble. It's very easy to forget that the author was an editor for the New Yorker. It's also very easy to forget how successful/famous Mario Batali and his restaurants are; which is for whom and where Bill worked. These facts seem to disappear because the author is so humble. This makes him appear more human and allows the reader to connect with him more easily.
   
   Two, he's extremely self-deprecating. After working at Babbo for a few months he described his role as the, "kitchen bitch, cleaning the kitchen's bitch." Little quotes like this speed the book along.
   
   Three, he's passionate. Bill Buford loves food. He loves learning about it, preparing it and most of all the timeless tradition of eating it. Whenever he's describing something food related his excitement begins to permeate through his writing.
   
   Together these points make Heat a very entertaining book that is difficult to put down.
   
   A note to all the foodies - you may be disappointed by this book. This book is more about the journey than it is about the food.



5. The book is boring, and what is worst, the author is always making racist comments. Very disappointing.Don't bother reading this book.

5 comments about The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Vintage International) (Vintage International).

1. Absolutely amazing. And a quick read, too, so you really have no excuse to miss it. SHUT UP. NO EXCUSE. Jeez, you can even borrow it from me, okay?



2. This is a wonderful book. Very quick read. Makes you truly appreciate your own life. Highly recommended.



3. 
   
   Bauby gives us a truly remarkable and inspirational story of his life trapped inside a body that no longer serves him.
   
   But his mind remains as sharp as ever.
   
   He transcends his immobility with grace and a remarkable gift of a rich, lucid imagination.
   He is free in his mind to enjoy all of life and it's lush sensory gifts and memories...to take flight as if a butterfly.
   
   A heartbreaking true story.



4. This book was an eye-opening and amazing view into the internal life of a man under tragic circumstances. It is a very human look - sometimes funny and sarcastic and at times tragically sad - into Bauby's mind and spirit which never gives in.



5. I work with brain injured people daily and they never cease to amaze me. The book and the movie are testimony to the strength of the human spirit.

5 comments about This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women.

1. I bought this for my dad for his birthday a few months ago because I consider him to be a remarkable person as well. He thoroughly loved it and is having my mom now read it. If my dad says it's good than it is so.



2. I have to agree with another reviewer...this is banal and boring. Most of the essays are highly repetitive (i.e. be good to others, have faith in God, be a good role model, make peace not war...blah,blah,blah). Sure, people have a right to their beliefs and I do not presume to argue against those; nonetheless, the beliefs are uninspired and typical, revealing little more than "Wow, we all want the world to be a better place, and it can only come about if you believe what I believe."
   
   This ties into my final point: virtually all of the essays had a didactic tone. Growing up in the midwest, I have no desire to be taught what I should believe.



3. Great collection from ordinary to famous people - from the series titled "This I Believe" on Public Radio. Bought as a gift to inspire a young writer.



4. Short stories that share the reality and persistence of the common American. Some really hit home. Others are lighthearted and yet profound.
   Recommended.



5. A book that is worth the words that they are written on. Personal beliefs are unique due to individual lifestyles which are reflected by the inspirational essays making up this book. Spend your money and you will be very glad you did.

5 comments about Thinking About Memoir (AARP).

1. Although a small book it is more thoughtful and deeper than the recent Natalie Goldberg tome. Thomas is a completely honest writer, very affirming for those of us who aspire to this style. When she gives the instructions at the end of each chapter it is clear that they are ideas and not the main point of the book.



2. This book was not what I expected or wanted. It's too basic and not very inspiring! It's not a book I'll keep and use. I was really disappointed.



3. I recommend That's How the Light Gets In: Memoir of a Psychiatrist by Susan Rako, M.D. Rako's book is fascinating, insightful, and an absolutely great read. The writing just flows.



4. A completely charming book about memoirs encouraging you to write your life stories. Captivating stories, fascinating vignettes, and superb writing combine to make this an inspiring book. Her writing exercise suggestions are interesting enough to tempt even non-writers and provide more experienced writers a great chance to warm up.
   
   "Writing memoirs is a way to figure out who you used to be and how you got to be who you are." Based on this book, I am looking forward to other titles in this AARP "Arts of Living" series. I only wish that this quite small book was twice as long!



5. "What is memoir? How do you write one? What if you can't remember anything, or worse, what if you remember it all?"
   
   AARP has started publishing an "Art of Living" series, and this passage is the begins Abigail Thomas's excellent contribution. She shares lessons about how to get started and stay motivated in writing your own personal history.
   
   Thomas helps wannabe writers find a "side door" with writing exercises. It's great fun to watch her apply her hints in practice: "Trust the work to find its own way," Example: "take any 10 years of your life and reduce them to two pages. Every sentence has to be three words long--not two, not four, but three words long. You discover there's nowhere to hide in three-word sentences."
   
   Other useful hints: cut ruthlessly. "[H]alf of writing is deciding what to leave out.... Marriage, divorce, love, sex--yes, there's all of that, but often what takes up precious space is sleeping on grass, or an ancient memory of blue Popsicle juice running down your sticky chin."
   
   Write every day; make it a habit. Thomas doesn't like calling your notebook a "journal" because she believes it implies writing for publication (so what's wrong with that?). And, some folks, myself included, find composing on a computer easier than scribbling on paper. Whatever your medium, Thomas's basic message is "make a start".
   
   I really enjoyed this book, but keep it next to Writing Life Stories by Bill Roorbach. One of his first writing exercises was to make a map of the earliest neighborhood I could remember. It was fascinating to compare the map I came up with against an aerial map published by the government.
   
   These two fine books use a similar approach, but each writer has their own distinctive "voice", just as you will if you take their advice and just "make a start".
   
   
   Robert C. Ross 2008

5 comments about Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp.

1. The book definitely shed some light on what overweight children go through. I think Ms. Klein is admirable for not being afraid to expose every detail regarding what she went through at this time in her life.



2. I really enjoyed reading this book. It kept me interested from start to finish as I learned about the authors struggle with her weight. It is very honest, poignant and insightful about what it was like to grow up overweight and issues with "fat camp". I'd highly recommend this book.



3. In her second memoir, Stephanie Klein attempts to get to the root of the lifelong battle that has been her weight. At the age of eight she went on her first diet with the help of a local diet doctor in her Long Island hometown. At age 13 she attended Camp Yanisin, a summer camp specializing in helping young adolescents lose weight. Arriving at the camp nestled in the mountains of Massachusetts, Klein is already a weight-loss pro, a self-proclaimed "fat camp champ." She knows all the fads and the tricks, and is determined to shed her schoolyard moniker of "Moose."
   
   But MOOSE is not just about the author's struggle with her weight. It's also a treatise on pubescent awareness, self-esteem, and in Klein's case, a slightly precocious interest in sexuality, earning her the nickname "Porno Queen." She devotes much of her time conjuring up excuses to visit the boys' bunk rather than focusing on her health and quickly spots a hazardous pattern in her behavior: "Eventually, I'd give in, realizing I'd not only pleasured my way through the cranberry-walnut pie, but I'd inhaled the whole of our kitchen. It seems I didn't just do this with food, I did it with boys. I Crosby, Stills, and Nashed my way though adolescence and loved all the ones I was with. If I couldn't be with Adam, I'd be with everyone else." If she couldn't satisfy the hunger within with food, she'd try boys.
   
   Klein deals with family issues, like the distant, sometimes strained relationship with her strict father and remote mother, and her never-ending search for approval, acceptance and success, and how she thinks that she would've gained all of these if only she had lost the weight: "You're either likable or you're not. And some people just give you more chances if you were thin. Because after all, it was just as I'd imagined all along: thin could wear red and be a bitch and people would still like her."
   
   As an adult struggling with the difficult labor and delivery of premature twins, Klein attempts to leave her food worries behind her once and for all, not just for her own health but to be an example for her newborn son and daughter. But through caustic wit and humor, she admits that the years of counting calories have not taught her much in the way of wisdom. She continues to struggle with food and probably always will: "I haven't conquered any battles with food, with the bulge, or within myself. I still fight with my weight. Sometimes it fights back. It was messy when I was younger, and it continues to be. I can recite positive affirmations, trying to convince myself I'm no longer Moose."
   
   Through her humor and self-effacing charm, Klein imparts her struggles in a completely relatable way. Who hasn't struggled with self-esteem, especially as a teenager? Who hasn't thought of elaborate "I'll show them!" scenarios? The author is painfully honest (sometimes excruciatingly so) about her issues and opinions, and lays bare her behavior without apology. A person's foibles, for better or worse, don't define that person, but they do help build a certain character.
   
   Given the chance to go back and edit anything, Klein begs off: "That's the thing about being a former fat camp champ; when asked if I'd change my past if I could, I think for a moment and always answer no. the pain in being an overweight kid, the humiliation, makes you think twice before ever cutting anyone else down. There's something almost perfect in the ugly duckling syndrome. Something just. Something that just makes it mildly worth it. Because a sensitivity is tattooed on a part of you no one else can see but they can somehow guess is there. It's always with you. A scar maybe, some hurt that really does make you better."
   
   Stephanie Klein is no longer known as "Moose," but it's safe to say that the memory of that painful time, as well as the lessons she gleaned, will be with her forever.
   
   --- Reviewed by Bronwyn Miller



4. I'm a fan of Stephanie Klein's blog and I loved her first book. This one was a pleasant enough read but definitely easy enough to put down when an interruption came.



5. The book arrived in good condition. It's a very good story; I'm glad that
   I ordered it.

5 comments about This Boy's Life: A Memoir.

1. The memoir is intriguing. Any male who reads this can, at some point, relate to the follies, plunders, and disappointments Wolff encounters during his adolescence. It is explicit and candid making for an interesting read.



2. I'm about 2/3rds through this, and I find it entirely absorbing. Wolff's writing talent is not in using fancy words or complex forms...just one sentence after another of perfectly pitched prose that feels entirely true and believable. He gains the reader's trust and empathy early on and never loses them, even though, in my case, I wasn't much interested in the details of his somewhat sordid and pathetic early years. I keep asking myself this holds my attention, while most memoirs by people I have a lot more in common with don't. (Not to sound like a snob, but guns, dogs, smoking, drinking, etc. have never been my thing.) I think the reason is that his writing seems entirely transparent, plus you care about him. postscript: I've finished it now and towards the end I was increasingly pained by how f**ked up a person Wolff is--or was. It's troubling and yet the writing is still transparent. You might say he gives us a God's eye view: if there is a force that knows everything and can look at all our failings, faults and mistakes with simultaneous compassion and dispassion, then I think such a Being would write up Wolff's early life in the way he himself wrote it. You get a feeling that there is no self-judging or constrictions and nothing to hide: just the truth, the all too human truth.



3. A great true story (almost) about Mr.Wolffs childhood. Robert DeNiro did an excellent job as the step-Father in this movie. This is typical of a Father figure who has no self esteem and picks at every little thing that goes wrong. It is never his fault always someone else. Toby has a tough time with growing up without a father and being carted around the country by his Mother who has no roots to tie on to. I see a lot of teenage problems in this movie that are played out and done extremely well. Take the time to watch this movie, you will not be sorry.



4. This is a well written and engaging memoir. It ends a bit abruptly, leaving me wondering how the author went on to become the distinguished writer he did. I enjoyed this book. The people and places described did become alive to me. While not a page turner, this was a book I enjoyed quite a bit.



5. Short (4-5 hours) account of author's troubled youth. Hard to put down, this book would easily appeal to a wide audience.

5 comments about Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life.

1. Having just finished Steve Martin's "Born Standing Up" I can't for the life of me understand the 5 star rating that so many people have given it. His breathless staccato writing style is a far cry from great literature and reads more like a fleshed out resume than an actual autobiography. I found it mildly interesting but kept waiting for it to get better. I'm still waiting. Mercifully, at least it's a slim volume and I bought it used so not much time or money spent. I can neither recommend it nor caution one to stay away. Just don't pay retail.



2. I've read complaints about the length (of lack thereof). I found the book to be compelling & very well-edited. It's an insightful look behind the scenes of a comic's life & shatters the myth of the overnight success story. It's well worth your time.



3. Finding someone in this country who doesn't know of Steve Martin would be a chore that I'd prefer not to attempt to undertake. What's the point of finding someone who has been living under a rock for the last thirty years?
   
   Being the age that I am, my introduction to Steve Martin was most likely through an appearance on The Muppet Show. Not long after, I found that my father had a Steve Martin album, A Wild and Crazy Guy, which concluded with the memorable "King Tut." Thus, before I really understood that there was such a thing as "stand-up comedy," I was vaguely aware that the Steve Martin I would soon begin to see in movies was a performer of some sort.
   
   Born Standing Up is Steve Martin's memoir of his years as a stand-up comedian: "not an autobiography but a biography, because I am writing about someone I used to know." The narrative begins in the summer of 1965, when Steve Martin was just about to begin his life as a performer.
   
   We're then taken back to 1950, when the Martin family moved with five-year-old Steve from Waco, Texas to Hollywood. We're then given a view into life at home and especially the cool and complex relationship between Glenn Martin and his son.
   
   At age ten, Steve Martin secured a job selling guidebooks at Disneyland, where he could study performers plying their craft daily. Securing a position in a magic shop at Disneyland proved crucial. The hours spent demonstrating magic tricks to tourists stopping in the shop led to the development of some skill that led to performances. Changes in the magic shop proved fortunate, helping to move Steve Martin in the direction of comedy.
   
   It has long been said that fortune favors the bold. Fortune has indeed smiled upon Steve Martin. He was bold, developing an act that was hardly conventional even for a time when unconventional was the standard convention for performers. To this, we see more added, the sort of effort and attention to detail that I would sum up succinctly in the word professional. He recorded himself for later listening. He paid attention to himself, how his props, body, and words went together. He watched how different material would work for various audiences. And he practiced, taking on a grueling schedule, show after show, day in an day out.
   
   Finally, Steve Martin made the bigtime. It was then that he decided that he was going to get out of stand-up comedy. The thought is perhaps incomprehensible to some: why leave what you love doing when you're able at the top of the game? Another question is raised: does it follow that you wind up doing what you love simply by virtue of finding success in doing what you love? Put another way, if you love to be bold and original, can you be bold and original when most of the country is repeating catchphrases that come from your act?
   
   Steve Martin is a man of many talents. That writing is among his talents helps to make Born Standing Up a pleasurable read, one that like much of his work also leaves room for reflection after the initial response has subsided.



4. Steve Martin has written a surprisingly sad look back at his life that glosses over most of the major things he is known for while focusing on his dysfuncational family, his inabilities with women and his bad relationship with his father. The book is not very funny, a bit depressing and not as revealing as you would hope an autobiography would be.
   
   The book is very short--at 200 double-spaced pages it takes only a couple hours to read--and the first half of the book is devoted to his life to age 22. He then quickly goes through his early TV years without really telling any stories about the famous people he worked with, then doesn't get to his movie career until 20 pages before the end. He doesn't mention his marriage--but doesn't once alude to his divorce. And doesn't mention anything about family except his distant parents and sister.
   
   It sounds like he just look through some old scrapbooks and started writing his minimal recollections of what happened 40 to 50 years ago. There aren't a lot of details and little insight into how he developed his comedy. Jerry Seinfeld writes on the back cover that it's "One of the best books about comedy and being a comedian ever written," but that is so far from the truth that it's doubtful that Seinfeld even read the book.
   
   There are a few interesting tidbits--like his continued crush on his first girlfriend, who turns out to be Christian prayer book author Stormie Omartian. And some of the photos in the book are great inclusions. Plus Martin opens up about his serious anxiety disorder, which leads him to come across as aloof when he is being interviewed on talk shows.
   
   But this is not a book about his entire career--it's a book about his recollections of being a stand-up comedian decades ago, so there is almost nothing in it from the past 30 years. If you are looking for inside stories about Saturday Night Live or Sonny & Cher or his movie successes you won't find them here--just a rather sad story of a man who never really got his dad's approval, who concludes that true comedy is really very serious.



5. this book was a delight, a fascinating look at the way Martin developed his craft. For anyone who loves comedy or anyone who does public speaking it is a great primer.
   
   Martin is a gifted writer and observer of life, and this book reflects both of those gifts

5 comments about A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties.

1. I've been a Dylan fan since 1970 and have followed his career through all of its ups and downs, the good albums and the bad (yes, there have been more than a few of the latter), and along the way I've also read many of the books that have been written about the man. Most have been utterly forgettable; some have been insightful; and a rare few have actually been enlightening.
   
   Suze Rotolo's A Freewheelin' Time is, if nothing else, enlightening. More than just the story of a life -- or in this case two lives, Rotolo's and Dylan's -- it is an insider's account of a time and place that now seems strangely distance from our own. For more than being just Bob Dylan's girlfriend, or the girl in the picture on one of the most iconic album covers of the 1960s, Rotlo was also someone who, raised by radical, working-class parents in the 1950s, was steeped in the counterculture ethos that defined the early Civil Rights and Anti-War movements that Dylan ultimately gave voice to. In fact, fascinating though her insights into young Bob Dylan are, some of this book's most interesting passages deal not with Dylan himself, but rather with Rotolo's efforts to find her own true identity as a woman in pre-feminist America, and with her struggle to define herself as a non-conformist in a country that even in the do-your-own-thing '60s valued conformity above all else.
   
   Finally, I don't know what Publishers Weekly was talking about when it took Rotolo to task for her having described Dylan as a genius who at heart isn't very honest--as if it isn't possible for someone to be both brilliant and dishonest at the same time. Give me a break. This isn't the first book to suggest that Dylan has often been less than decent (to say the least) in dealing with others. Stories about Dylan putting people (often old friends) down in public are both ubiquitous and legendary. And you only have to listen to some of the more caustic songs on Blonde and Blonde (and let's not forget Positively 4th Street) to know that the man can wield a song like an ax when he really wants to hurt someone. But that's all part of what makes Dylan -- the man of many masks -- so fascinating. Right? I guess some people (the reviewer from Publishers Weekly no doubt being one of them) prefer having their heroes depicted cookie-cutter neat and without any warts.
   
   Bottom line: This is a fine book that will be of interest to anyone who wants to know more about Bob Dylan, about American on the verge of social and political upheval in the early 60's, or who might simply enjoy reading about a young girl who survived a prolonged encounter with greatness and came out all the stronger for having experienced it.



2. This was a well written depiction of the 60's. I was a Bob Dylan fan at this time and he was always quite a mystery to me. This could have been one reason, other than his music which I loved, that he infatuated me. Having never been to the village I'd always been curious about the life style there and Suze Rotolo put it together beautifully. I particularly enjoyed how she linked so many of the folk era greats together and their personal dynamics with each other. The book would be worth reading even had she not been the girlfriend of Bob Dylan. Her story was mesmerizing and without a great deal of empty sentiment.



3. A bit repetitive and poorly edited, but still a fun social history reaffirming a great time in American musical development...



4. This book is for the most part, but not entirely, about the time that Rotolo was lovers with Bob Dylan. She's an interesting person so I was also interested in the stories about her time in Italy, her life as an artist, her upbringing as a working class red diaper baby, her experiences in Greenwich Village, the people she knew in the folksinging world there in the Village. Then, of course, there's Dylan. Interesting stuff. However, her writing was often flat and the ending was disappointing. She skips chunks of time. I would have liked to know more about her evolution as an artist and the ways she may have struggled to keep being a creative person.
   
   I do recommend it to those of you who are interested in that period of time and Greenwich Village.



5. This is a really good read--whether for a look back at the early folk scene in Greenwich Village (starring Bob Dylan, of course) or for a casual history of that still important time that spawned the "youth movement" in the U.S.
   The hook to read this book is that it is written by Bob Dylan's girlfriend during his early career. But soon into the book, the reader realizes that it is not going to be a tell-all about the famous singer with anecdote after anecdote exposing Dylan's life at this very crucial stage. So, should the reader continue? I wasn't sure if it would be worth the time investment to hear Suze Rotolo's story. I did continue on and am I glad I did. What we have here is the story of the '60's by a remarkable, sensitive, intelligent,loyal girl who refused to be swallowed up by the cult of celebrity worship so prevalent in our society today. Yes, it was certainly alluring for her to be Dylan's girlfriend--with all of its glamour and power-- but she knew that she would lose her soul and never discover her own self-worth if she were to remain with him, despite being in love with him (and he her).
   Rotolo writes in a breezy style with the vernacular of the early sixties. She captures well what is like to be a teen/young adult during any epoch and adds the specifics of the turbulent sixties. A long list of characters(most from the folk and music scene) make an appearance in this story: Dave Van Ronk, Ian and Sylvia, Joan Baez, Trini Lopez, Phil Ochs, John Hammond, Jerry Rubin, Raul and Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Ramblin Jack Elliott to mention a few.
   My favorite anecdote in the book is a short one that reveals a most endearing quality of Rotolo. Speaking to an audience in Cuba just after the Revolution, she tells them that she is alienated with the constant use of the terms the proletariat, blue-collar workers stating that she was the only one among the American speakers who was actually from a blue-collar background. "My father,who had worked in a factory, never referred to himself as 'a proletariat'."
   Highly recommended for those who were young during this period, or anyone interested in the genesis and milieu of the young Dylan and his art.

3 comments about Becoming the Natural: My Life In and Out of the Cage.

1. This whole book is a waste of money. Its basically the story of an overrated fighter with a 16-8 record. UFC marketing hype elevated him to a mythical hero like status. He beat an injured Tim sylvia in a decision and an overrated fighter named gabriel gonzaga. Randy milked these two fights for everything there worth and used them to sell everything from t-shirts, razors, autographs, etc. This book is a complete waste of money.



2. Perhaps no one personifies the face of MMA more than Randy Couture. "The Natural," "Captain America" and "Old Man" are perhaps a few of his better known nicknames. His mixed martial arts career spans the explosive popularization of what was once a fringe sport into its mainstream position currently.
   
   Matt Hughes, Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz have all launched their own autobiographies over the past year. Now "The Natural" adds his. Couture provides an absorbing narrative of a working class kid from the Northwest who became a teenage father, got involved in wrestling and showed a quick aptitude for it. As his Greco-Roman career wound down and his Olympic dreams receded, the UFC was just appearing on the horizon and -- almost as an afterthought -- Couture was talked into entering one of the competitions. He quickly distinguished himself as a formidable warrior in the octagon.
   
   Most readers will know the major story lines from then on: the bouts with Vitor Belfort, Tito Ortiz and the three matches against Chuck Liddell. Other memorable bouts are the improbable victories over Tim Sylvia and Gabriel Gonzaga.
   
   One remarkable aspect of Couture's career has been his sheer longevity, competing on a world class level well into his 40's, often fighting guys a decade younger. No rocking chair for The Natural!! I would have been interested in hearing his "secret" for staying competitive so long.
   
   What all these MMA guys seem to have in common is complex relationships with their fathers, often absentee fathers or fathers with (often alcoholic) baggage. No exception here.
   
   Another feature they often seem to have in common is keeping it in their pants. Fidelity is an issue as the MMA guys often freely philander and, well, "dip their wicks" in various inviting female inkwells. Couture traces the rise and fall of Marriage #1, Marriage #2 and the rise of Marriage #3 to Kim Couture. Having hit the marital trifecta, he is well on his way to an octet! Which woman will truly be The One, since they all seem to get traded in for a newer model after a few years. (Are the 2009 models out yet?)
   
   Guys like Couture keep divorce lawyers fully employed.
   
   Couture has always come across though as a regular nice guy with his head screwed one and this memoir is consistent with that impression. It's impossible to dislike the guy. He gives you his side of the developing feud with the UFC brass and the ups and downs of his personal relationship with the ever polarizing Dana White.
   
   As "Becoming the Natural" ends, the reader is left to wonder if Couture's career has had the final coda written. Legal and contractual constraints may do what few opponents have been able to do inside the octagon - defeat Randy Couture. By the time he clears away his legal dispute with Zuffa, will Father Time overtake his willingness to engage? Will the ring rust and erosion of skills allow Couture to compete, especially against the likes of Fedor Emilianko? After seeing Fedor demolish Tim Sylvia on July 19th, it's tempting to give "The Natural" no shot at winning such a match, but the old man has proven me and many others wrong before. One bets against Randy Couture at his peril.
   
   MMA fans will relish this autobiography of an extraordinary athlete - Randy "The Natural" Couture!



3. A few of the recent MMA biographies which have hit bookstores, most notably Liddell's Iceman: My Fighting Life and Ortiz's This Is Gonna Hurt: The Life of a Mixed Martial Arts Champion, are written in a straight forward, and almost bland manner. In other words, they have the story but non of the flare that makes literature beautiful. The one except is Matt Hughes' Made in America: The Most Dominant Champion in UFC History, which had better imagery and supporting detail. Like Hughes' book, Couture's book is well written, exceptionally detailed, and highly intriguing.
   
   Couture has come to be known as the consummate champion - both inside the octagon and outside of it. In this book he details his failures and successes, with stark honesty and lucidity. "Becoming the Natural" is not only the story of a MMA fighter, it is the story of a boy becoming a man. A man who grew up without a father figure, who failed to make the Olympic wrestling team on four different occasions, who was divorced and remarried twice, who has fought and defeated many of the world's greatest fighters, and who continues to stand up for the integrity and honor of the sport everywhere he goes.
   
   As a sports biography, this is one that will be rivaled by non. As an MMA biography, this is the absolute best. Couture shows us why, in life, doing what you love and being open to what God has for you can take you to places you have never even dreamed of.

5 comments about Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth.

1. Often when you see books written about the life of black people in any point and time before the 1960's its main message is "My life was hard because white people are terrible," and that gets very redundant. However this was quite refreshing, as he did not harp on racism on every page. This is a very well written and intresting account of this man's unique life experiences and all the strange, crazy people he encountered within his family and outside them as well. People who have a few or several nuts on their family tree will be able to relate to Black Boy.



2. The best autobiography EVER, in fact I am not even sure it should be called autobiography because it is much more than that for many reasons. Autobiographies are often flat and either self pitying or glorifying, but this one is completely at another level. I was so impressed by the brilliant mind that shines through all obsacles, and his writing is just so natural, logical and insightful, not just about his personal life experiences, but about human suffering, senseless oppression, and unyiedling human spirit. Wow!



3. I ordered this book because it was on my nephews book-report list. It's a good book. But it is full of bad language. I think it's an adult book--with a very compelling story. But completely not for kids. I know kids hear bad language all the time. But to have it presented to them by a 'trusted' adult--gives it a kind of condoning that it doesn't need.



4. Every time I read a book about the plight of blacks in the South in the early part of the 20th century as Jim Crow society solidified I have to shutter in disgust. I have just finished reading communist Harry Haywood's autobiography Black Bolshevik. I have read Malcolm X's words on the fate of his forebears in the post-bellum South and now I have read Richard Wright's autobiographical sketch Black Boy. I will make no defense of the unequal treatment of blacks in the North. There is none. However, Wright's descriptions of the physical and psychological damage, as presented by his own experiences of Jim Crow, done to blacks by Southern whites are positively feudal. There was no room for illusions about the goodness of humankind in that world. To believe so was to face personal humiliation, or worst-the lynching tree.
   
   Wright, after great personal struggle within himself, is able to reflect on his experiences and to articulate the effect that Jim Crow had on him as a black, as a man, as a human being. It was not pretty. One can only image the fate of those less articulate than brother Wright as they try to comprehend a world not of their making but which they early on must learn to navigate. The description of this grinding struggle is heart of the first part of the book.
   
   Wright goes back to the mist of time in his early youth to dissect the hunger, psychological as well as physical, than never was far from his door; the effects on him of a sick and helpless mother; of an absent ne'er-do-well father; and, an overbearing and religiously-driven grandmother on his early development. And those are just the problems in the house. Once Wright steps outside those comparably comfortable confines he faces the outside world of Mississippi reality that he must put on a mask in order to survive in a world that will literarily cut him down if he does not learn the code. Although Wright gives many examples of how this system robbed blacks of their personality the most graphic descriptions, by far, are those that deal with the need to have to put on the mask when whites are around. And the consequences if one did not.
   
   And what of the great escape to the North (via Memphis) to Chicago-the Promised Land that forms the basis for the second part of the book? We have seen that urban story portrayed in other locales as well, for example, in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Claude Brown's Man-Child in The Promised Land. That is where my statement about the treatment, or rather mistreatment, of blacks in the North comes into play. In effect, Wright articulates the contours of a psychological feudalism in the North where the special oppressions of blacks as a race are met with indifference by whites. What makes Wright's case special is that through self-education and willpower he breaks out of the endless and destructive turning in on oneself to articulate his experiences and those of other blacks like him displaced from the rural life of the South to the uncertainties of urban life.
   
   On the face of it seems incongruous that Wright would find a solution to his angst in the American Communist Party during the heyday of the `third period' in the early 1930's. I have mentioned elsewhere, most recently in my review of Harry Haywood's Black Bolshevik (part of which also deals with this period in the American party), that on reading memoirs and autobiographies of the older generations of radicals and revolutionaries I am looking for the spark that broke them from the norms of bourgeois society. I have found that there is a great range of reasons from racial and class hatreds to intellectual curiosity. I find that in the end that Wright's relationship to communism, not without some bumps and bruises along the way, came from intellectual curiosity as much as any sense of racial or class injustice.
   
   In Chicago, in many ways the embryonic black proletarian core of the country in this period, Wright continued his struggle for physical daily survival and for intellectual understanding. His fortuitous linking up with the local John Reed Club helped, at least initially, stabilize his intellectual life. His description of the inner workings of the Communist Party and its role in its own front group creations, like the Reed Club, jibes with other accounts that I have read. The tremendous pressures to conform to party life and the party line are chilling for what, in the final analysis, was a voluntary political organization and not a cult. Moreover, one of the characters portrayed in this section bears a striking resemblance to the above-mentioned very real Harry Haywood. Wright's take on Haywood is very, very different from how old Harry portrayed himself in his autobiography. Surprise.
   
   One of the charges brought against Wright by fellow black party members was that he was an intellectual. Self-taught, yes, but an intellectual nevertheless. One would think that recruiting such a fairly rare person, black or white, would have had the comrades spinning cartwheels. No so in Wright's case. Tremendous pressure was placed on him to conform to party dictates. Or else. This seems counter-intuitive. The relationship between communism and intellectuals and artists has always been a somewhat rocky one. But know this-then and today we need as many intellectuals as we can get our hands on to write, think and lead the struggles of humankind. Ignorance never did anyone any good. Enough said on that. If you want to get a real feel for what that old expression Mississippi God Damn from Nina Simone's song really meant read this well written and thoughtful book.



5. Not only did I reaceive the book on the promised delivery date, but I found it to be in perfect condition. It was purchaed for my grandson who is really enjoying it.