George PlimptonReviews

FUN FUN FUN, writers answers on various topics about process, technical matters,form and their writing lives

Very interesting read. Fact blended with fiction. I really don't even know how to review it. I enjoyed it thoroughly, literally laughing out loud at some parts, but also quickly skimming other parts that got just too in depth. I really want to pick up a copy of the original Sports Illustrated article and read that. Very enjoyable for any sports fan I'd say, and it didn't hurt for me that it was based around the Mets!

Scarce early issue of this essential postwar literary magazine, includes an interview with Ernest Hemingway, a portfolio of graphic work by Vali Myers, a story by Philip Roth, drawings by Giacometti, and work from a roster of important contributors.

Good nonfiction about an amateur who was allowed to play with the Detroit Lions for a short time. George Plimpton is a good writer. I like how he tried so many things and then wrote about them.

This interesting tale of the writer who joins the Detroit Lions for preseason training is a bit dated now. George Plimpton writes about his experiences in the training camp, mainly as the "last string quarterback," but also his attempts to learn other positions. Most of the book consists of descriptions of the other players and how they interact with each other: the hazing of the rookies, for example.

I'm not a fan of football, and know next to nothing about football in the late 1950s or early 1960s (with which this book is primarily concerned), so a lot of the information was probably lost on me. I didn't recognize the players' or coaches' names and I didn't get the references to big plays of the past. I read the book because I had heard of it as a classic in the genre of sports writing and I wanted to find out more. The writing was very good; I just didn't understand the football. The idea of an ordinary guy trying out for the professional football team has some appeal, though it seems completely ludicrous, and that's pretty much what Plimpton discovers: he isn't nearly as good as he would need to be to make the team at any position.

The other interesting aspect of the book (aside from the juicy football gossip) was the glimpse into a time gone by. The summer of Plimpton's experiment was long before I was born, so I was curious to find out how people (at least professional football players) lived then. The picture I saw was more working class, more urban, and simpler than my own life today. The players drink a lot of beer, they go to dance halls in the evening and practice actual dance steps together, they play cards, they do isometric exercises and there is no discussion of weight lifting or jogging, and they avoid milk and other foods that are bad for the "wind," whatever that means. In the off-season, they have regular jobs because football doesn't pay much. They drive beat up old cars and they are always one bad game away from being off the team. In fact, most of the professional teams do not even have their own stadiums to play in: the Lions played in Tiger Stadium, for example!

In summary, I think a sports fan, especially a football fan, would get a lot more enjoyment out of this book than I did.

Saw that a local book club was reading this, realized I had never read it so gave it a whirl. Can't say I enjoyed it.... didn't think it was particularly well-written. Too much talking with players outside of the practice field and describing events in flashbacks. The on-field events were well done though.

2014 (My review on the LibraryThing page linked here)
https://www.librarything.com/topic/179643#4939788

I know almost nothing about football. I’ve played maybe one or two touch football games in middle school around Thanksgiving. I’m not sure that I’ve ever watched an entire Super Bowl, let alone another game. I’ve heard of the infamous Harvard vs. Yale game, and hope to get a chance to attend some day. So why did I pick up this book?

I recently heard Michael Pollan say that, as a teenager, his parents gave him a copy of this book. Although Pollan has chosen a very different set up subjects than Plimpton, his approach is somewhat similar: taking a hands-on amateur approach to journalism. As a Pollan fan and an amateur writer myself, I thought I would read this book to see where Pollan received some of his early journalistic influence.

The premise of the book focuses around Plimpton’s journey in the mid sixties to be placed on a professional football team, culminating in the aim of playing a few games. After years of trying, Plimpton succeeded in joining the Detroit Lyons for three weeks of their pre-season training, although he failed to join them for any pro-league games.

Plimpton claims that his thesis is that being a professional football player isn’t something most people can do. As might be assumed, he is able to prove this point with his own failings as a player. Unfortunately, this doesn’t make for a very compelling narrative, as it reinforces our assumptions and doesn’t lead us to an evolution in our understanding of the subject. It would have been more exciting if, for example, Plimpton actually was able to be able to keep up with the pros. Or, alternately, if he were to take a less obvious stance.

I learned that football is a lot like chess. The field is laid out like a board, with different “holes” representing different places on the field that players move to. Also, there are a number of different positions with very different roles, builds, and abilities (such as linebacker versus quarter back). Also, players must memorize hundreds of different plays, to be called by the quarter back in the huddle and performed just moments later.

I was surprised by how much like children or soldiers was the treatment of football players during that era, such as curfew and punishments. Also, I was surprised to hear that most professional football players were toothless during that eras, even though they were in their youth—presumably due to the violence of the game and the lack of adequate protective gear. Although, I guess football players today still sustain permanent brain damage even with all their protection, which is far worse than missing teeth.

Apparently Plimpton had quite the remarkable life. He was a bit of a socialite—editor of The Paris Review, friends with Robert Kennedy, and constantly interfacing with different professional athletes (over the years he did a number of other projects structure in type to “Paper Lion”). He seems as though he was an exceedingly friendly and personable guy, able to ingratiate himself to all walk of society.

In the book, he references the evolution of the sport. Given that it was published more than fifty years ago, I assume the game has changed a lot since then, and I’m curious as to how.

Given the hype this book has received—some critics calling the best piece of sport journalism ever written—I was a little let down. Although it is entertaining, I don’t feel as though the book revealed any deeper truths, or spoke to much beyond the day-to-day of a professional athlete. Maybe it’s the kind of book that would be riveting for a football player or fan, but as I am neither, I found it nice but not excellent.

George Plimton was a journalist who liked to get into the thick of things when writing about his subjects. When composing articles for Sports Illustrated he played tennis, boxed with, and swam with professionals. Later he found himself pitching with the Yankees and throwing the football with the Detroit Lions. His involvement with professional golfers was no different when writing Bogey Man. He played as a participating amateur in the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am, the Lucky International, and the Bob Hope Desert Classic for a month. During that time he absorbed stories about the professional golf circuit, from the caddies to the fans and, the professional golfers and the game, of course.

This issue includes an intriguing interview with Scottish writer and artist Alasdair Gray (I went out and bought his book Lanark) and 7 deliciously warped poems by Frederick Seidel:
Someone said my poison poems
Are flowers someone brought into the room, Flowers that leave behind a sonic boom.

Also, Alice Neel's East Harlem portraits and a story by Tom Bissell of a couple trying to revive their sex life, post-child.½

A second look at football by author George Plimton, and interesting to read today in light of the talk of football's violence and concussions 43 years later. Looking at two Lions player John Gordy on offense and Alex Karras on defense Plimpton shows the tolls of playing football openly and honestly. I do not think you could find this honesty with today's players while they are still playing. Also interesting reading about players before the advent of big money contracts and the work to get a retirement fund for older players.

A nice little edition with interesting literary history bits but dross American poetry that no one ever read or reads; vanity of vanities. The Paris Review at this time had the high-brow money behind it of the Aga Khan and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.½

It is rather like a very interesting conversation! Vreeland drops names and anecdotes with great relish - and it's all fascinating. Gives us a taste of what it must be like to be able to travel in those rarified circles. Sort of like a taste of _Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous_, but with a definite edge.

I've liked the work of Alan Alda ever since M.A.S.H., so when this came on TV, I decided to watch it. This was before the NFL became big in the UK, so most, if not all, of the game play went over my head. However, in time, the NFL was televised here, I became an armchair fan, and this is the 1989 edition, bought from the now-closed Sports Pages bookshop in Charing Cross Road, London. My son-in-law's family live near Detroit, so when I visit (during the NFL season, of course), I'll take in a game

The interview with Ginsberg and Tom Disch's poem were the only things that caught my interest.

George Plimpton was a journalist, for the New Yorker, and the NY Times. He, or his editors decided that in line with his articles that led to the book "Paper Lion" where he underwent training camp as a professional football player, he should try the world of boxing as well. He trained with Archie Moore, then past his prime as a light heavy weight fighter, but still an active trainer. At the end of several months training, George got in the ring with Moore for a scheduled three round fight. The book is illuminating, and well written. Oh...George didn't win.

THE CURIOUS CASE OF SIDD FINCH (1987) is an expansion of a fictional piece that Plimpton wrote for Sports Illustrated, about a pitcher who could throw at 168 mph with perfect control. Sidd Finch, an awkward and unlikely pro prospect, supposedly perfected this "art of the pitch" through an obscure Buddhist method learned during a sojourn in the Himalayas. As fiction it remains pretty lightweight. I would classify it "an entertainment." A quick and fun read for baseball fans.½

This issue of Paris Review includes an article and a poem by M.F.K. Fisher. In "Jumping from Bridges", Fisher explains her view that there is a spiritual strength or power involved in some suicides, and that taking one's life is not always a bad thing. This was written in 1986 and reprinted in Harper's Aug. 1995, and also in Telling Stories: An Anthology for Writers, Ed. Joyce Carol Oates, NY: Norton, 1998. pp. 292-295. "Why Again" was a poem written in 1965. p. 296. Both pieces were also printed in Fisher's posthumous volume of writings called Last House.

This autobiography is one of those books that grows on you. It is very entertaining and charmingly told. Diana Vreeland, fashion editor of Harper's Bazaar and editor in chief at Vogue, lived a charmed life in many ways. She hobnobbed with celebs, designers, royalty, etc her whole life. She knew how to get in the door just about anywhere. Of course, she is known to have used hyberbole regularly and to tell stories that were questionable in their veracity. You can take a cynical view of that character or you can relax and enjoy the tales she tells. There isn't much substance in this memoir, but its good waiting room reading, if you know what I mean.
Diana is a captivating character..almost fictional. Yet her stories are of encounters with real people, commentary that you might not otherwise hear. Born in Paris to wealthy socialite family, she was exposed to a wide variety of people in the fashion, literary and and performance art scene at the turn of the centruy.
"Naturally, I've always been mad about clothes. You don't get born in Paris to forget about clothes for a minute.And what clothes I saw in the Bois! I realize now I saw the whole beginning of our centruy there. Everythig was new."

My favorite chapter is her discussion of color. Looking for a green background she once described her imagined color as billiard-table green. When she was unsatisfied with all the attempts to produce the "right" color, including an actual table felt, she reportedly said "Not a billiard table, the idea of a billiard table." Those of us who work with color daily totally get this statement. The idea of a color is what we try to communicate when writing copy for our fabrics. To me color is a very living concept, not a flat chip on a piece of paper. I had a virtual "moment" with Diana when I read this part of the book.
I also loved her descriptions of her trips to Chanel, her commentary on fashion in the 30's and her remembrances of other fashion icons, especially Balenciaga.

Being recognized in the street for my involvement in fashion is truly fantastic. It amazes me every time. I mean, I've been recognized by cab drivers. I just can't get over it. I've given this a lot of thought, and I think that it's because fashion must be even stranger than the lure of the stage. i really have come to that conclusion. Fashion must be the most intoxicating release form the banality of the world."

Amusing, well-written account of the professional writer's experience trying to fit in as a pitcher in big-league baseball.

Written in the mid-1960s when professional football was only 40 years old and football organizations operated more loosely, "Paper Lion" is the story of George Plimpton's excursion into the world of quarterbacking. Plimpton trains as a quarterback and is allowed to run a series of five (disastrous) plays in an intra-squad exhibition. Yes, football was a business, but it was still fun.

The sense of fun is woven throughout the book, with Plimpton telling many stories of high-jinks and hanging out with the other players, talking, singing, playing cards, and pranks. In discussing coaches, he focuses on how each coach's character is revealed by how he plays cards.

Throughout the book, there are tips from top players of the time. Plimpton covers quarterbacking, defensive safety, and playing on the line.

Plimpton is a keen observer of human quirks and uses them to bring people to life on the written page. He has a light, breezy style, which makes this a fun book to read.

I picked this because I was pretty sure I could rely on Evelyn Waugh to be a worse person than John Updike. And he was! EVELYN WAUGH: A WORSE PERSON THAN JOHN UPDIKE.

Charming cold-war raconteurship and not much more.

Pretty funny. Hemingway trashes the moronic questions with cruel mockery; Plimpton gets his own back with his deadpan delivery of the next inflammatory interrogative. Paris Review.

A great collection of interviews from The Paris Review. Goes beyond what you find in mainstream publications, and into the heart of writing, writers' lives and what they think.