Tag: Biographies & Memoirs

REVIEW: Concussion by Jeanne Marie Laskas

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star-602148_1280star-602148_1280star-602148_1280 3/5 stars

“Like Albert Einstein has said. He said, ‘The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.'”

Concussion follows the story of Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian immigrant to the United States who discovers a link between football and brain trauma. He takes on the NFL, which appears to be covering up the damage caused by its “product,” much like Big Tobacco in earlier years. This book is being released about a month ahead of its associated movie starring Will Smith as Dr. Omalu.

The book started out slowly, providing a lot of back story of Dr. Omalu’s history in Nigeria and his coming to America and entering his profession. For football fans, the action picks up in chapter 6 when Bennet chances upon former Steelers superstar Mike Webster’s corpse for autopsy at the morgue where he works. I’ve never started a book in the middle, but if you really want to get to the heart of the story, start there.

Discovering what Dr. Omalu calls CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy), a condition resulting in dementia, anger, suicide and other issues in football players, sets off a story about overcoming adversity. Not only did Bennet challenge the NFL, America’s most popular sports league, but he also experienced setbacks as a black Nigerian immigrant. The events in the book largely occur between 2002 and 2015, so everything described is current and relevant to issues still covered in today’s media.

I enjoyed the book and I’m looking forward to seeing the movie. I am a football fanatic, but having read this book will change how I watch the game every weekend. Over the past couple of seasons I noticed rule changes and other murmuring related to concussions, but I was unaware of the complicated history behind it. With the book citing around 16,000 retired NFL players currently living, there is a huge population potentially affected by debilitating injury. And this year it seems an unbelievable number of high school football players have died playing the game. Perhaps this book and movie will bring even more awareness to the issue and help save both the sport and its players.

Release Date: November 24, 2015 (Random House Publishing Group)

REVIEW: Dear Mr. You by Mary-Louise Parker

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star-602148_1280star-602148_1280star-602148_1280 3/5 stars

A memoir that makes you want to tie up the loose ends with every man you’ve ever loved

Mary-Louise Parker’s debut release is a memoir of letters to men who have impacted her life. The letters are brief, yet contain an honesty and depth many writers never reach. Parker’s experiences with these men are diverse, and the relationships described are complicated and often marked by profound love or pain – or both.

Parker is an actress I admittedly am not familiar with, but I was drawn to the book because every woman has scars from men who have loved too intensely or cut too deeply. We are shaped by these encounters with male family, friends, lovers, and acquaintances, despite our best efforts not to be. Some portions of the letters poetically expressed abstract feelings beyond my understanding. But, as a reader, I came to understand those moments as maybe being written for Parker and her own journey of healing rather than for my own reading pleasure.

I gravitated toward letters she wrote to, and about, older men and family. We can all relate to her romantic ups and downs, but the tender and sentimental moments she shared with people like her rural neighbor and her adopted daughter’s uncle were the highlights of Dear Mr. You. My favorite letters, “Dear Daddy” and “Dear Oyster Picker,” described her father’s last days and reflected back on his life. I also appreciated Parker’s “Dear Orderly” recounting of her fierce unwillingness to let her newborn baby out of her sight at the hospital shortly after his birth. Perhaps I was most affected by these stories because of the shift within me that happened when I became a mother last year. Then again, I think I always would have favored those letters. I may never tire of reading about the love between parent or caretaker and child.

This is a book I wish I had written. Parker’s enduring love and admiration for some men and contempt for others made me realize how lucky I am to have had a life full of men who have made me the strong woman I am today. The stories in Dear Mr. You show us more about the woman than the men and that is beautiful. Both female and male readers will enjoy reading the book and reflecting on their value and influence on the opposite sex. Parker’s book makes you want to be more like the people she admires and right the wrongs with those you share hurt.

Release date: November 17, 2015 (Scribner)