The New York Times Book Review - John Swansburg
Thompson has written some of the most important pieces of contemporary sports journalism…demonstrating unparalleled insight into the lives of the most compelling figures in sport…Much of Thompson's best work is now collected in The Cost of These Dreams. Chrestomathies of this sort can feel like a grab bag, or a halfhearted attempt to make a second buck on old work. This volume elevates reporting and writing that was already operating above the rim. Thompson's intricate stories reward a second (and third) reading. And when they are read back to back, themes emerge that permit a view not just of the subject at hand—Urban Meyer, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods—but of something larger: the price these men have paid for greatness.
From the Publisher
""Thompson has written some of the most important pieces of contemporary sports journalism . . . demonstrating unparalleled insight into the lives of the most compelling figures in sport. . . . This volume elevates reporting and writing that was already operating above the rim.” —The New York Times
"Knockout sportswriting from Wright Thompson . . . Mr. Thompson is an investigator of men’s souls, though his writing is as much about the search for clues as it is about what he finds. . . . None of these pieces are strictly sports stories, but all exemplify the high purpose to which so much sports writing aspires today." —Wall Street Journal
"Wright is a supremely gifted writer who cuts through the mythology with a scalpel.” —The National Book Review
“[Thompson] demonstrates his storytelling talents by probing the personalities of some of the biggest names in sports, both past and present, including Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Ted Williams, and Bear Bryant.” —Christian Science Monitor
“Mississippi native Wright Thompson is not only the best active sportswriter in America but also one of the best writers, period. This collection compiles his greatest pieces.” —Men’s Journal
“Thompson demonstrates his talent, deftly portraying a diverse cast of athletes and coaches. . . . [He] also brilliantly reprises the riots and other events surrounding James Meredith’s enrollment at Ole Miss in 1962 and the school’s outstanding football team during that tumultuous year.” —Booklist
“Thompson’s abundant strengths as a long-form journalist are evident on nearly every page…. Richly researched and textured writing that reveals the humanity of the author’s subjects.” —Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
2019-01-21
A senior writer for ESPN The Magazine debuts with a collection of his explorations of sports-world notables who reached—or are reaching—the ends of their careers.
Thompson's abundant strengths as a long-form journalist are evident on nearly every page. He is a relentless researcher and sensitive interviewer, a writer who tries to understand the factors that made his subjects who they are—or were. In an essay about Muhammad Ali, for example, Thompson engages in a seemingly endless pursuit of one of Ali's very first opponents, a man who vanished from the grid. The author pursues the end-of-career stories of Michael Jordan and, later, Tiger Woods and helps us see the connections between the two, who are friends. He also chronicles the lives of people far less celebrated—e.g., Tony Harris, a college basketball star whose paranoia sent him into the jungles of Brazil, where he was found dead. Wright is particularly incisive in his essays on coaches, including Bear Bryant (Alabama football), Pat Riley (NBA) and Urban Meyer (who just completed his final football season at Ohio State)—all three of whom have had to deal with the end of their glory years. There are some longer, more complicated pieces here, too—the story of the New Orleans Saints, the Super Bowl, and Hurricane Katrina—and of football at the University of Mississippi when James Meredith broke the color line in 1962. Thompson also deals with the rugged family dynamics of Ted Williams and, in a brief piece, the angst and celebration in Chicago when the Cubs finally won the World Series in 2016. He ends with an emotional piece about his own late father. Though he's sometimes a little quick on the draw with his identifications of motives and causes, his gritty determination makes it easy to forgive.
Richly researched and textured writing that reveals the humanity of the author's subjects.
