Reviews for Dead man blues
Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
*Starred Review* This is but one in what is already a succession of books on the Chicago Cubs' historic 2016 World Series championship books that include Scott Simon's My Cubs and David Kaplan's The Plan but it might be the best, since it's both a deeply satisfying historical account of that colorful franchise and a compelling, all-too-painful personal narrative of one longtime, besotted Cubs fan. It's a question we ask at Sunday school, Cohen writes. Why? Why were the Cubs so bad for so long? He names the possible culprits: the ballpark, day baseball, the 1908 team riding to their title by playing gotcha on a boneheaded New York Giants play, a spurned billy goat, the team's slow acceptance of African American players, the ritual post-game click of Ron Santo's heels after a win during the ill-fated 1969 season, Sammy Sosa, Steve Bartman, and on and on. The Cubs were not good because they focused on the wrong things, Cubs president Theo Epstein, perhaps the most qualified to offer an explanation, told Cohen. They always wanted to make sure next year's team looked like it had a chance to win because the team was going to be up for sale at any moment . . . It means lack of long-term planning. Who knew that all it took to break a 108-year-old curse was plain old common sense and talent?--Moores, Alan Copyright 2017 Booklist
Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
In his new book, Cohen (Monsters: The 1985 Bears and the Wild Heart of Football) takes a spin through the history of the Chicago Cubs, including the team's numerous curses and the already legendary roster that finally broke them all in 2016. The Curse of the Billy Goat is as much a part of the team's lore as first baseman Ernie Banks, Wrigley Fields's ivy, and announcer Harry Caray declaring that someday the Cubs would win the World Series. Cohen, who is known for writing about popular music as well as sports, brings a brash, kinetic style to his many stories of the figures in Cub history. The people he writes about-Ron Santo, Hack Wilson, Mordecai Brown, Grover Cleveland Alexander-almost feel like rock stars in Cohen's hands. This book moves along rapidly through Cubs history up to the 2016 team, to which the volume's largest portion is dedicated. Cohen's love for the Cubs and baseball, along with his well-developed style, put this book above other recent Cubs-related releases. VERDICT Baseball fans will devour this all-too-brief review of the Cubs' frustrating history yet joyous -present.-Brett Rohlwing, Milwaukee P.L. © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
In 2016, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series for the first time since 1908and thereby hangs this tale.Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone contributing editor Cohen (The Sun the Moon the Rolling Stones, 2016, etc.), a lifelong Cubs fan, rehearses in swift, entertaining fashion the genesis of the team and its glory years (there were many early on) and long decades of mediocrity, and he introduces us to some key players over the years. Grover Cleveland Alexander, Ernie Banks, Bill Buckner, Hack Wilson, Ron Santo, Sammy Sosa: these and many other celebrated, even infamous names populate the early pages of this love story so full of broken hearts, the author's included. The Cubs frequent lossesand the dominance of the curse, whose origins and manifestations Cohen considers throughouteventually drove the author to give up on the team and to quit following them. Until, of course, the resurrection, which, Cohen shows, began in 2009 when the Ricketts family purchased the franchise, and made key hires, including team president Theo Epstein and manager Joe Maddon, and promising acquisitions. Finally, hope returned to reign at Wrigley Field, whose story the author also tells us. The concluding 60 or so pages deal with the newly risen Cubs, who didn't quite make it in 2015 but who defeated the Cleveland Indians in seven games in 2016 to finally break the curse. The author provides smooth summaries of each of the seven contests, calling Game 7 "the greatest baseball game of all time." (Tribe fans may disagree.) Cohen's accounts of the team, the players, the games and the culture surrounding the Cubs are brisk and informative, and his many personal stories, strung like holiday lights throughout the narrative, illuminate a fan's frangible heart that annually repaired itself. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
