Joe Posnanski is one of my favorite sportswriters. For much of my youth, he was a columnist for the Kansas City Star. Initially, I much preferred the style of KC's other main sports columnist, Jason Whitlock, whose opinions and writing style tended toward the bombastic. It took awhile for me to warm up to Posnanski's more subtle, storytelling style, but over time, I've really come to appreciate his talent as a sportswriter.
Over a year ago, Posnanski decided to write a biography of Joe Paterno and moved to Happy Valley, Pennsylvania to begin the research for the book. While he was there, the scandal at Penn State erupted and the tragic details of child molestation came to the fore. Obviously this dramatically changed the nature of the biography, but if any sportswriter was equipped to manage this type of difficult subject matter, I figured it would be Posnanski.
Unfortunately, though it sounds as though Posnanski's book, Paterno, struggles in dealing with the scandal and Paterno's legacy. I haven't read the book for myself (and honestly, I don't plan to), so perhaps some of these criticisms are off-base. But at the least, I appreciated this review because of its willingness to take on even a well-established and highly-respect sportswriter. And as I learned with the whole Jonah Lehrer situation, it is important to constantly question the work even of the writers who you admire the most.
"'Paterno': A Relentless, Failed Defense of Penn State's Disgraced Coach" by Allen Barra
Published in the Atlantic, August 21, 2012
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/08/paterno-a-relentless-failed-defense-of-penn-states-disgraced-coach/261376/
Eric
yikes...as someone else who grew up reading and respecting posnanski it certainly appears that the book is a disgrace. The disturbing part are the quotes certainly seem week and the "unnamed sources" a poor response to the mountain of facts. You'd assume that if the author of this article is going to rip into pos for not citing and deflecting that he would not also do the same by leaving out parts of the book that would shift the attention...or would he? Either way it seems like a very poor job by our KC boy.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I don't want to rush to judgment, but the quotes he cites are pretty troubling. He seems to give Posnanski some slack when citing that maybe the book was pushed to be published too quickly, but I don't think that's an excuse.
ReplyDeleteEric
If anything that means he published quickly in the interest of making money and not in providing a thorough analysis and that is worse. The comment about if it isn't your place to comment on this then whose is it rings true.
ReplyDeleteExcellent point, sir.
ReplyDeleteyou sir are correct....ahhahahahaha
ReplyDelete