The Sportsman by Dhani Jones

I do so love watching the Olympic Games. While I prefer the winter games and Canadian coverage,¹ I'm making the best of things with NBC-group coverage this year. In any case, the XXX (modern) Olympiad seemed like the perfect excuse to post about a sports memoir that I should have reviewed last year.

The Sportsman: Unexpected Lessons from an Around-the-World Sports Odyssey
by Dhani Jones with Jonathan Grotenstein

I need to open my comments on The Sportsman with the admission that I did not finish the book. Regular readers will be aware that I prefer fiction to nonfiction and that I don't often post about memoirs or sports-related books. Lest any of you think that my preferences yielded to bias against The Sportsman, I submit this confession: I am a huge Dhani Jones fan.² When Time Warner dropped the Travel Channel from our Buffalo cable package, Dhani Tackles the Globe is the show I mourned the most. If anything, my love of Dhani likely predisposed me toward his memoir.

I was excited to get my hands on a review copy of The Sportsman and couldn't wait to get an extra dose of that endearing Dhani personality. The memoir's subtitle, "Unexpected Lessons from an Around-the-World Sports Odyssey," left me expecting a narrative built upon Dhani's experiences making Dhani Tackles the Globe and presented in a style like referenced the television show.

The memoir starts from the beginning ("my parents took two years to name me," 3), explaining how Dhani developed a love of sport and how he came to play football despite his mother's objections. Dhani's first person narrative is a bit too informal (in describing his teenage attitude problems he uses "mofo" and "suck my left nut"), but I was willing to give him (and his coauthor) the benefit of the doubt. But, on page 5, the narrative is interrupted by "A note from Commander Samuel L. Jones a.k.a. Dad". This I did not like at all. Yes, it did give an alternative perspective on Dhani at that period of this life, but it was jarring and odd (shades of helicopter parenting). And, couldn't Dad's viewpoint be shared in Dhani's own words? When a note from "Dr. Nanacy Jones a.k a. Mom" cropped up on page 14, I knew that I wasn't going to make it through The Sportsman. I gave up shortly thereafter.  

I was originally reticent to post about The Sportsman since I hadn't actually read very much of it.  I wondered whether I'd given the memoir a fair chance.  And, I held out the hope that I could get Russell to read it and offer his perspective (that didn't happen, I wasn't a very good salesperson). But, going through the early pages again, I realize that I still have no desire to keep reading The Sportsman. Maybe it gets better, but there were just far too many turn-offs in the early pages for me.

But, just because I didn't like The Sportsman, doesn't mean that you won't. The Sportsman has a 4.7 star rating on Amazon (16 reviews) and a 3.55 on Goodreads (70 ratings).

1. CBC did it well, CTV does it even better. Access to Canadian Olympic coverage is one of the things I miss most about living in Buffalo.
2. And, Russell and I both went to University of Michigan where Dhani played college ball. Russell actually saw him play in The Big House, though Dhani was already playing for the Giants by the time I got to Ann Arbor for graduate school.

disclosure: I received a review copy of The Sportsman from Rodale via NetGalley.

The Thrall's Tale by Judith Lindbergh

The Thrall's Tale by Judith Lindbergh

The Thrall's Tale is a masterpiece of historical fiction that follows Katla, a slave, her daughter Bibrau, and their mistress Thorbjorg, a prophetess of the Norse god Odin, as they navigate the stormy waters of love, revenge, faith, and deception in the Viking Age settlements of tenth–century Greenland. Lindbergh's lyrical prose captures the tenuousness of lives led on the edge of the known world, the pain of loyalties shattered by Christian conversion, and the deepest desires hidden in the human heart. A book that has appeal for readers of fantasy and romance as well as historical and literary fiction, The Thrall's Tale is an absorbing cultural saga researched and written over ten years as Lindbergh immersed herself in the literature, artifacts, and landscape of her characters' lives and world. (back cover text)

I first discovered The Thrall's Tale in 2007 (see post). I've had a copy sitting on my shelf for four years now. I loaned it to my mom (who loves historical fiction) shortly after I received it, but since then it's been more or less collecting dust. I know I've picked it up a few times during the past four years and I may have started it once, but I never dug into it until this month.

I'll admit it now. I didn't finish The Thrall's Tale. I really did make an effort, though: the novel is 446 pages long and I gave up on page 188.¹

I really wanted to like The Thrall's Tale. It's a debut historical novel set during a time period with which I'm not familiar and it got great reviews.² It seemed like the recipe for a great read, but unfortunately The Thrall's Tale did not work for me. The novel seemed to have much promise in its early pages, but the more I read of The Thrall's Tale, the less I wanted to continue reading it. Especially since, after a certain point, it seemed like there was no point in holding out for the promised romance as it was either going to come to absolutely nothing or be disappointing for all involved.

The Thrall's Tale begins with one female narrator (Katla, a teenage slave, accompanying her master from Iceland to Greenland), gains a second (Thorjorg, a seeress of Odin) and then a third (Bibrau, Katla's unplanned and unwanted daughter). I don't mind a multiple narrative structure (whether it be first- or second-person), but I don't think I've ever before read a multi-narrative book where I didn't enjoy any of the narrative threads.

• I liked Katla well enough in the beginning of the novel, but the drastic change in her personality after the incident that occurs around page 55 rendered her completely unsympathetic to me (I don't fault her for her reaction to the traumatic incident, but I found relating to her very difficult after that point).
• Thorjorg's narrative was tough from her entrance because of her obtuse, oracular voice. Even early on (when I was still genuinely interested in following the story), I found myself skimming through her chapters.
• Finally, there's Bibrau. She comes across as more than just strange. She's like an evil child in a horror movie. I didn't want to know more about what would happen to her or what she would do because it seemed like it was only going to get worse.

It's obvious that The Thrall's Tale was well-researched. And I'm sure the story Lindbergh is trying to tell (settlement of Greenland, Christianization of the area) could have been very interesting. In short, three things turned me off: unlikeable protagonist-narrators, slow pace (quite a bit happens early in the novel, but then the pace becomes glacial), and pervasive hopelessness.

BUT, The Thrall's Tale has gotten good reviews so your mileage may vary, as they say.

1. That's about 42% of the way through.
2. From Library Journal, Geraldine Brooks, and Jonis Agee just to name a few.