Review by Booklist Review
Veteran sportswriter Pearlman delivers a captivating, copiously researched portrait of once-in-a-century supernova Bo Jackson, who excelled at the highest levels in football (1985 Heisman winner), baseball (1989 All-Star Game MVP), and even track (qualifying for the NCAA nationals in the 100-meter dash--twice). The author spares no details in limning the destitute, cruelly violent childhood Jackson miraculously survived; his evolution as a world-class athlete; friendships and enmities with coaches, teammates, reporters, family, and fans; and his admirable disdain for the trappings of success. But it's the individual moments Pearlman shares that startle: Jackson's perfectly thrown missile from the left-field corner to cut down a would-be winning run at the plate (as defensive players were leaving the field and umps were out of position), his fifth-fastest 60-meter dash in Auburn University's history in his first track meet, the 450-foot batting-practice shot Jackson hit lefthanded (he was a righty) in Minnesota. This list is almost endless for Jackson. Superhuman feats manifested in an all-too-human soul.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Sports journalist Pearlman (Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s) delivers an entertaining biography of star multisport athlete Bo Jackson. Jackson's one-of-a-kind athletic ability was "mythological," Pearlman writes, noting that he was capable of "things so unprecedented, so spectacular, that one must wonder if they were ever actually done at all." Jackson's "uniquely athletic" legend started during his childhood in Alabama the 1960s (a neighbor claims to have seen him throw a rock 200 yards), and Pearlman recounts how his discovery of sports changed his life, beginning with his joining Little League at age 10 (he was forbidden from playing football by his mother but defied her in ninth grade). Pearlman also details Jackson's incredible achievements, which included a Heisman Trophy in 1985 as well as his becoming the only professional athlete ever named a baseball and football All-Star (first with the Kansas City Royals in 1989, then with the L.A. Raiders in 1990) before retiring from pro sports in 1991 after a hip injury. The author's facility at rendering dramatic sports moments into prose, such as when, in 1989, Jackson made a miraculous deep outfield throw to get a speedy opposing player out at home plate (spectators witnessed him "rearing back and uncorking a flat-footed bazooka blast that soared high above shortstop Kurt Stillwell"), makes this a standout addition to biographies of hall-of-fame athletes. Jackson's fans are in for a treat. (Oct.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
An appreciative life of sports star Vincent "Bo" Jackson (b. 1962), a star in both football and baseball. In his latest sports bio, prolific sportswriter Pearlman demonstrates Jackson's near-mythical achievements on the gridiron and diamond, whether "throwing a football straight into the air and hitting the New Orleans Superdome scoreboard--140 feet above his head," or "the 1989 throw from the leftfield corner to gun down Seattle's Harold Reynolds at home" as an adult or chucking a rock a couple of hundred yards as a 7-year-old. Much of the book centers on Jackson's accomplishments as a player for Auburn, often the Alabama Crimson Tide's poor relation on the Southern football circuit, at least until Jackson helped engineer crushing victory over their archrivals (legendary Alabama coach Bear Bryant retired immediately afterward). Of particular interest to aspiring athletes are the pages devoted to Jackson's carefully orchestrated negotiations with the MLB and NFL, who wanted him so badly that he was able to play both baseball and football concurrently--albeit not without some hardball thrown by the owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who treated Jackson precisely like "a poor kid from East Bumfuck, Alabama." Taking down other sports heroes in the bargain, notably Reggie Jackson (no relation) and Deion Sanders, Pearlman throws in about every sports cliché in existence, from staccato sentence fragments to overwrought mixed metaphors ("Jackson was no longer a secret weapon. If anything, he was a flashing bolt of lightning"). Yet there are revelations, as well, including an explanation of how he came to be known as Bo. Ultimately, Pearlman is no mere hero worshipper, writing of his subject, "he is far from warm and bubbly, and oftentimes quite suspicious of the motives of anyone not named Bo Jackson." A good choice for devotees, showing how their hero sometimes has feet of clay--but remains a hero all the same. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
