Rating: 
Summary: You don't have to be a baseball fan to love this book
Review: Richard Ben Cramer is an amazing writer. From the opening words of this book he takes the reader on a journey into a life, into the life of a poor quiet boy from San Francisco who suddenly has fame and fortune thrust upon him in New York City, who becomes a hero to all of America. This is a book about a man who was a hero at a time when we really had heroes, and when we expected our heroes to be perfect. Cramer gives us the inner life of the hero with such breathtaking insight and accuracy that we are left with a deep understanding of how Joe Dimaggio's life is at once an American success story and an American tragedy.
Rating: 
Summary: DIMAGGIO-THE INTRUSION
Review: I started to read THE HEROES LIFE AND HAD A HARD TIME CONTINUING. the Editorial comment states that this is the book that Dimaggio wanted no one to write and that among other things relates of dimaggio"s greed and shame---- well why are we "treated" to such a book. THE dIMAGGIO i KNEW AND REMEMBERED was a classy gentleman with style and dignity. Nonetheless i remember the baseball Dimaggio who was one of baseball Heroes who in 13 short years left an indelible mark not only on baseball but on the Nations conscious . He was remembered as every boys dream that he too could become a great player-he could become like dimaggio. What purpose does it serve to portray OUR hero as a distrustful, jealous, greedy cheap miscreant. I am disappointed in this book- would this book been published if Dimaggio were still alive---- SHAME--- WHEN I FINISH READING THE BOOK I WILL RETURN WITH MORE IMPRESSIONS.
Rating:
Summary: A heroic biography
Review: Back in 1992, when I turned the last page and finished reading What It Takes, Richard Ben Cramer's first book, I wondered how long I would have to wait before I would get to settle into my favorite chair with his next work. It's been a long time -- the chair has been reupholstered twice -- but it's been worth every minute waiting for Joe Dimaggio: The Hero's Life. This book is so much more than the biography of a baseball player, even the most famous player to ever grace a diamond. It's a meticulously researched and deliciously written story of Joe Dimaggio's life, telling much more than so many previous biographies of the Yankee Clipper, yes, but it's also an insightful study of America's demands on its heroes, the country's collective desire for man as myth. When you sit down to read this book, make sure the baby's diaper is fresh, the dog is walked and the oven is turned off: You're not going to want to get up for anything before you reach the last page.
Rating: 
Summary: Making a Buck by Attacking One's Betters
Review: Real hatchet job on DiMaggio that doesn't rate even the above one starrating. Author Cramer and his publishing house never would have hadthe guts to release this garbage while DiMag was still alive, and infact the book was ready for release about two years ago, beforeDiMag's death. It was not released then -- surprise, surprise! AuthorCramer must have really needed the money to perpetrate this one. Inthe last years of his life, DiMaggio was invited by the President ofthe United States to sit at his table at an event, Henry Kissinger wasflattered to meet and speak with DiMaggio, and US Supreme CourtJustice Helen Bader Ginsburg called DiMaggio her hero. Earlier, ErnestHemingway in "the Old Man and the Sea" had called him"The Great DiMaggio." This book is yet another example of adwarf trying to build himself up by bringing a giant down to hissize. Sorry, friend Cramer, it won't work. Advice to book buyers: Ifyou're addicted to offal, buy this book. If not, donate what you wouldhave spent for it to the Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital in Florida,where it will do so good.
Rating: 
Summary: Good addition to DiMaggio Literature
Review: Being a San Franciscan, I really appreciated the author's research and description of life in this City during the first 3-4 decades of the 20th century, including the baseball scene and the legend of Lefty O'Doul (whose bar is still open just off Union Square). There is also much to be learned for the younger readers about baseball in the 30s and 40s. Not all was a grand as today's romanticists like to portray it. How things should be is somewhere between the over-paid mediocre talent of today and the grossly underpaid---and unfree---players of those days. I can't imagine what someone of Dimaggio's caliber would be getting paid today. The book also shined when describing not only Joe's relationship with Marilyn Monroe (brutal by today's standards) and what Hollywood and stardom was like. Dimaggio's dysfunctional personality and apparent avarice are well-presented, as is the power he had to make men give up all dignity and self-respect simply to be his friend. While we can't simply assume everything said here about DiMaggio's attorney and "close personal friend", Morris Engelberg, is 100% accurate, it isn't hard to believe either. We had a very real taste of this man's character here in San Francisco with how he handled the whole affair of our city wanting to name the playground in North Beach for DiMaggio. The only gap in the book for me was the leap it made from Marilyn Monroe's death all the way to the 1989 SF earthquake. I thought Cramer went pretty far in depicting the Kennedy/Sinatra involvement with Monroe and why Joe so despised them after her death. But he stopped there quite abruptly. There probably was more that could have been written to show Joe's scorn for them (like the snub of Bobby Kennedy at Yankee Stadium during an Old Timers Game introductions...Joe refused to shake his hand). Baseball-wise, I think more could have also been written about Joe's feelings for---or against---Mickey Mantle and how he felt about THAT center fielder's so completely winning the hearts of Yankee fans. If the author's intended audience was people like me and older, who are familiar with Joe's life and career, then I'm off-base. If he was hoping to have the 20-30 crowd know more about this myth, I think he could have written a little more. Joe DiMaggio was not a good man necessarily, many people knew that before even reading this book. In today's world he would have been mauled by the press and fans and would likely not be perceived as such a heroic figure as he now is. Look at Barry Bonds, perhaps a better player overall (hard to say for those of us who never saw Joe actually play...hard to argue against 9 world championships in 13 years...versus Barry's ZERO), yet his personality is probably not too different from Joe's in his search for privacy and aloofness from his teammates. However, he is vilified by most and has precious few friends. In another day, he would have been up in the pantheon with the Babe and Joltin' Joe.
Rating:
Summary: Hatchet Job
Review: This book spares no opportunity to trash the man. Things that are really irrelevant - Monroe's life and treatment in Hollywood before Dimaggio, his sex life, etc. are devoted large amounts of space.
Compare this book to his book on Ted Williams and you can see how Ben Cramer treats his "friends" (Williams) and those he holds in contempt. Even in the Williams book, he slams Dimaggio. At times it seems almost pathological, his fixation on tearing down the reputation of this man. I am sure that Dimaggio is far from perfect (who isn't), but this seems to go above and beyond the course of biographical inquiry into perhaps - slander or a vendetta.
My recommendation is to skip the book, read Halberstam's "Summer of 49". It combines sports and personality much better and unlike Ben Cramer's book, doesn't make you feel like you need to take a shower after reading it.
Rating:
Summary: What Happened To This Book?
Review: There must be some big, hidden legal, personal, or editorial reason for the terribly awkward structure of this book. It begins with Joe as a kid, covers hime season-by-season with the Yankees, degenerates into tabloibism from the time Joe met Marilyn until her suicide, and then skips from 1962 to 1989 without any explanation at all. This is something you just don't see from major authors and major publishers. What happened?
As is usual from old political reporters writing books (think Halberstam or Woodard) there is no scholarship or authentication. You simply have to take the author's word that things transpired as they did. Bearing this in mind,nobody should be surprised that Cramer's approach is a hack-job -- but he does that to everybody -- there are no good guys in Cramer's world. Everyone has dirty laundry.
Rating:
Summary: DiMaggio-A Hero's Life by Cramer
Review: Joe DiMaggio began as an immigrant boy who made it big in
baseball during the first half of the previous century. He
came from a family which included 9 children. One of his first jobs was selling "The Call" for .03 apiece. His parents were Rosalie and Giuseppe DiMaggio. Initially, he had some problems in school; however, he quickly rose as an important Rookie with the Seals in 1933. At one point, Joe made 47 hits
consecutively. At age 19, he signed for a second year with the
Seals. He came to New York in 1938 and by 1942, he carried the
Yankees to a championship and himself to an MVP. Despite the
great accomplishment, he did not get compensated financially
until later on. The work is a "must read" for every baseball
enthusiast.
Rating:
Summary: Good addition to DiMaggio Literature
Review: This book was a gift from my daughter; as such, I read it even though I knew that it was a hatchet job, for whatever reason, against a great player. At the end of the book I came away with the same conclusion I had when I started, and that is that Joe DiMaggio was one of the greatest hitters of all time (had an immaculate swing) and one of the greatest all around players of all time. As a baseball lover that is all I need to know. In short, he was idolized for his playing ability and for his quite demeanor on the field, while keeping his peccadilloes from public view - why is that so bad? What grudge the author has against Joe DiMaggio I don't know, but I see no need to attack a person based on the shortcomings of that person's personality.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent biography
Review: This is a fantastic and superb account of Joe DiMaggio's baseball career and a sad account of his life after baseball. DiMaggio the player was without parallel. DiMaggio the man apparently fell way short of the mark.and is very sad to realize what a sad, lonely man he really was.Cramer has written a masterful biography of a very complex and complicated man.
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