Sporting Life, The: Horses, Boxers, Rivers, and a Russian Ballclub

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining but slight
Review: Barich writes beautiful clean prose, and there's always a sly sense of humour in his stories, but this volume is a bit of a disappointment. Only the piece on Irish Pat Lawlor really seems to have been worked up; the others have the appearance of having been dashed off quickly and a bit carelessly -- the endings, in particular, look hurried -- although the prose is always fine. Two pieces in particular make one feel let down. 'Going to the Moon', the story of a Russian baseball team, looks to be just building up steam when it ends; and 'Feather River Country' just goes nowhere at all. That said, 'The Sporting Life' is still a pleasant light read, and I'll keep my eye out for what Barich does in the future.

Rating:
Summary: Warmed over gruel
Review: Bill Barich's slim volume, The Sporting Life, was a monumental disappointment. A review in the San Diego Union compared this book to A River Runs Through It. I disagree...lustily. I'd like to toss this book into a river. A book about horse racing, boxing and fly-fishing...three of my favorite vices inside one set of covers. But each of these essays is merely warmed over gruel. The boxers are long retired, the horses don't run, and the fly fishing stories are merely tedious. You have the feeling that Barich collected a handful of articles that were so poor no one else would print them and then foisted them on us. It's a truly dreadful book. Don't buy it.