Pat Powers

I recommend this book highly. It will introduce you to some fascinating characters, maybe get you annoyed with them or feeling superior to them, but you won't be bored with them, not at all. These stories about (mostly) famous men are organized around men as fighting to survive and thrive, sometimes winning, sometimes losing, sometimes both. I don't agree at all with Mr. Oney's contention that manhood is all about struggle, but I enjoyed the stories nonetheless because Oney has a knack for bringing you inside the lives of the people he's writing about. I know this because I had a problem with the stories after a while. Almost all the people he writes about are men who succeeded in grabbing the brass ring at some point in their lives, becoming rich and famous and generally very respected as well. But often they had tough times afterward, either through mental illness or succumbing to drink and/or drugs, or being lousy in their sexual relationships, or all three. The stories are vivid and compelling, whether it's Herschel Walker having to cope with Disassociative Identity Disorder, or Bo Belinsky, the original pitcher with a million dollar arm and a ten-cent brain, drinking and carousing his way out of national attention as a starter for the California Angels, or Greg Allman boozing and drugging his way out of national prominence, living life from one plywood lounge to another. The problem was, I felt that Mr. Oney was asking me to sympathize with his subjects, and I had all kinds of trouble sympathizing with them. I feel like I'm a regular guy, one of those people who never have grabbed a brass ring. I've had to cope with my losses and failures without the money, comfort and recognition that Oney's subjects have experienced. (Especially the money.) Yeah, the men in these stories have lost a great deal, but that's because they had a great deal to begin with. To those of us who have found making the rent/paying the mortgage a worry for most of our lives, there's a general feeling that we might have done a better job of handling our lives, given the same opportunities (especially the money) as the men in this book. Then I realized what trick Oney had pulled. He had me thinking about the men in his stories as if they were regular people. He sneaked in there and made them real to me! Now that's the mark of a really good writer. Well done, Mr. Oney.