<![CDATA[Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich]]>

false <![CDATA[Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171770807m/119035.jpg 119035 3 Book Description Pistol is more than the biography of a ballplayer. It's the stuff of classic novels: the story of a boy transformed by his father's dream--and the cost of that dream. Even as Pete Maravich became Pistol Pete--a basketball icon for baby boomers--all the Maraviches paid a price. Now acclaimed author Mark Kriegel has brilliantly captured the saga of an American family: its rise, its apparent ruin, and, finally, its redemption. Almost four decades have passed since Maravich entered the national consciousness as basketball's boy wizard. No one had ever played the game like the kid with the floppy socks and shaggy hair. And all these years later, no one else ever has. The idea of Pistol Pete continues to resonate with young people today just as powerfully as it did with their fathers. In averaging 44.2 points a game at Louisiana State University, he established records that will never be broken. But even more enduring than the numbers was the sense of ecstasy and artistry with which he played. With the ball in his hands, Maravich had a singular power to inspire awe, inflict embarrassment, or even tell a joke. But he wasn't merely a mesmerizing showman. He was basketball's answer to Elvis, a white Southerner who sold Middle America on a black man's game. Like Elvis, he paid a terrible price, becoming a prisoner of his own fame. Set largely in the South, Kriegel's Pistol, a tale of obsession and basketball, fathers and sons, merges several archetypal characters. Maravich was a child prodigy, a prodigal son, his father's ransom in a Faustian bargain, and a Great White Hope. But he was also a creature of contradictions: always the outsider but a virtuoso in a team sport, an exuberant showman who wouldn't look you in the eye, a vegetarian boozer, an athlete who lived like a rock star, a suicidal genius saved by Jesus Christ. A renowned biographer--People magazine called him "a master"--Kriegel renders his subject with a style that is, by turns, heartbreaking, lyrical, and electric. The narrative begins in 1929, the year a missionary gave Pete's father a basketball. Press Maravich had been a neglected child trapped in a hellish industrial town, but the game enabled him to blossom. It also caused him to confuse basketball with salvation. The intensity of Press's obsession initiates a journey across three generations of Maraviches. Pistol Pete, a ballplayer unlike any other, was a product of his father's vanity and vision. But that dream continues to exact a price on Pete's own sons. Now in their twenties--and fatherless for most of their lives--they have waged their own struggles with the game and its ghosts. Pistol is an unforgettable biography. By telling one family's history, Kriegel has traced the history of the game and a large slice of the American narrative. <HR class=bucketDivider noShade SIZE=1> "Why Pistol?" An Exclusive Essay by Mark Kriegel <A><IMG hspace=4 src="http://g-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/books/a-plus/mark-kriegel._VNONE_FOUND_.jpg" align=left vspace=4 border=0>"Why Pistol?" I'm asked that all the time.Pete Maravich became famous in the late 1960s, while setting scoring records at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. I'm not a son of the South. Nor, at 44, do I have any meaningful recollection of basketball's boy wizard in his floppy-socked prime. I grew up in the Seventies, on Eighth Avenue in Manhattan, a few blocks from Madison Square Garden. I was a fan of the Knicks and their star guard, Walt "Clyde" Frazier. In terms of basketball style, Clyde and Pistol were antithetical. Frazier's flamboyance--I recall committing his "wardrobe stats" to memory--was not apparent on the court. Rather, he was celebrated as a dogged defender. His game was wise, economical, his gaze expressionless. Maravich, by contrast, was considered a head-case. His eyes were sad--even a kid could see that. Still, there was a distinct exuberance in the way he moved. No one moved like that, before or since. Continue reading "Why Pistol?" <HR class=bucketDivider noShade SIZE=1> 114606 6 2 2007 Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich total:200|5:35|4:95|3:62|2:8|1:0| 200 757 282 46 3 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 23 09:42:42 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 23 09:49:52 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Jul 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 05 21:04:48 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 05 21:12:00 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed May 14 17:35:20 -0700 2008 Wed May 14 18:19:34 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Apr 13 07:34:33 -0700 2008 Sun May 18 11:59:05 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Wed Jul 15 21:27:30 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 15 21:30:13 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jun 25 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Nov 02 21:23:49 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 02 21:39:57 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Sat Jan 03 12:21:03 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 03 12:22:24 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Tue Apr 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri May 01 12:10:53 -0700 2009 Fri May 01 12:22:18 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Sat Jan 10 07:40:29 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 10 07:41:21 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Fri Mar 20 06:02:22 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 27 05:31:11 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun Jul 26 14:25:19 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 26 14:27:07 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun Jun 14 13:12:54 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 14 13:13:54 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Wed Jan 21 15:12:23 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 21 15:14:19 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Wed Dec 24 08:58:56 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 24 08:59:34 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Fri Sep 25 12:27:09 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 25 12:29:06 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Thu Dec 04 17:32:03 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 04 17:33:02 -0800 2008 5 0 false false Wed Oct 14 18:08:00 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 14 18:08:42 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 25 13:32:36 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 25 13:33:52 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Tue Sep 29 16:20:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 29 16:20:21 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Mon Jul 09 08:03:30 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 09 08:35:20 -0700 2007 decades ahead of his time. If he hadn't had such bad knees at a time when knee surgery was basically done with steak knives there's an excellent chance he'd be known as the grea...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=119035