P. D. Griffith's Reviews > Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe

If you are an avid sports enthusiast you will absolutely love this book. This biography tells the both admirable and tragic life of Jim Thorpe in raw, unbridled detail, detail that almost bordered on too much at times due to the extreme telling of specific plays and games throughout Thorpe’s life of sport across track, football, baseball and basketball. If you can get through the extreme sections of sport rehashing, you will find a wonderful tale that will make you realize how little you knew about this “greatest athlete of all time” and his lasting legacy on sports in America, from being the first president of the NFL to an Olympic gold medalist in pentathlon and decathlon while he wasn’t even considered an American citizen due to his being Native American. It was a fascinating read where I learned unbelievable quantities about not only Jim Thorpe but the world of amateur and professional sports as they entered prominence in the early 20th century.