Pistol, Mark Kriegel
Pistol, Mark Kriegel
5 Rating(s)
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Pistol
The Life of Pete Maravich

Author: Mark Kriegel

Narrator: Lloyd James

Unabridged: 12 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 07/09/2007


Synopsis

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.

About Mark Kriegel

Mark Kriegel, a former sports columnist for the New York Daily News, is the author of the critically acclaimed bestseller Namath: A Biography. He lives in Santa Monica, California, with his daughter, Holiday.


Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by Charles on 2012-12-06 20:01:47

THIS WAS A GREAT HEART RENDING STORY.AND IF HE HAD LIVED HE COULD HAVE DONE SO MUCH MORE.

Goodreads review by Brett on May 02, 2021

This was a well-written and good biography about the legend himself. The author starts out with a detailed account following from the Maraviches from Yugoslavia, to the early life of Press Maravich, and finally getting to his son, 'Pistol' Pete Maravich. The Pistol's early childhood and young adoles......more

Goodreads review by Barnabas on July 15, 2018

When a fascinating, enigmatic cast of characters encounters a gifted biographer something special happens. This is just such an instance. I’m a committed basketball fan, but I knew few details of Pete’s life and almost none of his father’s. Their combined, symbiotic and parasitic relationship is hea......more

Goodreads review by Hunter on December 16, 2014

The book Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich was not nearly as good as hoped it would be. Maybe it’s just that Pete’s life wasn’t as interesting as I thought or the author didn’t do a great job telling the story, but I was’t a big fan of this book. It starts out very slow talking about the story of Pe......more

Goodreads review by John on February 12, 2023

Mark Kriegel’s “Pistol” is a top notch biography of a name almost every basketball fan knows, but a story few remember. Kriegel is an excellent story teller and he crafts Pistol Pete Marovich’s story with panache. My favorite part was the beginning and the end. Kriegel spends a long time on Pete’s f......more

Goodreads review by Pat on April 29, 2019

This book was described by Colin Cowherd as being an excellent book. He was naming other book titles which he considered very good on his show and I wrote them all down and intend to read them. This one tells the life story of Pete Maravich, a star basketball player who played to national fame from......more