The Cost of These Dreams, Wright Thompson
The Cost of These Dreams, Wright Thompson
1 Rating(s)
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

The Cost of These Dreams
Sports Stories and Other Serious Business

Author: Wright Thompson

Narrator: Wright Thompson

Unabridged: 12 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 04/02/2019


Synopsis

From one of America's most beloved sportswriters, a collection of true stories about the dream of greatness and its cost in the world of sports. "Wright Thompson's stories are so full of rich characters, bad actors, heroes, drama, suffering, courage, conflict, and vivid detail that I sometimes thinks he's working my side of the street - the world of fiction." - John Grisham There is only one Wright Thompson. He is, as they say, famous if you know who he is: his work includes the most read articles in the history of ESPN (and it's not even close) and has been anthologized in the Best American Sports Writing series ten times, and he counts John Grisham and Richard Ford among his ardent admirers (see back of book). But to say his pieces are about sports, while true as far as it goes, is like saying Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove is a book about a cattle drive. Wright Thompson figures people out. He jimmies the lock to the furnaces inside the people he profiles and does an analysis of the fuel that fires their ambition. Whether it be Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods or Pat Riley or Urban Meyer, he strips the away the self-serving myths and fantasies to reveal his characters in full. There are fascinating common denominators: it may not be the case that every single great performer or coach had a complex relationship with his father, but it can sure seem that way. And there is much marvelous local knowledge: about specific sports, and times and places, and people. Ludicrously entertaining and often powerfully moving, The Cost of These Dreams is an ode to the reporter's art, and a celebration of true greatness and the high price that it exacts.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Peter on January 05, 2020

I first came across Wright Thompson's work in a Tiger Woods article he wrote for ESPN a few years back. It focussed mostly on Tiger's downfall and tied it into the death of his father - how he struggled to cope without his rock, how he emulated his old man in his womanising and even his military fas......more

Goodreads review by Thomas on March 04, 2020

To say that Wright Thompson is a sportswriter would be equivalent to saying that Macbeth is a travelogue of Scotland. Sports are merely a gateway to the human condition, and no one, repeat, no one, can open and mine it like Thompson. Easily the best sports book I've read in several decades. Any furt......more

Goodreads review by Alexander on June 02, 2019

Wright Thompson is a great sportswriter, but the themes covered in these pieces go beyond sports. He asks what is the price of pursuing greatness for the people who have achieved it, been close to it, or fell short. Great stories about humanity, mortality, and the way we choose to live our lives.......more

Goodreads review by Scott on January 30, 2020

So happy to have found this book - and it surprised me (pleasantly) to a significant degree. This is some of the best writing I've read in a while. Though "sports" is a part of these stories, it really just sits as a setting for something much more. Highly recommend this. I'll read everything Thomps......more

Goodreads review by Craig on March 07, 2020

I've long admired Wright Thompson's long-form sports stories, and so I had high expectations when buying this collection. It not only meets but arguably surpasses those expectations. This is exceptional reportage and storytelling, taking us into the minds, lives, and hearts of globally famous and le......more