I bought these books at the end of June, and I guess I could not wait to delve into them. It helps that I have an omnibus edition of the C.S. Lewis Space trilogy and, although I have finished Out of the Silent Planet, I’m less than enthusiastic about the second. So I picked up these two books to tide me over until my enthusiasm returns. Or to tide me over until I pick up another book in the middle of the Space Trilogy.
This book is more of an oral history-style book, with short, couple-paragraph anecdotes chained together. Because it relies on this oral history feel and interviews with then-contemporary Packers employees and players, it nods a bit to the Packers early years but then gets a little more detailed in the 1980s and 1990s.
It does have Aaron Rodgers on the front cover, fresh from the Super Bowl victory (the cover says so), but the actual stories don’t advance much beyond the “Will Favre retire this year?” speculation that really held us fans hostage in the latter part of the George W. Bush administration and the beginning of the McCain (who thought that candidacy was a good idea?) Obama administration.
The second of the two books, the first to be published, is more interesting, actually. Because instead of a stream of out-of-timeline-order memories, we have a number of essays that go into some detail. The first two are about the fans and about the stadium (expanded in that year with the help of a sales tax, and both books are in favor of it). Then we get essays about Fuzzy Thurston, the longtime Packers photographer (Vernon Biever, not Fuzzy Thurston), a couple of early role players who got together and talked about their time with the Packers and being fans, a kicker who went off the rails but turned his life around, a redemption for Tony Mandarich, and then an essay about LeRoy Butler, the longtime safety who did the first Lambeau Leap (and who still does Packers commentary).
Both were pretty quick reads, engaging, and kind of made me excited for the season that’s starting. But we’ll see if sports betting impacts the league as much as I fear it will.
Your link to John Donnelly’s Gold returns “HTTP Status: 404 (not found)”
You mean the link at the top; I guess I didn’t update it when I shuffled my Web hosting accounts around. Thanks.
I am pleased to note that all the links where you can actually buy it, or any of my other books, work as expected.
But I think I know what you’re really here for, BrassOrchid.
The only known extant copy of an old BBS MacGuffin which I have been
hoardingguarding faithfully for 34 years.