Schultz and Peanuts: A Biography, by David Michaelis

Schultz and Peanuts: A Biography, by David Michaelis (New York: Harper Collins; 2007), 655 pages.

David Michaelis’s Schultz and Peanuts: A Biography tells the story of the life of Charles Schultz, the cartoonist responsible for “Peanuts.” Like all biographers, Michaelis chronologically pieces together the life of Schultz, and appears to include all major milestones in his varied and successful life. Michaelis gives an extremely detailed account of his childhood, growing up as the son of a successful and respected barber in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Schultz spent most of his childhood in those cities, apart from a brief period when as a young child his family moved to Needles, California. He attended elementary and high school in Minneapolis, served in the United Stated Army in World War Two in the European theatre, attended art school and ultimately achieved his ambition to be a cartoonist through the newspaper syndication of “Peanuts,” an achievement that brought him considerable notoriety and financial success. Michaelis also provides us with detailed accounts of Schultz’s single and adult life in Minneapolis, Colorado, and later California. Michaelis gives very detailed accounts of his personal life including the death of his mother, his relationship with his father, his courtships, marriages, divorce, children, his illness and death. All such accounts are expected in biographies, however, Michaelis provides extraordinary detail and considerable insight to the reader as to what the influence of these events on Schultz and how they made them the man he was.

Michaelis achieves this on a number of levels. For example, he reveals how Schultz knew from a young age of his gift for drawing, and of his decision at a young age to establish a career as a cartoonist. What is notable is Schultz’s single-minded determination to achieve this goal, and, to continue in his chosen vocation throughout his life only to stop drawing prior to his death. Michaelis portrays Schultz as a single-minded, competitive and determined man.

Michaelis also reveals that Schultz’s life needed not be the subject of a biography because all of Schultz’s life had been revealed through the characters in “Peanuts.” Schultz’s loves, phobias, obsessions, fears, friends, relatives, and even his spouses are revealed through the characters in his cartoon strip. To demonstrate this point, Michaelis liberally sprinkles “Peanuts” cartoon strips through the book to demonstrate the point that Schultz used the experience of his life to form the characters of “Peanuts” and to establish their personalities and relationships. “Peanuts” is almost a metaphor of Schultz’s life. It is an effective and convincing effect that adds considerably to Michaelis’s narrative.

A third of many elements that Michaelis reveals about Schultz is his exceptional cartooning skill, including innovations that were instrumental in establishing him and propelling him to great success and accomplishment. An example of his innovation was his minimalist drawing style that focused just on the characters and their immediate surrounding, whereas his contemporaries used detailed shading with detailed backgrounds. Schultz other great innovation was to give adult personas and problems to his characters – small children. He later took this further by giving those attributes to the animal characters Snoopy and Woodstock.

A notable feature of Michaelis’s book it’s almost universally great and comprehensive detailed account of Schultz’s life, warts and all. Michaelis provides astonishingly exhaustive details of Schultz’s life from childhood through midlife. By comparison, the last 20 years of Schultz’s like are covered in much less detail; it’s almost a rushed-through light weight coverage of these latter years when compared with the rest of the book. This observable fact, perhaps pedantic, does not make the book flawed. Perhaps it’s a reflection that the most interesting part of a person’s life is the struggle to attain success, rather than continuing to do practice your success. Nonetheless, Michaelis has done a fine job in telling the story of a great American success. It’s a story of how a man from humble origins recognized his gift and through ambition and hard work became arguable the most successful and influential practitioner of is craft in his lifetime. In telling the story of Schultz’s remarkable life, Michaelis has written a remarkable book that for many years will be the definitive biography of Charles Schultz. That, too, is something quite remarkable.

Weapons of Choice by John Birmingham

Weapons of Choice by John Birmingham is the first in a series of three novels in the so-called “axis of time” series. The premise of the series could be summarized in the form of a question: “What do you get when a 2021 military experiment transports an American-led multinational naval armada `back through time to 1942, and relocates the armada to the middle of the U.S. naval task force heading towards Midway Island and the battle of Midway?” John Birmingham answers this question over the course of the three novels. In this first volume the story develops on a number of levels.

On the strategic level, the emergence in 1942 of a 2021 battle armada has the potential to vastly influence the conduct and result of World War II. The allies’ access to 2021 technology and 2021 history books enables the 1942 generation to learn from history by not making the mistakes that are yet to occur, so to speak, thereby changing the course of history. The same occurs with Germany, Japan, and (a temporarily neutral) Russia, who also obtain future technology and knowledge of the future. Birmingham’s book cleverly teases out the premise of the affect of knowledge of the future on current events. For example, the Battel of Midway does not occur. Germany and Russia make a peace (temporarily) to mutually explore the application of the new technology to their 1942 weapons programs. New military campaigns are pursued to achieve new military and political objectives that become apparent with the so called knowledge of history and new technologies.

Birmingham also develops the sub-plot of the political implications of the new technology and historical records. Hitler and Stalin, armed with knowledge of future treacheries, eliminate their rivals. In the United Sates, when faced with new technologies being used by a liberated and de-segregated population, the Government responds by establishing a special zone in the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles to use future laws, customs and technologies to enhance the 1942 war effort by bringing forward the development and adoption of new technologies.

The book also develops the sub-plot of the numerous cultural, social, and legal differences between the people from 2021 and 1942. For example, we experience the clashes between the 1942 politicians with a military from the future, and the clashes between military men and women from different eras, in particular, their viewing (in private) of each other as somewhat barbaric. In an era of segregation in the United States, a country fighting a war against a foe that believes in the wholesale extermination of so-called “inferior races,” the appearance of warrior from the future becomes disturbing to both sides when some of 2021 era commanding officers are African American, and women. This culture shock and culture clash is a recurring theme and source of tension throughout the story.

Weapons of Choice is the produce of John Birmingham’s very fertile imagination. He has written a fine novel that mixes historical fiction, science fiction/futurism and socially conscious storytelling. This fine novel should appeal to fans of military history and science fiction lovers, as well as any person that enjoys good and imaginative writing. It’s noticeable that Birmingham creates in the reader an appetite for more. After seeing these improbable events occur, you end up wondering how things are going to work out. We and up wanting to know how things are going to work out in this strange new past that reflects the future. It is fairly safe to say that if you end up reading Weapons of Choice, you’ll also want to read the other two volumes because it’s simply that good and that engaging.

First Tests: Great Australian Cricketers and the Backyards that Made Them, by Steve Cannane

First Tests: Great Australian Cricketers and the Backyards that Made Them, by Steve Cannane, (Sydney: Harper Collins; 2009), 231 pages.

First Tests is a book about how Australia’s greatest cricketers developed their unique and special skills at home in the backyard. The book contains a series of articles on how players developed individual strengths and skills playing in the backyard, and how the backyard’s location, design and the proximity of windows influenced the development of players’ skills. It is these skills developed over thousands of hours after school and on weekends in the back yard (rather than attendance at professional training camps and academies) that made them great players.

The genesis of this book was a suburban Sydney cricket match where the author observed a team mate make an unorthodox but effective batting shot that both infuriated the bowler and provoked conversation among his team mates. When questioned about the origin of the unorthodox batting shot, the team mate answered that he developed it as a kid playing in his parents’ backyard. In that backyard, the player had to adjust his batting shots to avoid breaking windows. The team mate played shots to avoid breaking windows in the backyard, and continued to play them on the cricket field. As the conversation went around the other players at that suburban cricket match, it seemed that every player had a similar story of a strength or weakness that could be attributed to backyard cricket. This got the author to think that if this is the case for ordinary suburban grade cricketers, then it must be the same for elite cricketers. In a sequence of chapters discussing one cricketer, the author explains in delightful detail how many elite cricket players down through the decades developed their skills in their backyard.

For example, Sir Donald Bradman’s unique batting grip, stance and back lift was developed during batting practice with a golf ball and cricket stump. These unique qualities were developed in response to the speed at which the golf ball rebounded off the water tank stand in his backyard. Greg Chappell’s trademark batting shot, a flick off the hip, was invented in his backyard, where the best opportunities for scoring were on the leg side. Alan Davidson bowled accurately because he had to; as a kid bowling in the backyard, if his bowling missed the stumps on his home-made pitch, he had to chase the ball down the hill into the scrub. Doug Walters played spin bowling with ease because his crushed ant bed home made cricket pitch spun like a top. Neil Harvey developed excellent footwork by playing cricket in the back lane where the ball bounced viciously off the cobblestones. Adam Gilchrist, a powerful and clean hitter of the ball, developed that skill in his backyard batting net where at the end of each daily practice he spent time doing what was natural to him, just hitting the ball.

Cannane also elaborates on the type of discipline needed to become an elite cricket (and buy implication an elite player or competitor in any sport). Those that reached the highest level of the game were veterans of thousands of hours of backyard games, often played against older and more experienced siblings and friends. In these contests players developed their competitive instincts and unrelenting desire for success.

Cannane’s book is an enjoyable and light-hearted reflection on the theme of how childhood habits, developed and practiced for thousands of hours in competitive and determined backyard matches developed skills that helped various players reach the highest level in the sport of cricket. These backyard matches played after school and on weekends (and even in winter) were essential in the formation of many fine cricketers. Cannane’s view is that backyard cricket matches will also be instrumental in the development of the future generations of great players. Cannane has also done a great service by including a detailed bibliography containing the publishing details of many biographies and autobiographies of Australian cricketers. This bibliography alone is worth the purchase price of the book because it gives any cricket lover an instant and accessible first reference source for book by and about Australian cricketers.

"The Associate" by John Grisham

John Grisham's The Associate is a story of a young law graduate's final semester at Yale law school and first year of work as a lawyer. Such a story would ordinarily be unexceptional, as would any recent graduate's first year in the workforce. Grisham's tale is hardly unexceptional because of his skill at writing an engaging story involving interesting characters (Ivy League law school graduates), their employers (massive Wall Street law firms), their huge salaries, their crimes and indiscretions (bribery, rape, conspiracy, billing fraud, breach of attorney-client privilege, to name a few), and scorn that many young lawyers have for their chosen profession.

The Associate is a story about the use of bribery to compel a bright Yale law school graduate (Kyle McAvoy) to forsake his yearning to work in public interest law and instead accept an offer to practice litigation in the nation’s largest law firm in New York City. He his compelled by a group of well organized thugs, in particular, their threat to ruin his life by exposing his appearance on a video recording at a party he hosted where his friends allegedly raped a woman. Police investigated the case but never filed charges; however, that was before it was known that there was a video recording. The thugs have a copy of the video and threaten to release it to McAvoy’s friends, the victim’s attorney, the police, and potential employers if McAvoy doesn't do what they require. The thugs not only want McAvoy to accept an offer to work at a Wall Street law firm, but also spy for them and provide them with privileged client information, material, and evidence that his firm's clients are using in their defense in an upcoming trial. In his first few months at his new firm, McAvoy settles into a job he despises. He masters the billing practices, manipulates his fellow employees and wins the confidence of the managers to such an extent that the firm’s partners appoint him to the team involved in the multi-million dollar trial mentioned by his thug handlers. Once in a position to steal information, McAvoy executes his long gestating plan to get out of his handler's grasp. His plan involves co-operating with Federal law enforcement to expose/catch the thugs who compelled him to commit crimes. Kyle McAvoy also set in place a series of negotiations that, primarily through the use of intermediaries, settle the matter of the alleged rape.

Grisham’s reputation as an exceptional storyteller is well established, particularly of stories involving young lawyers in trouble that are disillusioned by the big money practice of law, who have to use their wits to save their skin. The Associate is such a story, but even though it’s a fast-paced and engaging story, it’s more than that. Sure, it’s a ripping yarn, but on another level it a cautionary tale of how difficult it is to prosecute sexual assault crimes. It also is a story of how large big city law firms pay fabulous salaries, but require their staff to virtually enslave themselves to their chosen careers. Grisham implies, none to subtlety, that small “main street” walk-up law practices are the true, noble, legitimate and most rewarding ways to practice law. The large wall street firms may pay large salaries, however, many lawyers who chose this option become disillusioned with their chosen profession - its almost as though he's warning young lawyers to not go for the dollars because it will bring misery, Rather, he implies, do what your heart tells you to do and listen to that inner voice; you’ll be happier and live a more fulfilling and useful life.

The Brass Verdict, by Michael Connelly

In The Brass Verdict, Michael Connelly gives the reader another Los Angeles-based fictional crime story, this time its one that brings together two of Connelly’s most intriguing characters, veteran Los Angeles Police Department detective Harry Bosch and “Lincoln Lawyer” Mickey Haller. The two are (naturally) brought together by a crime, the murder of Haller’s acquaintance and fellow lawyer Jerry Vincent. Following Vincent’s murder, a Judge orders Haller to take over Vincent’s caseload, which includes a high profile murder trial where a prominent movie studio owner is accused of murdering his wife and her lover. While Haller attempts to familiarize himself with his new clients and their cases, Bosch investigates Vincent’s murder. Both Bosch and Haller suspect that Vincent’s murder is related to his representation of the movie mogul, suspicions that prove well founded. Haller’s trial preparations reveal evidence of bribes, jury tampering, and eventually, a judicial jury rigging conspiracy. In telling the apparent small story of a murder and a trial, Connelly reveals a larger story a legal and judicial conspiracy. Haller’s discoveries are not disclosed to Boschs due to attorney-client privilege, but Bosch, we’re led to believe, somehow knows already, but is seeking proof. To add further intrigue, Haller’s movie mogul client is murdered, and an attempt is made on Haller’s life, an attempt foiled only through the intercession of the vigilant no-nonsense Bosch.

The Brass Verdict again demonstrated Connelly’s skill as a natural storyteller of crime thrillers. He engages his readers by bringing together two engaging but believable characters in Bosch and Haller. He takes nothing for granted and provides sufficient back-story for new readers of his fiction, as well as regular readers of his past works. Connelly knows Los Angeles, and knows how it courts and police department operate. In typical Connelly fashion, the story is fast-paced, engaging, and peppered with numerous twists and turns, and surprise detours. Even though this book is engaging, it is somewhat bleak in that it’s regularly punctuated with death, crime, corruption, violence, cynicism, and the hard-nosed characters that seem comfortable with the grime of crime. The book is somewhat notable for its absence of joy, humor, fun or delight. Such are the live of Connelly’s stern committed, driven principle driven characters. But this should be expected in any crime novel; anything other than this would be unusual at least, if not inauthentic. Nonetheless, The Brass Verdict is very well written, and is a fine example of crime writing and legal/court room storytelling, that is further proof of the assertion that Connelly is one of America’s finest crime fiction writers.

The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisenberger

In The Devil Wears Prada, author Lauren Weisenberger tells the story of a young female college graduate who becomes a “wage slave” working all hours as the assistant to the tyrannical editor of a prominent fashion magazine. Our young graduate learns that she’s won what appears to be the employment lottery, landing a job at a fashion magazine that many of her contemporaries “would kill for.” She sees the job as a stepping stone to becoming a writer, but over the course of a year while being an on-call slave to her boss, become distant to her parents, alienated from her boyfriend, and oblivious to her closest’s friend’s slide in to alcoholism. She eventually realizes that she has sacrificed the things closest to her (family, boyfriend friend and writing) in order to meet the excessive, outrageous, rude, bullying and tyrannical demands of her boss, one of the most respected-through-fear chief editors in the fashion industry. In order to succeed in her job, she appears to sacrifice her writing ambitions and relationships with the people most important to her in return for the moderate wages, free (or stolen) couture clothing, promises of future assignments, and the “psychic income” and “snob value” of working in close proximity to wealth and glamour. When faced with a crisis, our college graduate realizes that she has become like her boss; and in a sense, realizes that she’s been worshipping a golden calf rather than seeking the Promised Land.

This book has appeal to fashion gossips interested in what its “really like” working as an assistant to the chief editor of a fashion magazine. Lauren Weisenberger obviously knows what its like; she writes with the voice of experience, confidence, and reality. As ridiculous as the chief editor’s behavior is, the author is very convincing in telling her audience that such behavior is not uncommon. Our author keeps the reader’s interest by sprinkling the story with insider tid-bits that demonstrate the glamour, mystique, absurdity, celebrity and attraction of the fashion business. But on another level, our author shows that the young and ambitious college graduates (or anyone for that matter) can sacrifice their dreams and most important relationships while they “succeed” in their career. In this instance, an erudite and scholarly college graduate, after a year in a “dream job” almost becomes a younger version of the boss she dislikes – a bullying, cruel, manipulative, tyrannical bully. This is the message of this engaging and entertaining book, a message applicable to all people, regardless of where you live and work. Beware of what you wish for. Beware of whom you associate.

Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis

Sinclair Lewis’s Babbitt satirizes the life of commerce where status, position and comfortable but competitive conformity are the end in life. Lewis satirizes these features of life most common in some commercial democratic societies through an examination of the life of George Babbitt, a realtor from the fictional mid-western American city of Zenith.

Babbitt lives the life of a businessman who esteems the trappings of middle class success, in particular, what success can buy. Babbitt is seemingly happy with his success, for it has enabled him to display it to others through what it can buy; a house in a desirable neighborhood, a fine motor car, and membership of the right clubs and associations. Following a series of out-of-town trips, and dinner parties with persons “above” and “below” his level of financial status, Babbitt begins to question whether there is more to life. He searches for meaning/happiness, however, his search involves philandering and outwardly supporting radical views, or views he previously attacked prior to the start of his search for meaning and happiness. Babbitt’s search for happiness and meaning continues up to the point where his conduct begins to hurt him financially through being ostracized and blacklisted by his fellow club and association members who used to channel their business his way. Such flirtations prove temporary and Babbitt eventually reverts to his conservative and conformist ways.

Lewis’s writing is notable for its sarcastic and contemptuous praise of all the things important to Babbitt. Lewis tells us that a life devoted solely to the advancement of business, wealth, status and all it can buy is an empty life devoid of meaning – it will not make for a happy life. There is nothing new in this; many books have been written through the ages on this subject. Lewis’s innovation is that Babbitt’s attempts to “search for meaning” almost lead to his ruin until he sees the light and resorts to his old ways. A dissatisfied conservative life in business, wealth and status is apparently not made happy through philandering or adopting radical ideas. What then is Lewis’s point? How then, according to Lewis, do we become happy? He doesn’t say in this book. Perhaps the answer is provided elsewhere by Lewis, or, by recognizing that the means to "happiness" as viewed and pursued by Babbitt (which almost lead to his ruin) should not be considered in by a serious searcher for meaning or happiness.

Florence of Arabia: A Novel by Christopher Buckley

Florence of Arabia: A Novel by Christopher Buckley, (Random House: New York; 2004), 272 pages, ISBN-10: 1400062233.

In Florence of Arabia: A Novel, Christopher Buckley satirizes the practice and practitioners of United States foreign policy in the Middle East. Buckley’s approach is to demonstrate the impact of United States’ ill-thought-out, bumbling, inappropriate, and poorly executed imposition of American’s beliefs and modern progressive views in two fictional Middle East countries.

Buckley’s satire focuses on a career State Department diplomat (Florence Farfalitti) and her single-minded devotion to her career. This devotion appears to be at the exclusion of everything else: she appears to have no family, spouse, or interests outside her career. Florence’s life changes when she becomes part of a diplomatic incident where a wife of a prominent Middle Eastern diplomat approaches her seeking asylum in the United States. The wife is denied asylum, is returned to her home country, and publically beheaded. Florence is outraged by her country’s abandonment of her friend, the asylum seeker. Her outrage spurs her into frenzied activity that produces a policy document outlining plans for changes to the United States Middle East policy to one where female emancipation/liberty/equal are discussed, supported and encouraged. The bosses in the State Department angrily reject Florence’s proposals; however, she is privately recruited by un-named American backers in a secret mission to impose equal rights for women in the fictional Middle East emirate of Matar, the “Switzerland of the Gulf.” She recruits a varied team of experts to implement her plan via the medium of television. Her television station targets repressed Middle Eastern women through a provocative line-up of programs that includes “The Thousand and One Mornings,” a day-time talk show that features self-defense tips to be used by women against their boyfriends during Ramadan. There is also a popular soap opera that features characters that appear to be based on the Matar royal family. There is also a situation comedy about an inept but ruthless squad of religious police.

Florence’s plan, once implemented, changes the Middle East, but not in the way she intended. While the television station programming is very popular and profitable, it provokes a religious backlash against the television station, its staff, the ruling regime of Matar, and eventually a political struggle for the control of the emirate. Chaos, death and an uprising ensue.

The targets of Buckley’s satire in Florence of Arabia are the practitioners of United States foreign policy. Diplomats are hilariously portrayed as dithering do-nothings, whose obsequiousness and timidity towards ruthless tyrannical allies results in the death of persons who seek nothing but liberty. On the other hand, activist diplomats that seek to plant the succulent root of women’s equality in the barren soil of the Middle East end up causing turmoil, instability, death, and harm to the cause they originally intended to promote. Florence of Arabia is fiction/satire: nothing like this could ever happen in real life, could it? To this reviewer, it triggers memories of previous administrations’ “doing God’s work” in Somalia, and expanding democracy in the Middle East, by imposing it on Iraq. Florence of Arabia is both engaging and humorous, while simultaneously appearing as though it could be a non-fictional, cautionary tale for those starry-eyed idealists seeking to change the world for the better through diplomacy.

Thank You For Smoking: A Novel by Christopher Buckley

Thank You For Smoking: A Novel by Christopher Buckley, (New York: Random House; 1994) 228 pages.

Thank You For Smoking: A Novel by Christopher Buckley is a satirical fictional romp that exposes the repugnant work of a tobacco industry lobbyist in Washington D.C. The story follows chief tobacco industry spokesman Nick Naylor, a man desperately trying to save his job from being given to a younger but equally ambitious female co-worker. Naylor is a seasoned media performer who uses rhetorical flourishes, double-talk, manipulation, scientific skepticism to attempt to make the weaker argument stronger, namely, that there is no scientific evidence that smoking is damaging to your health. He plies his trade at conferences, television talk shows and interviews. Naylor knows his days as chief spokesman are numbered and, in a series of interviews, attacks and humiliates critics of the tobacco industry. Naylor gets extensive publicity for his clients in a series of high profile interviews, but his success proves short lived for he is threatened, kidnapped, and poisoned to a state close to death, an event he also uses to gain positive publicity for the tobacco industry. From hereafter, Naylor's life and career begin to unravel. His initial success in obtaining positive publicity for smoking is rapidly followed by an alienation of his lobbyist friends, him becoming a suspect in a F.B.I. investigation into his kidnapping, and the unexpected death of his only patron in the tobacco industry (the tobacco industry's chief industrialist). Nick is left alone to use his wits to defend himself against his co-workers, the F.B.I., a Senate Inquiry and ultimately criminal prosecution.

Buckley's booking is a ripping yarn, a fast moving and engaging close-up examination of the sewer that is political lobbying in Washington D.C. A notable feature of this book is Buckley's ability to make the reader sympathetic to such a loathsome character as Naylor. Perhaps its that Naylor is an under-dog - him against the smokers, scientists, medical profession and media - that makes us delight in his deceptive use of sham rhetoric to dissemble, obfuscate, bluster and charm in such a manner that we find him, at times, both outrageously funny and charming. It is no wonder his protagonists refer to him as Satan. Or, perhaps, we are somewhat sympathetic to the character because he embodies a rugged individuality that can be so appealing - the lone individual (with considerable financial backing mind you) standing up to the self-righteous, sanctimonious, busy-body, know-alls that proliferate Washington D.C. who want to govern, regulate and control all aspects of our lives. Nick Naylor stands up to them, but ultimately both he and his opponents are portrayed in unflattering light, as equal pigs with their snout in the Washington D.C. trough.

Thank You For Smoking may not be enjoyed by lobbyists or federal regulators and other do-gooders, but it is very enjoyable for the rest of us. If you read it in public, don't be surprised if you laugh out loud.

The Great Fletch by Hugh Lunn

The Great Fletch: The Dazzling Life of Wimbledon Aussie Larrikin Ken Fletcher, by Hugh Lunn, (Sydney Australia: ABC Books; 2008), 355 pages.

This is a sympathetic biography of Australian tennis “great” Ken Fletcher, written by Fletcher’s childhood and life-long friend Hugh Lunn. The book memorializes the childhood, tennis playing successes, disappointments, adventures, and post-tennis life of the man that had the “most beautiful forehand in the world.”

Hugh Lunn’s biography of almost forgotten and overlooked tennis player Ken Fletcher shines a sympathetic light onto the late tennis player’s life. Lunn had an advantage writing this book: he knew Fletcher from childhood. Both grew up on the same street in Brisbane, Australia. They attended the same school, church, and even resided together in Hong Kong in the 1960’s. They remained good friends until Fletcher succumbed to cancer in 2006. The Great Fletch, therefore, is liberally peppered with Lunn’s personal observations and recollections, along with those gathered from Lunn’s interviews with Fletcher’s extensive world-wide collection of friends and acquaintances.

Lunn’s purpose is to remind us of the varied and charmed life of one of tennis’s great players. Born in Brisbane, Australia, Fletcher, the only son of a train driver, had a gift for tennis. This gift was nurtured on a back yard tennis court, and displayed throughout the world. His ability and achievements were so prodigious that in 2000, Wimbledon, the home of tennis, recognized Fletcher as one of Wimbledon’s great players of the 20th century. He partnered with Margaret Court/Smith to do what no other team has achieved by winning the Grand Slam of mixed doubles (i.e., winning the mixed doubles title at the French Open, U.S. Open, Wimbledon and Australian open in the one calendar year). He also won the Wimbledon Doubles title with John Newcombe, and many other tennis titles, as well as being a member of an Australian winning David Cup team. Sadly, it is only the achievements of Fletcher’s contemporaries that we remember, contemporaries that include Rod Laver, John Newcombe, Tony Roche, Roy Emerson, Ken Rosewall, and others. It is hard to stand out, let alone be remembered, among such notable contemporaries.

Lunn’s book shows Fletcher as a man who loved life, enjoyed meeting people, and looking after them. He was at ease with the rich and famous, as well as the poor and downtrodden, and used his friendships with the wealthy to do good. Despite all his tennis successes, Fletcher considered his life a failure because he failed to win the Wimbledon men’s singles title (he lost 3 times to the ultimate champion). This is a harsh self-assessment. Tennis may have been his profession, but his vocation, ultimately, was helping others. His greatest legacy may be his introduction of Chuck Feeney to Australia. Fletcher maintained a friendship with Chuck Feeney, who, 30 years after their meeting in Hong Kong in the 1960's later would be a billionaire philanthropist seeking to give away his fortune. Fletcher’s long list of friends and acquaintances helped Feeney do just that. At the time of his death, Feeney had donated $350 million to charitable medical-research related causes in Fletcher’s home town, something that would never have happened if it was not for Ken Fletcher’s influence.

Lunn’s biography is a fine memorial to his friend’s memory. It is neither referential nor iconoclastic, but a humorous, realistic and honest portrait of his friend’s success and failures – if they could be called that. Fletcher was not only a great tennis player; he was wonderful person that always tried to do good by being a great and loyal friend and acquaintance to many throughout the world, and that is something definitely worth remembering.

The Don: A Biography by Roland Perry

Roland Perry’s “The Don” is a biography of Donald Bradman's exploits as the world’s greatest cricketer. It is a detailed, comprehensive account of his performance on the cricket field as a boy, through to his retirement from the game as a player, selector and administrator. The breadth and depth of Perry’s book are astounding – it’s almost an annotated narrated almanac. The author’s intention is to comprehensively and exhaustively detail Don Bradman’s cricketing achievements. It is through observing these achievements and Bradman’s conduct while achieving them that we learn something of the character of this private, competitive man of exceptionally rare talent and ability.

Perry’s book’s greatest strength is his coverage of Bradman’s entire cricketing career. By obtaining Bradman’s co-operation in the production of the book, Perry explains in exquisite detail Bradman’s childhood encounters of the game, his first schoolboy innings, as well as notable club, State, invitational and national team batting and bowling performances. We learn of the origin of his unorthodox batting grip, his exceptional concentration, relentless domination of all forms of bowling that broke many batting records, both in terms of the runs scored, and the speed with which he scored them. Perry also demonstrated Bradman’s humility and good natured competition conducted within the true spirit of the game. His achievements, so meticulously described in Perry’s book, give no doubt to even the most skeptical observer of the game, that Bradman was, without doubt, the greatest batsman that the game of cricket has ever seem, or is likely so see ever again. To convince the reader of Bradman’s status in the cricketing world, (and some readers need no convincing, only confirmation), Perry’s book takes more than 500 pages. If there is any weakness in the book it is (arguably) that the recollection of Bradman’s exploits takes too long, over too many pages. Some readers may tire of the recollection of excellence, however, this should only underscore the uniqueness of Bradman’s on-field achievements, namely that there are so many of them, that the diligent reader may tire reading about them. Nonetheless, Perry achieves the purpose of showing the uniqueness of Bradman.

This is a book for cricket fans who wish to be reminded to Bradman’s place as the greatest batsman ever to play cricket. It is also a book for serious sports lovers interested in the on-field achievements of the greatest cricketer that game has ever seen, or is likely to see again.