Year of the Dunk
A Modest Defiance of Gravity
گزارش تخلف
کتاب های مرتبط
- اطلاعات
- نقد و بررسی
- دیدگاه کاربران
نقد و بررسی
February 23, 2015
Journalist Price gleefully narrates his quest to dunk a basketball as a not-so-young adult. Price is over 6’2” with “orangutan arms,” but he’s approaching his mid-30s and possesses a spotty athletic pedigree (though he served as captain on his college Frisbee team) to go with his love handles. Embarking on a strict diet and an exercise plan featuring tutelage from an Olympic gold medalist, Price, a testicular cancer survivor, gives himself a year to accomplish this specific athletic endeavor. Price uses this venture to plumb a number of related subjects, including the physics of jumping and the cultural significance of the dunk. In addition, the author details his own emotional state. “Two inches ain’t much,” Price observes about his improvement in vertical leap, “but it showed that at least I—and, by extension, just about anyone past his or her prime—had the capability of improvement.” The book is a springy mix of science writing, memoir, and history that is by turns informative, entertaining, and endearing.
March 15, 2015
Austin American-Statesman energy and environment reporter Price seeks to overcome his "genetic foibles" in pursuit of a singular and profound experience: dunking an NBA basketball. Before he began his yearlong exploration of whether dunking was "literally and metaphorically" unattainable for those with his specific genetics or increasing age (34), he was humbled when tests performed by doctors at a fitness lab diagnosed him as being in "completely average" condition. Through his efforts to increase his body's upward kinetic force to enable him to dunk, Price examines the larger issue of whether humans can outwit their physical limits and asks if it is actually possible to "dream up a task" and force your body to follow. On his journey, the author consulted a variety of experts, including geneticists and other scientists (including a Cambridge professor who specializes in the nervous system of locusts), as well as brick-chopping karate black belts and children at basketball camps. By not dragging readers through the weeds of mathematical formulas-an appendix includes tips for "how to jump higher" and a microlesson in the physics of dunking-Price comes across as a nonintimidating science teacher with a dry, sometimes self-deprecating wit. In easy-to-understand language, he explains such concepts as neuromuscular composition and the biomechanics of propulsion in humans and animals. During the course of his pursuit, Price faced down numerous psychological and physical obstacles, as well as dramatic setbacks off the hardwood, but his optimism, perseverance, and development are at the heart of this good-natured chronicle of his efforts. "I was like a lot of people: athletic enough, with a thin desire to win, but never the best and never desperate to be the best," he writes. In this briskly paced book, readers will recognize the courage and tenacity of everyday competitors and the power and awe-inspiring achievements of elite athletes.
Starred review from March 1, 2015
Funny and informative, this book is a real pleasure. Along with the story of his year-long attempt to get his body in enough shape to dunk a basketball, Journalist Price tells us about his battle with testicular cancer and the science behind jumping insects and robots. We also learn a lot about the history of the fitness movement and physical education in the United States. Ultimately, though, the book is a meditation on human limitations. Are all of us born to jump while only some take advantage of this potential? Or are some of us simply physically unable to jump very high, no matter how much we train? One particularly interesting point Price makes is that great and successful athletes simply do not recognize limits to their potential, while simultaneously being possessed of a greater awareness of their bodies than most of us could ever hope to attain. In other words, they're just not like the rest of us. VERDICT You don't have to be a sports fan or an aspiring athlete to enjoy this profound debut memoir. Let's hope we hear more from Price soon.--Derek Sanderson, Mount Saint Mary Coll. Lib., Newburgh, NY
Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
March 1, 2015
Although the book opens with minuscule 5'7 Spud Webb in the NBA's 1986 slam-dunk contest, it is about the author's own quest, at age 34, to dunk a basketball. Over six feet tall but never having been able to accomplish what he had seen the much smaller Webb do on TV, journalist Price embarks on an extensive diet and training regimen. Along the way, we learn much about Price and about the mechanics of the dunk, what component skills are trainable (or coachable), something of the shot's history, and more. Price is an able and witty writer, enough of an athlete to have a chance to accomplish his goal, and likable and self-deprecating enough that we root for himand we cheer him through his coterminous treatment for testicular cancer. Though it is ultimately about an unknown's obsession to perform an act performed by innumerable others both shorter and taller (we meet Dr. J and Darryl Dawkins), which may limit its appeal, readers of fitness books (and it's more about fitness than hoops) may find sustenance here.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)
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