In 1971; a small-town high school baseball team from rural Illinoisplaying with hand-me-down uniforms and peace signs on their hatsdefied convention and the odds. Led by an English teacher with nocoaching experience; the Macon Ironmen emerged from a field of 370teams to become the smallest school in modern Illinois history to make thestate final; a distinction that still stands. There; sporting longhair; and warming up to Jesus Christ Superstar; the Ironmen would playa dramatic game against a Chicago powerhouse that would change theirlives forever.In a gripping; cinematic narrative; Sports Illustrated writer ChrisBallard tells the story of the team and its coach; Lynn Sweet; ahippie; dreamer and intellectual who arrived in Macon in 1966;bringing progressive ideas to a town stuck in the Eisenhower era.Beloved by students but not administration; Sweet reluctantly tookover a rag-tag team; intent on teaching the boys as much about life asbaseball. Inspired by Sweet's unconventional methods and led by fierystar Steve Shartzer and spindly curveball artist John Heneberry; theundersized; undermanned Macon Ironmen embarked on an improbablepostseason run that infuriated rival coaches and buoyed an entiretown.Beginning with Sweet's arrival; Ballard takes readers on a journeyback to the Ironmen's historic season and then on to the present day;returning to the 1971 Ironmen to explore the effect the game had ontheir lives' trajectories--and the men they've become because of it.Engaging and poignant; One Shot at Forever is a testament to the powerof high school sports to shape the lives of those who play them; andit reminds us that there are few bonds more sacred than that among acoach; a team; and a town
#957257 in Books Vintage 2007-04-10 2007-04-10Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 7.99 x .78 x 5.20l; .74 #File Name: 1400033780368 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. A full life but without a sense of Akhmatova as a poet.By M. PaleyThis is a very well-researched biography; presenting Akhmatova's life in detail with plenty of cultural and historical background. I did not; however; get much sense of her as a poet from the author's translations.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Incredible History; Mysterious HeroineBy J. JamakayaI thoroughly enjoyed this biography of Anna Akhmatova although I think it was more effective at conveying the dramatic decades and events of Russian history that she was swept up in than in revealing the character of the poet herself. Despite that; I learned more about Akhmatova than I had previously known; and her poems have greater resonance for me after reading about her grueling struggles against censorship; Stalinist terror; famine and war.I read Anna Akhmatova (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets); in which her poems are organized chronologically; alongside Feinstein's biography. Reading these two together really enhanced my appreciation of her poems. It also sent me on a lovely tangent looking up info about the challenges of translating poetry - an incredible art in itself! In many cases; I found Feinstein's translations of Akhmatova's poems more dazzling than those of D.M. Thomas's in the Everyman's edition.In the end though; Akhmatova remains rather mysterious as an individual. It's hard to understand her motivations toward her work and in her friendships and many love affairs. This may be due to the necessary caution about personal expression dictated by the repressive society she lived in; where a "politically incorrect" comment or letter could get you exiled or even executed. (Her first husband and her great colleague; Osip Mandelstam; were executed; her son spent years in the gulag.) In such a paranoid atmosphere; she didn't dare keep detailed diaries and she frequently burned things she had written or correspondence others had sent to her; leaving less of a record for us to study. But Akhmatova was also aware of her own talent and "celebrity;" and I got the impression that she actively cultivated an air of mystery about herself that might contribute to her posthumous status; which of course it has. Decades after her death; we remain awed by her haunting poetry and fascinated by the woman who produced it.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Russia's tragic poet-heroineBy Sally from the AdirondacksRecently; in St. Petersburg; I was having dinner at a dacha in a lovely birch forest on the Gulf of Finland north of the city.In a nearby graveyard; in the dusk; a woman was sweeping leaves from a white marble slab above the body of Anna Akhmatova. Nearby lay some bouquets of fresh flowers. Akhmatova died in 1966; clearly her memory remains as fresh to her fellow Russians as those flowers.In this excellent biography; Anna of all the Russians; Elaine Feinstein describes Akhmatova's work has having "a classical elegance drawn from Pushkin; and a passionate voice rising directly out of the drama of her own life. Many men fell in love with her beauty;yet all three of her marriages were miserably unhappy." she never bowed to the Soviet regime and so was not allowed to publish for 25 years; but became the voice of a whole people's suffering under Stalin.Feinstein inserts just enough of Akhmatova's poetry to illustrate this beautifully written and impressively researched biography. There are some fine photos of the poet; her lovers and her troubled son.
