The Blind Side (Movie Tie-in Edition) (Movie Tie-in Editions) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

A wonderful tale. (John Gapper - Financial Times )

It's much more than a treatise on football; it's an exploration of the limits of conventional thinking and how strategic changes affect the value of quick-footed behemoths.... That he makes it easy for his reader to comprehend—and enjoy—is enough for most critics to give Lewis's latest a rousing cheer. (Bookmarks Magazine )

Lewis has made a habit of writing about sport recently, but sport is really only a subtext for a much more meaningful examination of class and race. I wept at the end, something I have not done at the end of a work of non-fiction for a very long time. (Malcolm Gladwell - The Observer Books of the Year 2006 )

Provides deep insights about sport and America. (The Spectator )

Starred Review. As he did so memorably for baseball in Moneyball, Lewis takes a statistical X-ray of the hidden substructure of football, outlining the invisible doings of unsung players that determine the outcome more than the showy exploits of point scorers.... Combining a tour de force of sports analysis with a piquant ethnography of the South's pigskin mania, Lewis probes the fascinating question of whether football is a matter of brute force or subtle intellect. (Publishers Weekly )

Starred Review.... The book works on three levels. First as a shrewd analysis of the NFL; second, as an expose of the insanity of big-time college football recruiting; and, third, as a moving portrait of the positive effect that love, family, and education can have in reversing the path of a life that was destined to be lived unhappily and, most likely, end badly. (Booklist )

The strongest strand of The Blind Side is about sporting strategy. When brain defeats brawn in one of Michael Lewis's books, you can almost hear the prose style lift off. (Ed Smith - The Times [London] )

Book Description

The New York Times Bestseller

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; Movie Tie-in Edition edition (October 12, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039333838X
• ISBN-13: 978-0393338386
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #276 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #2 in	Books > Sports > Football (American)
  #4 in	Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Biographies

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A touchdown, November 4, 2009

By	David Wilkin (La Habra Heights, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I became a Michael Lewis fan years ago when I read Liar's Poker. Fan may be too strong a word. I realized then that I enjoyed his style and so when browsing the book store, and with the movie trailers out, seeing that the book was by Lewis, i decided to give it a shot.

I was not disappointed. Lewis has a way of writing that brings something which you are not a part of into your life and make you one with it. Some of his short works i still find that I remember vividly, twenty years later and recite from on occasion.

Here we have an encouraging story of a young black boy who really has nothing in his life but his athletic ability. We have a good family that certainly does not need to exploit the boy. So they did what we all should want to do if our situations allowed, take the boy in and help. But the story is not just about that, it covers the evolution of football, these last thirty to forty years as marquee quarterbacks, or productive west-coast offense systems come into play.

In essence it is two books because of that, and it is what makes the story. I had to call my football buddy up half-way through and tell him I had a book he needed to read. Now I have to watch a game and wonder what the left tackle is doing.

This book was a very good read, and well worth the time and effort. It may not be as fun ultimately as Playing for Pizza by Grisham, but it is pretty good in its own way.

31 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not the Disney version of Oher's story, November 23, 2009

By	E. Jacobs - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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Warning to potential buyers: this book is not the text version of the Sandra Bullock movie, which from the trailers appears to have simplified the story down to Disney level. This is a book about football first and foremost, with the story of Michael Oher interwoven.

The author begins by providing a history of the economy for specific types of NFL players using anecdotes and data about changing trends in football. This is all done so that we can understand how Michael Oher's arrival on the football scene became such a sensation, and also quite possibly for the love of the game as well. I found these parts of the book incredibly educational and enlightening.

The story then begins to focus on Oher himself. This tale is not as simple as the movie would perhaps have you believe. As much as my heart would love to think that the Touhy family saw him sitting on the side of the road, brought him home, and adopted him, this book makes it clear that it was not that simple. Without telling the entire story, it definitely left me wondering what would have happened to Michael Oher if he couldn't play football, and for me, called into question a bit the Touhy's motivations. Oher must be an absolutely brilliant young man if he improved academically in the way described in the book; but these talents are not encouraged by the Touhys except as a way to get into college so he can play ball. Then again, that may just be the whole point of the book--the power of football.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book's primer on the history of player market value in the NFL, as well as the background on coaching styles. To football diehards this information may be old news but it's worth a second look. Finally, regarding the Oher part of the book, I confess that I was not left with a great impression of the Touhy family. However, the author's analysis of the nuances involved in this story was appreciated far more than the sanitized version.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Michael Lewis' great book is more than just the tale of Michael Oher, November 30, 2009

By	Andy Orrock (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)

There are some off-base reviews here of people who loved the movie and figured that Michael Lewis' book would be the perfect follow-up. For those people, please note: the movie is BASED ON the book. Movie != Book. The movie represents just one thread of Lewis' excellent work. The sub-title of Lewis' work is "Evolution of a Game." Lewis' main thesis is hinted at in the brief voice-over that Sandra Bullock (in the persona of Leigh Anne Tuohy) provides at the outset of the film: that if the quarterback is the highest-paid position in the game, then the evolution of the game is that the second highest-paid position is the one that provides insurance to that position: the left tackle....the gentleman that protects the quarterback's blind side. Michael Oher is then presented as someone with the potential - five years in the future at of the time of Lewis' research - to assume that role in the NFL. Thus, at the time of Lewis' tale, we come to understand why he's such a heavily recruited commodity. From there, Lewis peels back the onion and we come to know of Oher's upbringing and the role of the Tuohy family.

I have to admit: I went in cynical about what to expect in the movie, fearing the worst. But director John Lee Hancock does a wonderful job here extracting the essence of Oher's tale. Because let's face it: the rest of Lewis' book - while fascinating to those of us interested in the sport - doesn't translate well to the screen. But of Oher's tale: it seems the stuff of a Hollywood movie. And it has the added benefit of being the truth. But, again, all credit here to director Hancock: I had hoped throughout the film that he'd have the good sense to finish the tale in the most powerful manner possible: by showing footage of the real Michael Oher selected in the 1st round of the NFL draft. And, that's exactly what Hancock does - followed up by a series of emotional photos provided by the Tuohy family. [Stay for the credits to see them.]

One note about where the book and movie are very divergent: the role of Sean Tuohy. In the movie, Sandra Bullock's Leigh Anne Tuohy is the driving force and Tim McGraw's Sean - while agreeable - seems along for the ride. Readers of the book know this is far from the case. Lewis cites Tuohy's special connection to high-school athletes and mentoring personality. Plus, what readers of the book don't see: how Michael Lewis happened upon this story in the first place - he and Sean Tuohy are childhood friends and high school classmates.