Customer Reviews

Home and Away: Memoir of a Fan

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

i grew up in chicago about the same time as the author and fell in love with this book the minute i saw it. he rekindled so many great memories. and i totally understand how people like us measure and remember our lives in games we've seen and athletes we watched. it's a wonderfully written and sweet book. i know i will read it again, something i do rarely

I picked up Home and Away because I like to read books on sports by sophisticated minds. And initially, I wasn't disappointed. Scott Simon delivers a vivid depiction of his childhood and his childhood love for sports, offering touching and revealing personal moments in the process. When he discusses his father and stepfather, we see the fan in a context larger than just the game, which I appreciated and admired.

But after the stepfather's criminal conviction, the narrative transitions into the story of the recent Bulls dynasty. Here is where book's self-indulgent love for Chicago turns to insufferable, sentimental cheese. In addition to slathering extra layers of sentimental goo on the Bulls--more than Simon previously appropriated for either Butkus's or Ditka's Bears--Simon covers ground already covered expertly and thoroughly by David Halberstam in Playing for Keeps. Only unlike Halberstam, Simon all but kisses Michael Jordan's behind, assessing no blame and even offering excuses for the star's occasional bad behavior. To me, the blatant sycophancy (is that a word?) on the part of the author makes me wonder if he willfully compromised his journalistic integrity or if that occurrence was inadvertant. Either way, I was thoroughly disappointed and had to stop reading. As do most Chicagoans, Simon simply got unBearably self-indulgent in his love for his city.

Having been a fan of Simon's weekly radio program on NPR and finding out we were both Chicagoans born around the same time, I purchased this book for my father and found myself loathe to give it up to him! I am not a true sports fan, merely a starry-eyed optimist who always roots for the underdog (especially now I live in Los Angeles!) so I always held a soft spot in my heart for the Cubbies. But this book is so brimming with love and life for the game, not only of baseball but the grrrrrreat Chicago Bears and the awesome Chicago Bulls, that I wish I could go back and see all the games that Simon so gloriously describes. Except I don't have to, because with his prodigious gifts as a writer, he makes you see it through his eyes, wide with respect and more than a little adoration. I can't recommend this book enough for anyone who ever had a passion for a team, an individual or a city like Chicago. You won't regret taking this journey with Simon and I eagerly await his next trip. By the way, I was lucky enough to make his acquaintance at a book signing recently and found him to be even more delightful in person, truly a "mensch." He deserves all the kudos he's received for his work and many more.

I admit, as a transplanted Chicagoan and die-hard sports fan, its hard to be objective about this book. Scott Simon cleverly weaves his own personal remembrances of growing up in Chicago, into an historic timeline of sports and politics, which amounts to must read for anyone who wants a true glimpse into the soul of 'the city with big shoulders'.
I laughed hard and often at the family anecdotes, its easy to see where Simon gets his sense of humor, thrilled at reliving the Cub season of '69 and saddened, once again, at Brian Piccolo's courageous battle with cancer.
After finishing 'Home and Away', I was compelled to send copies to a few of my sports buddies...less fortunate souls having grown up in cities of less character.
I am a fan of the city, its teams (except the Sox...go Cubbies), and this writer ,who embodies it all so well in this book.
Bravo.

Scott Simon does indeed offer us a *fan's* memoir with "Home and Away." He marks his life with recollections of the ups and downs (and there have been more of those) of Chicago sports teams. In doing so, he manages to cast off the millstone of cynicism that pervades professional sports nowadays. Simon demonstrates how he drew great inspiration from his sports heroes, even when they themselves did not live up to their public images. There is nobility to be found in athletic competition, and it is there if we search for it and uncover it, as Simon does.

Yes, the focus is on Chicago sports, but it seems that any sports fan who has suffered the bitter disappointments and exalted in the triumphs will nevertheless find much to enjoy in "Home and Away." Simon pays special attention to the Chicago Cubs and their seemingly timeless march towards a far-off "next year," the colorful ,85 Bears who defied the corporate-gray image afflicting many NFL teams, and of course, the 90's Bulls -- the only sports dynasty Chicago has ever had. Don't look for much "dirt" to be thrown around here; Simon is a fan after all, and approaches his subject with a "golly gee" sort of idealism of a kid. Does that make this less of a book? Hell, no... Simon succeeds in showing sports fans the "kid" qualities that we often forget, or worse yet, try to deny. In doing that, he makes a strong case that our child-like attraction to the teams we root for is something to be remembered, cherished, and passed on to future generations. High fives for Scott Simon!

A memoir of a devout sports fan that is the ideal blend of wit, reportage, and plain old-fashioned storytelling.

Any sports fan (especially from the Chicago area) will definitely enjoy this story of growing up as a fan in Chicago. The only thing that keeps me from giving this book 4 stars is the inaccuracies. In several instances, Simon gives incorrect scores, dates and places. You would think it would be easy for someone in his position to have the correct info, so this unfortunately distracted me from an otherwise fine read.

One of the earlier reviewers commented on this otherwise fine sports memoir descending into too much about Jordan and the Bulls. I agree completely. The first part is great, but then Simon sort of rides off into this seemingly never ending adulation of everything Jordan/Bulls. I resorted to serious skimming near the end.

Scott Simon was much closer to the Chicago legends he writes about that most could ever dream of, but his reflections on how they affected him and the loss he feels with their departure from the main stage and just how much sheer enjoyment and pleasure they generated while they were on top connected with me almost word for word at times.

The book really snuck up on me: unlike another reviewer who thought it began well and ended poorly with cheese and self indulgence, for me, the opposite was true. At first I stupidly thought it was a little long winded and plodding, overly self indulgent, name dropping all over the place, using unnecessarily big words to discuss sports. I stuck with it because I wanted to get to the 1985 Bears part. It grabbed me and I could not wait to get another chance to get back to it after I had to set it down.

I should have realized that anyone who can write as well as Scott Simon and is as thoughtful as he seems to be would be able to pull at my heart strings if he wrote about Walter Payton, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant, Dennis Rodman and the times surrounding their dominance.

Mr. Simon turned out a very compelling, reflective book that may get you thinking about your past, where your headed, why you once loved sports and its figures nearly unconditionally. Mr. Simon, through excellent writing, is able to invoke some of the long buried feelings you had for some of these particular figures. It pulls at your heart strings at times and reminds you of a time when you believed in something and shared wonderful experiences with a huge number of people.

It also puts into very well chosen words the sadness you still carry because nothing has been able to compare and reminds you why you still cannot put away that Bears #34 Jersey or that Bulls #23 jersey and bring yourself to buy a Bulls #1 and why, even when he seemed to be potentially the next person to step into the field with those Chicago characters from the past, you could not pull the trigger on a Bears #23 even when you had high hopes, partially satisfied, that Hester could rekindle some of that magic (and did for a short while).

Bottom Line: I loved it. I received it as a present. The person (who is not even my wife or close relative) who picked it up must have known that I would like it more than I myself would have thought. I wish I could pick out presents as well for people...

Home and Away : Memoir of a Fan is a great book and not just for sports fans. Like Scott Simon I am a "Chicagoan Away" living in the Washington, DC area. He evoked the nostalgia and the connection of many a boy, and more than a few girls, to their hometown sports connections in their adult lives. Add to that, for Chicagoans, the bittersweet Chicago fan experience of intense loyalty through decades of defeat and disapointment.

Like him, I was a northsider and a Cubs fan, though I spent a few contrary years as a White Sox fans. As a political appointee both at the federal level and for the Mayor of Chicago I experienced the collision of feelings and connections in a town that is both a sports and a political town. Like him, I experienced special connections to my father through sports, since we were both Northwestern alums. Unlike Scott I wasn't much of a sports fan, but it became a part of me nevertheless. It came up when I lobbied a Republican House Committee chair from Chicago, using the White Sox as a common reference point despite a wide gulf in our politics relating to civil rights issues. Home and Away is full of personal recollections both while he lived in Chicago and away when it allowed him to bridge differences that would've otherwise been enormous with sports recollections.

He writes about sitting alone as a new Washingtonian in a largely gay steak house in DC and sharing the experience of a Chicago sports fan away from home with a stranger. I've been there, actually to the same restaurant. So many of us have made those sorts of connections. And while the Chicago experience is unique, the special feelings we develop for the sports teams that we follow in our youth keep us connected as we travel far away from our neighborhoods, literally or merely symbolically.

He talks about Michael Jordan, a superstar and a Chicago winner standing above a lifetime of sports letdowns. He talks about the Mike Ditka's Bears who won the Superbowl in the 1980's and how it affected him (I worked for the Mayor at the time). I remember getting my hopes up, which Chicago fans do only cautiously, only to hear, while traveling in Japan, that after winning two playoffs, my Cubs were knocked out by the Padres. We revel in our winners, in sports and politics, though we will stand by our losers as well because we are Chicagoans. Is it any wonder that Barack Obama is our current political superstar!

Scott Simon's writing is as personal as his pieces on NPR. He has just written a new novel, Windy City, about Chicago and its ethnic politics. It will feature a South Asian alderman who becomes acting Mayor in a turbulent time. Much like the death of Mayor Harold Washington that I lived through,though as an Asian American I must note that there have never been any Asian American aldermen, Congresspeople or state representatives in Illinois despite rapidly growing communities. I hope Scott is just a little ahead of reality. I can't wait to read it.