Customer Reviews

The Underdog: How I Survived the World's Most Outlandish Competitions

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The cover alone made me giggle in the aisle of my local bookstore . . . opening the book and reading the chapter titles made me laugh aloud . . . looking at some of the pictures had me guffawing in the aisle . . . I stopped reading in the aisle for fear of snorting and causing a scene.

This book is hilarious and touching all at once. An honest and lovely account of trying to figure out who we are in this post-modern generation of American dreamers. Josh's dedication to his wife Tara adds depth to this novel found in the humor section and his competitions are . . . absurd.

Favorite chapters? I can't decide between the sauna chapter where the author and his family roast themselves in Finland for a family bonding experience; the chapter about arm wrestling and imagining this tiny squirt of a man dying his hair ferocious red in an attempt to appear frightening; or the chapter that inspired the cover when he tries to be big, to be a sumo wrestler. Then again there is walking backwards . . .

In a time when laughter is scarce and the world is tough, Joshua Davis' book shines a light of hilarity that can strengthen our own hope and dare us to dream and do what we thought previously impossible. Enjoy the book, and congratulations Josh!

I wasn't sure what to expect. I read it in two days, and found myself laughing out loud, which is rare. I found the best part to be his description of becoming a 128 lb sumo wrestler, and being surrounded by "man fat" as he plowed into his opponent. There's a photo of a race, but everybody seems to be looking behind them. I couldn't figure it out until I started reading the chapter, that Mr. Davis decided to take up backwards running. It's amazing the feats he attempts to conquer, in his quest for a fulfilled, exciting life.

"The Underdog" is "What Color is Your Parachute" for an aging Gen-X, who want to feel unique and fulfilled, but have no idea how to do it. I recommend this book, not just for being well-written and enjoyable, but also for touching on how scary it is to grow up, take on adult responsibilities, and live up to the expectations of the family, partner, and self. Mr. Davis' self-deprecating humor is charming, and I found myself rooting for him. Maybe he would be a great matador, maybe he would win the Finnish sauna contest, maybe he would be happy with his life and find satisfaction with the mundane as well as the fantastic. Maybe.

I enjoyed every page of this well-written and FUNNY book. An unlikely hero, Joshua Davis takes the reader on a journey through his quest to make a name for himself in . . . something.

The son of a "failed" beauty queen, this young man bursts with talent and ambition. With a loving and supportive wife allowing him the chance to try and fulfill his dreams, he ventures into the little known worlds of bizarre competitions: Arm wrestling, Sumo wrestling, bullfighting, backward running, and perhaps, the strangest thing I've ever imagined, competitive sauna-sitting. (He doesn't call it that, but that's what it was to me).

At one point after spending time in the steamy sauna, he describes his feelings as "buoyant, like I was filled with helium." That's how I felt while reading this book. It's light, original, funny and brave. I highly recommend the read and look forward to future work by this rising star.

From the author of "I'm Living Your Dream Life," and "The Things I Wish I'd Said," McKenna Publishing Group.

While we exchanged some emails and ideas after I'd read Joshua's article "Apocalypse Now," in the April, 2004 issue of Wired magazine, it did not prepare me for what was to come in his "Coming of Age" book. It is almost Chaplinesque in its story-line and delivery....

To say he has a hilarious choice of sports, by any conventional measure, is an understatement. Yet, despite of all the macho and/or weird engagements and the images they conjure - and you can go to Josh's web sites to see a good collection of them - I would argue that this is, in essence, a love story female readers can and will also appreciate.

Male cheerleading will probably fire up the imagination of the hot-blooded, only to be followed by ice swimming (or wife carrying)? Take your pick out of the 47 offbeat activities Joshua sweats through on the way to becoming a matador of some renown.

Out of all these crazy sports, backward running is my favorite. I finish my three mile jogging/running sessions with it. People say nothing (except their facial expressions) on the track, but you know what...my wife is for it. It's given me comfort to learn from this book that I could, one day, enter the Gambero D'Oro (The Golden Shrimp) race in northern Italy. Thank you, Joshua!

The nonfiction style of THE UNDERDOG reminds me - in tone - of author Bill Bryson and his wonderful story, A WALK IN THE WOODS. In that terrific tale, Mr. Bryson focused on himself as an out-of-shape, sloth-like man who attempted to hike the Appalachian Trail from end to end ...and failed.

But Mr. Davis isn't a big guy. In fact, he weighs only 129 pounds. He's the consummate geek. The one who got picked on in high school. The "lame-o" who would accomplish nothing. Except...

Josh wasn't willing to settle for that title. Having learned that his mother nearly won the 1962 Miss USA Pageant (only to lose near the final round), Josh's mom instilled in him the sense that their family was destined for greatness. So, with that in mind, he decided to seek out adventure. Perhaps win a world record title at ...something. Anything!

His first foray is into the realm of World Championship Arm Wrestling. But being such a little dude has major disadvantages, and one huge surprise. After losing every USA match, Josh is still ranked #4 in the States (only because one guy didn't show up for the tournament and there were very few competitors in his weight class). And after the other three winners ahead of him are unable to go to Poland for the World Championships, Josh is inducted onto Team USA and sent overseas to compete. He trains and trains, learns and learns, but can this diminutive wrestler win? Hilarious antics await the reader as his family thinks he's gone loco, his girlfriend (Tara) believes he'll be permanently disabled, and his own mindset pulls doubts into our thoughts.

Next comes bullfighting. Bullfighting? Yes, bullfighting. Tara, before Josh heads off to train, forces him to make a ...um ...deposit at a sperm bank, lest his genitals become dislodged by one of the horn-clad beasts. Thankfully that didn't happen, but rest assured there's plenty of nail-biting action that'll make readers cringe, laugh, and worry.

Josh then goes on to things more befitting a man of his stature. For instance, Sumo wrestling (ha-ha!) His attempts to bowl-over a 400+ pound professional Sumo wrestler are absolutely hilarious.

Then we move on to backward running and, finally, to the World Championship Sauna Competition in Finland where Josh and his family come together in an outstanding attempt to weather 240 degree saunas.

THE UNDERDOG is well-titled, exceptionally written, and riotously funny, sometimes in the same paragraph. Joshua Davis occasionally mentions his writing work for Wired Magazine and readers of THE UNDERDOG will be able to see why he's been accepted at such a prestigious publication.

The only issue I had with the book were on pages 88 and 89 (during his "Sumo period"). There seems to be a paragraph missing (or perhaps an entire page) between these two. One moment we're with Maru, the World Champion Sumo Wrestler, and the next we're chatting with the "Japanese ambassador." Not sure what happened there.

Except for that one glitch - which may have very well been a publication issue - I absolutely loved Mr. Davis' writing style, and his insightful and colorful lessons learned during his time as THE UNDERDOG.

Underdog was the name of a 1960s floppy-eared cartoon dog who morphed into a superhero every episode, announcing in a squeaky voice, "Have no fear, Underdog is here!" Wally Cox, the voice of Underdog, was a short, thin actor who specialized in 98-pound weakling roles.

Aspiring journalist Joshua Davis, a 129-pound ectomorph, is in his twenties and may not even be aware of his cartoon namesake. His book is about a strange kind of spree in which he competitively armwrestles, sumo wrestles, fights bulls, runs backwards, and tries to stay in a sauna for a record-breaking length of time.

Bored by his job as a data-entry clerk, Davis searches for a challenge. His wife, Tara, earns enough money as a teacher to support them, but she has some plans for the future that require Josh to earn more than his temp jobs have been paying. Competing at bizarre sports doesn't seem like a very efficient way of bringing home the bacon, though.

Davis's mother, with whom he has a tense relationship, was a beauty contest runner-up as a young woman. His father made up bedtime stories for him about an adventurer/spy/superhero who could do anything he set his mind to. We never find out what happened to his father, who was replaced by a stepfather who embarked on one far-fetched and unsuccessful business venture after another. Davis believes these parental units are responsible, or perhaps to blame, for his competitive streak. He thinks his fathers taught him that he could do anything, however improbable, and he thinks his mother still wants to win that beauty contest after all these years, through her son.

Even as the underdog, Davis does pretty well at many of the sports. For instance, he turns out to have natural talent as a bullfighter. Not surprisingly, he cannot overcome his physical limitations when it comes to sumo. His stories are fun to read and he has a light style that is perfect for the magazine writing he does full time now.

I like stories about competition, especially if they are unusual competitions (for example: Cookoff, Crossworld, and Countdown, books about competitive cooking, crosswords, and math, respectively). Davis believes there's something inherently American about competing at outlandish sports and in believing that we can do anything we set out to do. The authors of some of the other competition-related books I've read recently also believe this. But the more I read, the less I think competing compulsively is peculiarly American.

For most of his off-the-wall competitions, Davis travels overseas, where the sports originated: Sumo in Japan, sauna in Finland, and bullfighting in Mexico and Spain; or where the locals have embraced the off-the-wall sport wholeheartedly: backward running in Italy and armwrestling in Poland. He travels to India to get advice from the premier backward runner. These people weren't raised in the land of the American Dream. Maybe a love of competition isn't so much an American trait as it is a human trait.

This book is hilarious. I tore through it and couldn't stop reading. Each outlandish contest is weirder and funnier than the last. Perfect for the mantra that truth is stranger than fiction. I really recommend this book.

This is a stay up all night, read every sentence, every word, laugh out loud book. If the light by which I read this book had not disturbed the sleep of my wife, then my laughter must have done.

In "The Underdog", Joshua Davis approaches the question of whether or not, given enough determination, anyone can do anything. The journey he takes with heartfelt sincerity to answer this question leads him to participate in the World Armwrestling Championship, to train as a matador, to learn Sumo, to embrace backwards running, and finally, to turn up the heat in the sauna. In other words, he gets a grip, grabs the bull by the horns, grows big, or at least grows to feel big, goes forward by moving backward, and stops sweating the small stuff. In the end, he discovers that as a man who has "reserved the right to always do stupid things," he may not ever pull off something spectacular, but he can, and does, do things in a spectacular way.

The Underdog is hilarious, bold, and oddly romantic, but, above all, it is inspirational. Josh's quirky often twisted escapades encountering everything from sewage to sumo champions will make any reader want to strive and find their own inner champion...or at least contender.

A previous reviewer compares the author's work to Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. Considering a usually successful use of self-deprecating and anecdotal humor, I can understand the comparison between the author's style and Bill Bryson's style. The author is undeniably funny. Relying entirely on the author's passion for adventure, the narrative describes a theatrical series of events fit for a screenplay.

However, that is all this book offers and why the comparison to Bill Bryson falls well short of accurate. The strength of Mr. Bryson's writing is the purpose underlying the humor, especially self-recognition through experience. The reader can internalize Mr. Bryson's experiences, see the world from Bryson's vantage and ultimately identify with Mr. Bryson's motivation for writing the book.

Mr. Davis' The Underdog falls short of Mr. Bryson's achievements. Instead of relating to narrative, the reader must watch from the sidelines. In this case the author's strength is also his weakness. How many readers can identify with first hand-experiences of bull-fighting or sumo wrestling? The effect is, essentially, a Hollywood blockbuster in a book. What you see is entertaining, but fails to stimulate any further thought.

Furthermore, and what was most disappointing to me, was the lack of conclusion. I kept waiting for the author's epiphany to explode off the pages and into my conscious, but instead of an explosion I got a series of undeveloped thoughts more analogous to a shotgun at 200 yards than a grand-finale. In the final passage, the author's last chance to tie the whole book together, he opts to wander off on a completely new tangent relating his experiences to the untapped potential of the internet (Did Wired ask you to plug The Long Tail, or was this your idea?). Instead of finishing the book with an appreciation for how this author's struggles to find his purpose in life might assist me in finding mine, I was left with questions:

Was this about the unquenchable American spirit? Or, was it about the changing definition of achievement and success? Alternately, it might have been about appreciating your own family, your talents, your opportunities, etc instead of admiring your neighbor's lawn. Honestly, I don't know.

In essence, The Underdog is a funny one time read, but certainly not deserving of such glowing reviews as it has received here on Amazon.