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The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle And The End Of America's Childhood (2010)

by Jane Leavy(Favorite Author)

3.88 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0060883529 (ISBN13: 9780060883522)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Harper

review 1: I didn't like this as much as other Mantle books I have read it just didn't read well. The author takes 10 important dates or events in Mick’s career and then builds around it. Some chapters like the hunting for the guy who found the ball Mickey hit out of Griffith stadium are quite tedious to read. The stories of his drinking and differences between him and DiMaggio are enlightening. OK read.
review 2: For the first 80% of the book, whenever Leavy quoted Mantle he came across as a bit like a Saturday Night Live skit - I'm thinking the ones spoofing Harry Carey. That makes it hard to read, but I listened to the audio, and that made it much worse. You don't know whether to laugh or to feel sorry that he appears so caricatured in real life. It appears he l... moreed a truly surreal life. The author does go overboard on research and simulation, including reviewing the "tape measure home run" and his surgical history. These bits made the book feel more like a series of interrelated essays about Mantle than an autobiography. The final few chapters, covering his declining years after baseball, showed some glimpses of humanity in the hero's life, including continuing health problems, his and his family members various addictions, money problems, even molestation. I had little knowledge of his life before reading this, and I think it gives a reasonable account, although I would be tempted to read a more chronological telling to see what I missed. Interesting all along. On audio, it is helped by the author narrating a few chapters along the way. (That would have made her "Sandy Koufax" audiobook better as well.) She sounds New York to me. less

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