Hero of the Underground: A Memoir
by Jason Peter, Tony O'Neill
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jason Peter, Tony O'NeillEdition: Hardcover
Published: 2008-07-08
ISBN: 031237576X
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Book Reviews of Hero of the Underground: A Memoir
Book Review: it's a story about one man rediscovering his humanity.
Summary: 5 Stars
I have to admit I'm not a big sports guy. I caught an interview with Jason Peter on Sirius, and was really sucked into his story when the interviewer read the opening paragraph of the book. Then hearing Jason talk about his football glory days, and his post NFL nightmare had me chomping at the bit to read this book.
I was not disappointed. Peter and O'Neill have crafted a book that grabs you by the throat on the first page, and doesn't let up until you close the cover.
I know - pro sports guy blows it on drugs, and then writes a book about it. So far, so Darryl Strawberry, right? But this one is different. For a start there is not an iota of self-pity in these pages. Peter comes on like the authentic version of the guy James Frey tried to pass himself off as: a primal, raging tough guy waging war on the world and himself. There are moments of poetry here, and some genuinely beautiful writing that really comes as a surprise. I picked up the book expecting a fun read, a behind the scenes look at the big money world of the NFL and the plentiful women and drugs that come along with it. I got all of that, but also I got a book which sits neatly on my bookshelf next to oddball classics like "A Fans Notes" by Fred Exely, "Permanent Midnight" by Jerry Stahl (no coincidence then that Stahl compares the author to Hunter S Thompson on the back flap) or even the brawling, boozy tough-guy poetry of Bukowski.
While Peter refrains from implicating others when talking about the culture of drugs and money in professional football, he is unsparing in exposing his own dark heart here. What starts off as a book about addiction becomes a book about the flipside of the American Dream itself: what DO you do when the adoration, the money, the women, the screaming crowds are no longer there for you? We follow Jason as he tries to fill this void with sex, painkillers, cocaine, crack, and eventually heroin. Even the faux-spirituality of Alcoholics Anonymous cannot satisfy the hole left by his aborted football career (in fact, some of the funniest passages of this book are set in rehab, and Peter offers a cynical view of "redemption" that is probably the polar opposite view of what we are normally offered in the standard "recovery memoir")
All in all, this is a great book, one for the football fans and certainly one for those who have never seen a game in their lives. Ultimately it's a story about one man rediscovering his humanity. Underneath the "jock monster" promised on the cover, there beats the heart of a real writer...
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