A surprisingly heavy book for one so slim. Talks about a lot of things. There is Lao Tze, Hegel, Jesus a galaxy of other thinkers and two armies of miA surprisingly heavy book for one so slim. Talks about a lot of things. There is Lao Tze, Hegel, Jesus a galaxy of other thinkers and two armies of mice fighting a very important war. The book is morose, but you know that getting into with the title. I skirted around the sadness and the feels (I’ve been calling it, unoriginally “The Blight”). I tried to not let it affect me. Even read heavy fantasy feel good tomes to cushion its impact. And it was cushioned, to an extent at least. I could see the points that would have usually affected me deeply, but I, in a weird cognizant way chose to not let it do so. I don’t know if that is a good way to read books. This dis-attachment is probably because of being distracted by life, and not because of developing callouses from reading a lot of books. I haven’t really read a lot. But if there ever was a manifesto for reading and reading seriously, it is this. If you’re reading this review on this part of the internet, you probably must have dreamt of working a job just to sustain a reading habit and for nothing else, much like the narrator. It is a good thing if you have, we are united in this youthful hubris laced daydreaming. And If you have, my bet is that you would like this short piece of literature, tucked away in this compacted piece of the internet. A good read. Totally the zeitgeist of my shelves right now.
PS: Where are the happy and uplifting books?!?! Aaaghgh...more
I too dabble in a little bit of running, a non-competitive 10k here and there every so often, but I came across Zatopek in some compilation of motivatI too dabble in a little bit of running, a non-competitive 10k here and there every so often, but I came across Zatopek in some compilation of motivational quotes ["When you can't keep going, Go Faster"]. Once I started reading up on this "running hobby" I had picked up in the pandemic, I saw him being attributed as the greatest of all times. Further inquiry led me to this lone English biography of a sporting legend relatively unknown for all his achievements. He remains, to this day the only athlete to win the 5,000m, 10,000m and the Marathon in the same Olympics (Hannes Kolehmainen of Finland remains the only other athlete to win all three medals, but it took him more than one Olympics to do so.)
Given such towering achievement one would assume the book would crescendo up this event before petering out with Zatopek running into the inevitable sunset. But, with the life that this man lived, we reach this high point by a third of the book itself! For all who have heard of him (again, the number is not as many as it should be) know that his life is intertwined with a post-WWII Czechoslovakia. Prague Spring and its demise, followed by another brutal regime affected his life. He was at once both a global celebrity and a practical nobody. A list of achievements such as his would surely invoke hubris in the best of us. If not that, the rapid spiral into obscurity would certainly cause ruination. But not for Zatopek. In this, as the author who is certainly an ardent fan notes, Zatopek truly emerges through.
When he ran at the highest levels of the sport, audiences would clamor to see him, they claimed him as one of their own. His humble beginnings and a strained running style made him a people's champion. Much later when he dealt with exigencies of living in an oppressive regime, he displayed another self that most of us, albeit reluctantly, relate to- "looking-the-other-way". It panged his conscious, like it does for all conscientious men who live through such hard times. Sitting in the cozy armchairs of conformity, we would do well in according this champion a benefit of doubt. Of course, in matters such as these, I concede my opinions to those close to him - his friends, the victims of the regime and his countrymen.
But for me and several others as this British biographer points out he continues to represent something greater.
I once read an article by a sports journalist (I am almost certain, such flair must have been Suresh Menon's pen) about Virat Kohli. Kohli, deservingly is considered one of the greatest cricketers of all times. Kohli, if he appears any shorter in stature, seems so because succeeds two towering figures of Indian Cricket- MS Dhoni and Tendulkar- who still capture the public imagination. Menon (?) writes about an anecdote where a Pakistani Fan (or was it an analyst? I can't seem to find the article) accuses him and us Indians, of not "valuing Kohli enough". "Had he been in Pakistan", the accusation continues, "we would have never hated him for his batting slump." Menon(?) concludes, making his point- "Heroes are loved more by their away-fans, than by those back home"
This most certainly held true during a large part of Zatopek's life and having read this truly intimate biography one is also bound to feel a certain proximity to this 'everyman champion', who despite his failings, truly grew to fit the title and eventually in his tiring negotiations with the clock, the track, life, politics and eventually time expanded the definition of the word....more