How often have you read a spell-bounding novel that leaves you disappointed in the end? With some novelists such as Nicholas Sparks and Stuart Woods it can be expected.
With a writer such as Frank Deford, not as prolific but just as engaging, you can become so enraptured that you find yourself anticipating the “perfect” ending. Anything less and you feel a tinge of disappointment.
Let me first say that Deford is an outstanding writer. He writes with such elegance that his pen sometimes seems like the equivalent of Van Gogh’s brush. He has written for Sports Illustrated for many years, and has penned several successful novels covering such diverse topics as football and World War II.
His latest effort is called “Bliss, Remembered.’’ It’s a wonderful story of a smalltown girl from Maryland who manages to qualify for the 1936 U.S. Olympic swim team in Berlin. While she is there she meets a young German with whom she falls in love.
Because the story is told in flashback and she later marries someone else you naturally assume the love affair is over.
But the curiosity factor (and the writing) keeps you from putting the book down.
Deford mixes in several reallife figures into his novel, especially when the action turns to Germany. Two major figures who appear are the great American swimmer, Eleanor Holm (who I admit I had not heard of before), and Hitler’s prized Olympic filmmaker, Leni Riefenstahl (who I had).
Other well-known historical figures make cameo appearances, including American Olympic Committee president Avery Brundage, who is every bit the arrogant tyrant he is portrayed to be.
When the girl, Sydney, returns to the United States after the Olympics she and Horst (her German lover) continue to correspond, but circumstances (i.e., the war) eventually make it obvious their affair cannot last. Sydney soon meets her future husband Jimmy (who she rejects at first because she’s still hung up on Horst), and once she falls for him you figure that the German is history.
However, the story begins to take some unexpected turns and the drama just keeps ratcheting up. There are plot twists I don’t see coming, and they simply make the book that much more exciting.
I keep wondering how Deford will tie it all together in the end.
It is as the story reaches its climax that it suddenly turns flat. It is basically because events occur that just seem too over-the-top. Sydney’s actions and behavior just don’t seem believable. It takes some of the luster out of what is otherwise a top-notch read.
Despite the disappointing ending I would still highly recommend the book because there is just too much good about it.
The descriptions of the depression, New York City, the historic figures of the time, competitive swimming in the 1930s, the propaganda of the Nazis, and the Olympic Games themselves offer a great education on an important era in our nation’s history. Surrounding it with a beautiful love story just adds a flourish to Deford’s work.
DAVID KENT is the Cooperstown Village Librarian.
Book Notes
December 30, 2010
Book Notes: Deford's latest work tells a 'wonderful story'
- Book Notes
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- Book covers much more than caddies and golf St Andrews in Scotland is famous as the birthplace of golf. Every few years the "old course" hosts the British Open so all television viewers are reminded that the place is hallowed ground.
- Memoir reflects on 'roller-coaster life and career' Apparently, the third time wasn't the charm. The way Reynolds described him, the third husband was worse than the first two combined and that's saying a lot. Eddie Fisher literally walked away from Reynolds and their two infant children to chase a sex goddess. At least he got his just desserts when Elizabeth Taylor tossed him aside for Richard Burton.
- 'Who's on Worst?' reveals the ugly in baseball The Baseball Hall of Fame celebrates the greatest players, managers and owners from our national pastime. Any of us who have watched Major League baseball have inevitably seen some of these immortals practicing their craft. But we have also likely witnessed a sample of their opposite brethren, players who shouldn't have been in the Major Leagues. Has there ever been a definitive source that "celebrates" the non-accomplishments of the worst that Major League baseball has to offer?
- Book takes readers on path for equal rights One of the most troubling aspects of our history is race relations. It takes a long time to achieve true equality in a society when the heritage of one ethnic group is slavery and Jim Crow laws. Even today African Americans are more likely to be stereotyped as athletes than doctors, lawyers or entrepreneurs. The path to a "color-blind" nation is still a work in progress.
- Piazza wasn't considered much of a prospect for the majors It's probably going to be a quiet few days in Cooperstown when Hall of Fame weekend rolls around this summer. The baseball writers did not elect anybody this year despite some heavyweight candidates. The problem was that at least three of the poster boys for the steroids era, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa, were on the ballot for the first time. The writers were clearly making a statement when nobody got elected.
- Who would have thought e-books would be so popular? When I was in library school 25 years ago, a future concept was presented that seemed absurd at the time. It was the notion you could read books on a small computerized device about the size of a pocketbook.
- 2012 was a year of great films, future favorites The year 2012 was a blockbuster year for great films. Several of the movies up for Best Picture would have been runaway favorites almost any other time. They will make for easy pickings for the library when they become available on DVD.
- Blockbusters are not the only movies worth watching Hollywood makes enough movies that there are always a few that you don't hear about until they are on DVD. Sometimes they are simply horrible films that end their theater run quickly, but often they are "diamonds in the rough" that made their mark at film festivals.
- Mickey Mantle biography shows the good and the ugly It has become obvious in recent days that bestowing "hero" status on athletes is a misplaced priority.
- Book looks at 50 years of James Bond movies When I was in elementary school, James Bond was all the rage. For some reason I didn't see any of the early films with Sean Connery playing the infamous 007 British spy, but my siblings and several friends certainly did.
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