His Ownself: A Semi-Memoir Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B00IO5O2OS | Format: PDF
His Ownself: A Semi-Memoir Description
The colorful, sentimental, funny, affectionate, cantankerous memoir by the most colorful, funniest, most cantankerous-- and probably the most revered-- sportswriter of the last fifty years. Dan Jenkins is accepted as one of the greatest (if not the greatest) golf writer of all time, wrote beloved bestselling novels and abused more corporate expense accounts than anyone who ever lived. It's a touching, laugh-out-loud tribute to the romanticism of old-time sportswriting-- and the glory days of sports. As Dan Jenkins says in the first few pages of his memoir: "Sometimes, I envy my own childhood." A lot of us can say that about Dan's entire life. He grew up in the Great Depression, but he doesn't seem ever to have been depressed. He was too busy having fun and enjoying life.
In His Ownself, we now get to share in the fun. Dan takes us back to his youth in Texas and his eccentric, wealthy mother-- with whom he never lived; he lived with his grandparents while his mother flitted in and out of his life-- and his sports fan father, whom he barely knew. We see Dan's growth as a sportswriter-- from his high school paper through to his first job at the Fort Worth Press-- and we understand what it was like to be a sports fan in Texas (it basically meant understanding a lot about passion, religion, heroes, and drinking). And then it's on to the glory days of Sports Illustrated, the most entertaining and most star-studded pages in the book. Dan was one of the handful of writers who made SI what it was for so many decades-- the most important sports magazine ever. Not coincidentally, Dan was also at the center of New York night life in those days-- hanging out at Elaine's while swapping stories with politicians and movie stars and New York's best writers and best bartenders. Above all, this is a sports nostalgia fan's dream book. And, in particular, a golfer's dream book.There are two chapters on Ben Hogan, whom Dan knew well-enough to pla...
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 9 hours and 54 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Recorded Books
- Audible.com Release Date: March 4, 2014
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00IO5O2OS
The closing lines of Dan Jenkins’ memoir say it all: “True friends are a priceless commodity in this world, and I’ve been blessed with many. And there are other things intended: a vitality of existence, a hopeful view of life, and a tender attitude about love. After all, Billy Clyde won the game and got the girl—and so did I.”
This conclusion summarizes the gist of His Ownself. DJ’s memoir is a story of friends, of family life, of journalism, novelistic fiction and romance, but principally it is a story about the vitality of existence. It is a story about Paschal High School in Fort Worth and TCU, a story about golf and football and those who write about it for a living. Dan Jenkins has written about all of that, both as a journalist and novelist (and now as a memoirist) and readers of his novelistic writing will already know how his personal background and journalistic career intersect and intertwine with his fiction.
There is such a thing as a ‘Dan Jenkins book’ and whether it be fiction or non-fiction, it is always delightful. Add His Ownself to the list. It is, indeed, a memoir rather than an autobiography, but it triumphs as a memoir because DJ knows/knew such interesting people, had such interesting experiences and writes about both in such an engaging way. You will not turn to this book expecting a step by step, monthly account of his life. The overall outlines are clear, but much of the material is conceived thematically and expressed anecdotally. This works because the anecdotes are so interesting and expressed in the pure Jenkins voice.
DJ is incapable of being dull, but the stories he tells are enlivened further when they concern such individuals as Ben Hogan, David Merrick, Henry Luce and Agatha Christie.
HIS OWNSELF: A SEMI-MEMOIR owes its title to Dan Jenkins’ most well known character, Billy Clyde Puckett, former stud-horse running back featured in SEMI-TOUGH and LIFE ITS OWNSELF.
Jenkins is a treasure, the last of his generation of sportswriters. Sportswriters whose prose sang, who didn’t take themselves or the games and contests they covered too serious, who were part of sports milieu devoid of corporations. Jenkins unique spot in this pantheon is that he is funny. Laugh out loud funny. Three buddies of mine and I nearly died while driving up Highway 395 listening to YOU GOTTA PLAY HURT…we were laughing so hard we almost drove the car off the road.
A SEMI-MEMOIR is also funny. If you are looking for a traditional autobiography you can stop here. It ain’t. It is more of a rambling overview.
Jenkins wrote for a couple of Texas newspapers before being recruited to Sports Illustrated to cover the college football scene. He eventually got the back page. (His protagonist in YOU GOTTA PLAY HURT writes the back page for a thinly disguised SI.) In covering the great sporting events Jenkins, ever irrepressible, makes no bones about his true loves: college football, especially Texas Christian University, and golf.
Jenkins’ golf hero is Ben Hogan, another Texas boy. For Jenkins the Golden Age of golf was as the mantle was passed from Hogan to Arnold Palmer to Jack Nicklaus. He does not hide his disdain for one Tiger Woods, going as far as to reproduce his Golf Digest column “Nice (Not) Knowing You” in its entirety. “…spoiled, pampered, hidden, guarded, orchestrated, and entitled.” And that’s the nice stuff!
One my favorite anecdotes in the book features Pearl, a waitress in a Texas diner.
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