Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s

Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s by Jeff Pearlman

I was very excited to read this book. I grew up in the 1980s and I have vivid memories of the Showtime Lakers and their rivalries with the Celtics, Pistons, and my hometown 76ers. This book is about my favorite era of NBA basketball. Additionally, I’d read two of Jeff Pearlman’s previous books, both of them about championship teams from my youth. I fully expected this to become one of my favorite sports books. Boy, was I wrong.

I don’t know how it happened, but this book makes Showtime seem like an era of joylessness. Reading made me wonder why anyone ever wanted to become or remain a Laker. Pearlman portrays Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as a surly man lacking any compassion or humanity. Pat Riley is depicted as an egomaniacal monster. And Magic Johnson? He’s a merciless bully. To agree, I know these depictions carry a great deal of truth. Pearlman, however, provides little to no balance; there aren’t many pros to counter the cons that carry the tale.

I wonder if my criticisms are the result of the author relying too heavily on his interviews. Many of us remember the Showtime Lakers. The writing suggests to me that both the author and his interviewees took this into account. Instead of giving us the entire picture, this book reads as a behind the scenes look at the era. I read this book to relive and supplement my memories, not the other way around. In this respect, I feel the book was a failure to anyone who was cognizant during the era.

The book’s biggest failing, in my opinion, is Pearlman’s treatment of Game 6 of the 1985 NBA Finals. There is no debate: that game is the single most important game in the history of the Laker franchise. Going into that game, the Celtics and Lakers had played for the world championship eight times. The Celtics had won eight times. Many believed the Lakers would never get over the hump. They did. They defeated the Celtics in the Boston Garden to win the championship. Pearlman handled this game the same way he did every other game of that series, which is to say he gave it no special treatment. That was a disservice to the sport, the Lakers, and everyone who appreciates NBA history. One could write an entire book about Game 6. I’m not suggesting Pearlman should have done that, but that game certainly should have been a focal point of this book. That, like the rest of the book, was a huge disappointment to me.

D

The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell

The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell by Mira Grant

When I read Feed, the first novel of Mira Grant’s Newsflesh trilogy, I amazed by her world-building and her storytelling. As I read the final two novels and the accompanying novellas, I fell deeper in love with the world Grant had created. After reading the latest novella, The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell, I think Feed is only the second-best thing she’s written. This, I believe, is Mira Grant’s masterpiece. What sticks out to me more than anything else is the author’s bravery. This story, short as it was, was beautiful and bold and terrifying and sad. It is what the horror genre should be, what the originators of the craft sought.

The protagonist, Elaine Oldenburg, is a character readers of the series already know as Blackout’s Foxy. In that novel, readers neither liked nor trusted her. In The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell, we learn all we need to know about how her history. In the novella, Elaine is a first grade teacher in the post-Rising Pacific Northwest. Just imagine the possibilities of first graders in the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse. And remember that I praised Mira Grant’s bravery. And now I tell you this story features the single most heartbreaking scene I’ve ever read in fiction.

Yeah, this was great.



A+

Parasite

Parasite by Mira Grant

As a series, Parasitology is not Newsflesh. As a narrator, Sal Mitchell is not George Mason. These two facts must be accepted before attempting to read Mira Grant's latest novel, which is the opening to a new series. Parasitology takes place in a world where a trio of mad scientists has genetically engineered a parasite that can be implanted into human beings for the purpose of curing and preventing all of humanity's medical ailments. As expected, things go very, very wrong.

Our narrator is the public face of the wonders of Symbogen, our evil mad scientist-backed corporation. Sally Mitchell was in a car accident and never woke up. Just as her family was ready to say goodbye, Sal Mitchell woke up. Same body, different personality. Our story takes place six years later, when Sal has a job, a boyfriend, and a yearning for answers.

There is a lot of promise in this premise. I don't think the writing or the plotting did much to fulfill the potential. Sal is an unfortunate narrator. This person has only been around for six years, so there is much she does not know. It's not quite reading an adult story narrated by a six-year old child, but it is very much like reading from the mind of a mentally advanced tween. It's maddening, and I often lacked the patience to deal with the thoughts inside of Sal's brain.

The primary mystery of the novel turns out to not be a mystery at all. I figured out the "twist" very early on. I feel that anyone who does not figure it out by the 51% mark is either not paying attention or not intelligent. I had hoped that Grant would get the reveal out of the way so we could get on to the real story, but she didn't. She saved it until the last several paragraphs of the novel. She hinted at Sal's figuring it out, but did not pull the trigger. And the wording of the reveal suggests that Sal's boyfriend did not know either. I find nothing about that believable. I think that interfered with the plot and the conspiracy. In short, Parasite reads like a young adult novel. I doubt that was the intention.

To me, the best parts of the book were the scenes with Sal and Dr. Banks, the accredited inventor of the miracle parasite. Their interplay was fun to read. Many of Sal's other interactions were stilted and cliché. The interactions with her mother were often painful to read.

I just didn't like it. I will read the follow-up, though. I'm hoping for better.

C-