Audiobook12 hours
Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich
Written by Mark Kriegel
Narrated by James Lloyd
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
Pistol is more than the biography of a ballplayer. It's the stuff of classic novels: the story of a boy transformed by his father's dream-and the cost of that dream. Even as Pete Maravich became Pistol Pete-a basketball icon for baby boomers-all the Maraviches paid a price. Now acclaimed author Mark Kriegel has brilliantly captured the saga of an American family: its rise, its apparent ruin, and, finally, its redemption.
Almost four decades have passed since Maravich entered the national consciousness as basketball's boy wizard. No one had ever played the game like the kid with the floppy socks and shaggy hair. And all these years later, no one else ever has. The idea of Pistol Pete continues to resonate with young people today just as powerfully as it did with their fathers.
In averaging 44.2 points a game at Louisiana State University, he established records that will never be broken. But even more enduring than the numbers was the sense of ecstasy and artistry with which he played. With the ball in his hands, Maravich had a singular power to inspire awe, inflict embarrassment, or even tell a joke.
But he wasn't merely a mesmerizing showman. He was basketball's answer to Elvis, a white Southerner who sold Middle America on a black man's game. Like Elvis, he paid a terrible price, becoming a prisoner of his own fame.
Set largely in the South, Kriegel's Pistol-a tale of obsession and basketball, fathers and sons-merges several archetypal characters. Maravich was a child prodigy, a prodigal son, his father's ransom in a Faustian bargain, and a Great White Hope. But he was also a creature of contradictions: always the outsider but a virtuoso in a team sport, an exuberant showman who wouldn't look you in the eye, a vegetarian boozer, an athlete who lived like a rock star, a suicidal genius saved by Jesus Christ.
A renowned biographer-People magazine called him "a master"-Kriegel renders his subject with a style that is, by turns, heartbreaking, lyrical, and electric.
The narrative begins in 1929, the year a missionary gave Pete's father a basketball. Press Maravich had been a neglected child trapped in a hellish industrial town, but the game enabled him to blossom. It also caused him to confuse basketball with salvation. The intensity of Press's obsession initiates a journey across three generations of Maraviches. Pistol Pete, a ballplayer unlike any other, was a product of his father's vanity and vision. But that dream continues to exact a price on Pete's own sons. Now in their twenties-and fatherless for most of their lives-they have waged their own struggles with the game and its ghosts.
Pistol is an unforgettable biography. By telling one family's history, Kriegel has traced the history of the game and a large slice of the American narrative.
Almost four decades have passed since Maravich entered the national consciousness as basketball's boy wizard. No one had ever played the game like the kid with the floppy socks and shaggy hair. And all these years later, no one else ever has. The idea of Pistol Pete continues to resonate with young people today just as powerfully as it did with their fathers.
In averaging 44.2 points a game at Louisiana State University, he established records that will never be broken. But even more enduring than the numbers was the sense of ecstasy and artistry with which he played. With the ball in his hands, Maravich had a singular power to inspire awe, inflict embarrassment, or even tell a joke.
But he wasn't merely a mesmerizing showman. He was basketball's answer to Elvis, a white Southerner who sold Middle America on a black man's game. Like Elvis, he paid a terrible price, becoming a prisoner of his own fame.
Set largely in the South, Kriegel's Pistol-a tale of obsession and basketball, fathers and sons-merges several archetypal characters. Maravich was a child prodigy, a prodigal son, his father's ransom in a Faustian bargain, and a Great White Hope. But he was also a creature of contradictions: always the outsider but a virtuoso in a team sport, an exuberant showman who wouldn't look you in the eye, a vegetarian boozer, an athlete who lived like a rock star, a suicidal genius saved by Jesus Christ.
A renowned biographer-People magazine called him "a master"-Kriegel renders his subject with a style that is, by turns, heartbreaking, lyrical, and electric.
The narrative begins in 1929, the year a missionary gave Pete's father a basketball. Press Maravich had been a neglected child trapped in a hellish industrial town, but the game enabled him to blossom. It also caused him to confuse basketball with salvation. The intensity of Press's obsession initiates a journey across three generations of Maraviches. Pistol Pete, a ballplayer unlike any other, was a product of his father's vanity and vision. But that dream continues to exact a price on Pete's own sons. Now in their twenties-and fatherless for most of their lives-they have waged their own struggles with the game and its ghosts.
Pistol is an unforgettable biography. By telling one family's history, Kriegel has traced the history of the game and a large slice of the American narrative.
Author
Mark Kriegel
Mark Kriegel is the author of two critically acclaimed bestsellers, Namath: A Biography and Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich. He is a veteran columnist and a commentator for the NFL Network. He lives with his daughter, Holiday, in Santa Monica, California.
Related to Pistol
Related audiobooks
Gunslinger: The Remarkable, Improbable, Iconic Life of Brett Favre Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When the Game Was Ours Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wish It Lasted Forever: Life with the Larry Bird Celtics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Junior Seau: The Life and Death of a Football Icon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Season on the Brink Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dr. J: The Autobiography Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Willie Mays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heisman: The Man Behind the Trophy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lou: Fifty Years of Kicking Dirt, Playing Hard, and Winning Big in the Sweet Spot of Baseball Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boys Will Be Boys: The Glory Days and Party Nights of the Dallas Cowboys Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Philly Special: The Inside Story of How the Philadelphia Eagles Won Their First Super Bowl Championship Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 33-Year-Old Rookie: How I Finally Made It to the Big Leagues After Eleven Years in the Minors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fall from Grace: The Truth and Tragedy of “Shoeless Joe” Jackson Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Last Great Game: Duke vs. Kentucky and the 2.1 Seconds That Changed Basketball Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Feel Like Going On: Life, Game, and Glory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Journey Home: My Life in Pinstripes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Brady vs. Manning: The Untold Story of the Rivalry that Transformed the NFL Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Boys of Dunbar: A Story of Love, Hope, and Basketball Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Paterno Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dinner with DiMaggio: Memories of An American Hero Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lou Gehrig: The Lost Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Muggsy: My Life from a Kid in the Projects to the Godfather of Small Ball Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Living on the Black: Two Pitchers, Two Teams, One Season to Remember Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5QB: My Life Behind the Spiral Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Biography & Memoir For You
From Blood and Ash Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Local Woman Missing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Institute: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Divine Rivals: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fairy Tale Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5And Then There Were None Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come: One Introvert's Year of Saying Yes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Twisted Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House in the Cerulean Sea Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Paris Apartment: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dutch House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Later Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Child Called It: One Child's Courage to Survive Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nothing to See Here Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Y'all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dead Zone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pet Sematary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ivy League Counterfeiter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Five Years: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5See You on the Way Down: Catch You on the Way Back Up! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Pistol
Rating: 4.237288135593221 out of 5 stars
4/5
59 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great story of a great player. recomended to basketball fans.