The Blind Side - Michael Lewis

A couple folks from Jake's work recommended this book to him, so he asked me to borrow it for him from the library. There is nothing I love more than a new book for my husband - especially one that he finds himself immediately drawn into. This means he's reading for hours before bed, and I don't have to compete with the television or chores to get in MY reading time. The Blind Side, written by the author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker, tells two stories. The first is about the evolution of the game of football and the increased importance of the position of the left tackle. The second story is about an enormous African-American kid named Michael Oher who appears seemingly out of nowhere, and is taken in by a wealthy white family on his road to becoming the nation's top college football recruit - and who plays the position of left tackle. While I like football, I don't know anything about the strategy of the game, what different positions other than the quarterback, the running back, and the receivers do, or anything about players of the past. So, my eyes kind of glazed over during the chapters on the history of the game (luckily there aren't too many of these). I instead prefered the story of Oher - but again Lewis disappointed me. While there are endless accounts of Oher adjusting to his new private school and learning to study for the first time, while his new white mom teaches him the difference between fettucine and ravioli, I felt like it was so drawn out. It's not until the last 10-15 pages that we really start to learn a little about where Oher came from - his biological mother and his dozen or so siblings, growing up in extreme poverty and neglect, but somehow surviving. This, to me, is the truly amazing part of Oher's story - not that a scout discovered him, or that a rich family was willing to invite a large black man into their home (though that is clearly a compelling story) - but rather, what is it in Oher's character and the circumstances of his life that prevented him from becoming just another statistic? The frustration I felt with Oher's silence throughout the book is, no doubt, the frustration everyone attempting to help Oher get to college also felt. And, I suppose the book I would want Lewis to write is not one about the game of football and Oher's place in it, but rather one that focuses more prominently on Oher and reflected the sociological aspects of Oher's background and development - and obviously, that is not the book that Lewis set out to write. For people who love football, this is a great book - Lewis is easy to read and has a great way of bringing the people he interviews to life (his depiction of the Ole Miss coach's Cajun accent is fantastic). But, for people like me who love those behind-the-scene vignettes about people's lives and gaining a better understanding for how people come to be where they are, I found the book lacking.