Brian Phillips (2) (1976–)

Feel like I was a bit tough on Brian Phillips in my last review; he's obviously better writing for an audience of cognoscenti than for (if you will) gen pop. This essay takes as a start a long comment on a previous piece about football's 'aesthetic morality'--in brief, the idea that it's important not just to win, but to win in a beautiful way. Further, Phillips argues, it's because of the structure of soccer--the way it can so often seem random and sputtering unless everything really comes show more together--that makes this morality emerge, separating soccer from other sports, which are just beautifully put together frameworks for physical bodies to do amazing things. I find it mostly convincing, except that I think those lulls, those frustrative moments, are essential to waht makes soccer the king of sports--not just in a metaphor-for-life way, although taht holds, but because you need an ebb and flow. 'swhy baseball is so slow. 'swhy hockey has two breaks and only lasts an hour and has so many man-changes. But soccer buidls it into the very current of play, and that's why it catches you up like a swelling Mahler symphony, as opposed to most other team sports, which just go all yellingbird wankyguitars for the sports equivalent of a three-minute pop single. From The Run of Play. show less

I recently joined Netgalley and this collection of nonfiction essays was one of my first requests. Brian Phillips is journalist who has contributed to publications like The New York Times, Grantland, and more. He’s undeniably talented as a story teller and I love a good essay from an embedded journalist in unique parts of the world. However, there were only a few gems in this book while the rest felt like honest-to-God work to trudge through. My favorite essay is the very first one, where show more Phillips chronicles his breathtaking experience tracking the Iditraod in Alaska, via his bird’s eye view from a plane. I learned more about Phillips, his sense of humor, his commitment to exploration, than I did from any of his other essays combined. Most of his essays ended on a perfunctory note that left me feeling underwhelmed and disappointed. show less

Really enjoyed this essay collection, especially the observant travel writing that illustrated let characters as well as places.

Some of the best essays I have read. The sumo one was my favorite.