Neal Thompson

This book raised some questions about what we should expect from biographers. Are they merely relating details of the life of a person, or should they provide more of a commentary on that life as well? Is what we might consider to be ‘neutral’ reporting actually just reinforcing the status quo? By not dwelling on the more questionable parts of a subject’s personality, is the biographer acting in an appropriate manner, or are they implicitly giving their approval by not spending more show more time examining those characteristics?

Robert Ripley is the subject of this biography. You’re likely familiar with the “Believe It Or Not!” brand; there was a TV show about it in the 80s, and there are Ripley’s museums in San Francisco and NYC. Mr. Ripley started as a cartoonist in the early 1900s, eventually travelling the world to visit over 200 countries, collecting information about parts of the world that were extremely foreign to people in the U.S., especially before the frequent use of photography or radio programming. This straightforward biography follows Mr. Ripley from his birth in Santa Rosa, California through to his death in New York nearly 60 years later.

The author, Mr. Thompson, is a fine writer. I hesitated a bit in the beginning, distracted by other books I received as gifts for Christmas. However, I sped through the second half of the book today, finishing it up as the Texans got destroyed by Kansas City in the playoffs. It’s written well, and I think maybe five or ten years ago I would have strongly recommended it for anyone interested in learning more about this particular figure in U.S. history.

But these days, I have more questions. For example, Mr. Ripley clearly had some misogynistic tendencies, and while Mr. Thompson does mention this (which a lesser author might gloss over even further), he doesn’t examine it in a thoughtful way. The larger issue, however, that I just don’t think received enough attention in this biography, is the ethics of the entire basis for the Believe It Or Not concept: how “weird” the world is outside of the U.S. I get the sense from this biography that Mr. Ripley felt that he respected other cultures, but I’m not entirely sure that he did. He was certainly well-traveled, and developed strong affinities for certain cultures (especially China), but his cartoons at times dipped into racist territory, and his collections of curios and oddities really just seems like a whole lot of ‘othering’ of non-U.S. cultures.

And this is where those questions I posed at the start of this review come up. What duty – if any – does the biographer have to the audience to delve deeper into the subject’s actions? Is a biographer merely a stenographer, pulling together clippings and filling in the blanks, or is he or she an investigative reporter, looking deeper into the subject and placing at least some level of judgment on the actions the subject has taken throughout his or her life? I think it’s more of the latter, or at least that’s my feeling after reading this book. Mr. Thompson spends really no ink exploring whether it was ethical or appropriate for a white man to travel to Africa and bring back and display (out of context) parts of the cultures on that continent. I don’t think it’s necessarily cut and dried; Mr. Ripley’s work did expose many in the U.S. to parts of the world they knew nothing about. But I don’t think the default should be that whatever Mr. Ripley did was value-neutral, which is what this book presents. show less

Although I've decided I don't very much like the man Robert Ripley became, I must give this four stars for an excellent and engaging biography. Ripley seems to me to have been a very selfish man---the epitome of a man ruined by fame and fortune. The last 30-40 pages bummed me out as he declined and died as most men like him do---unhappy and alone.

There is a Ripley's Believe It or Not! museum in Newport, Oregon that I've visited a couple times. It's spooky---but not scary. I never really show more understood why I felt so weirded out there, but after reading this, I sorta get it. There were so many interesting parts to his life and story that I can't do them all justice in a short review. As a blogger, I thought it was fun how the author compared Ripley's travel narratives to blogging. I'd always wondered about shrunken heads and how that was even possible---now I'm thinking these heads were without skulls. I did feel like too much was made of his buckteeth; calling them a handicap, even, at one point. Surely someone with a real handicap might beg to differ---or maybe this straight-toothed girl just can't sympathize.

Definitely a good read---but don't expect to think highly of Ripley when you're through. show less

A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert "Believe It or Not!" Ripley
By Neal Thompson
Three Rivers Press
Review by Karl Wolff

The phrase "Believe it or not!" is something nearly everybody knows, but its history has been long forgotten. "Believe It or Not!" (with capital letters) was the brainchild of Robert L. Ripley, a California native who came from a hardscrabble background. He took a winning gimmick and ran with it. Before the concept of omni-media empire was a thing, Ripley show more had created a personal empire that included a regular newspaper cartoon, a museum of sort (the Odditorium), a radio show, movie newsreels, and a TV show (in multiple incarnations). Before there were the omni-media empires of Martha Stewart, George Lucas, and Walt Disney, there was Robert L. Ripley (1890 - 1949). When I was growing up in Wisconsin, my family would take the occasional trip to the Wisconsin Dells. One of the main attractions was the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum. I may or may not have gone through it. I was a kid, my memories are pretty fuzzy. (Although I do remember going through another monument to American Odd-ness, The House on the Rock.) "Believe It or Not!" is iconic American Odd. Even those unfamiliar with the biography of Robert L. Ripley, know where the phrase comes from. It is akin to knowing Pulp Fiction references without having seen the Tarantino film. I was one of those people, until I read A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert "Believe It or Not!" Ripley, by Neal Thompson.

A Curious Man offers a breezy, breathless, and fascinating biography of Robert L. Ripley, the man behind the brand. "Believe It or Not!" has become so iconic, it is a challenge to realize that it almost never came to be. As with many rags to riches stories, Ripley's life is an accumulation of chance, circumstance, guile, market- and media-savvy, and both successes and failures. Anyone who became wealthy without enduring failure and making mistakes is either lying to you or the wealth was inherited. (Cue inevitable election season joke.)

Robert L. Ripley (born LeRoy Robert Ripley) was born in Santa Rosa, California, a shy, bucktoothed bookish kid who spent his spare hours sketching. Through the help of his high school teacher he was able to land a cartooning job in San Francisco. He was shortly fired. After a few professional hiccups, he landed a job as a sports cartoonist for San Francisco paper. He eventually moved to work as a cartoonist for a New York City paper. During this time, photography was still a slow and expensive process. Cartoonists provided newspapers with a cheap means of communicating the story. Ripley's contemporaries included Rube Goldberg, another cartoonists whose gimmick turned his name into a descriptor.

"Believe It or Not!" was originally named "Champs and Chumps," showcasing record-breaking sports achievements. With the help of William Randolph Hearst, the cartoon received syndication, and with the help of his polymath assistant, Norbert Pearlroth, the cartoon became immensely popular. The cartoon still runs today ... "Believe It or Not!" The cartoon allowed Ripley to travel the world, collecting odd facts and odd souvenirs. The souvenirs accumulated so fast he needed a place to put them all. He filled a New York City apartment and Believe It or Not! Island, his private mansion. One of his favorite destinations was China. This stemmed from his visits to San Francisco's Chinatown when he was a young cartoonist. He found the culture fascinating.

During the Depression, "Believe It or Not" provided entertainment to those hard on their luck. They read Ripley's travel columns, his cartoons, and visited the Odditorium. The Odditorium made Ripley an inheritor of the freak show tradition began by P.T. Barnum. Ripley tried to legitimize the Odditorium by distancing himself from Barnum, but the American public came for the same reason. Americans love to gawk at freaky stuff. Why do we still watch Jerry Springer, Honey Boo Boo, and the insatiable maw of "reality television"? Ripley capitalized on this, making his interests the interests of America at large, and rode this to the bank.

A Curious Man offers a comprehensive biography of Robert L. Ripley and his omni-media juggernaut. He made the American cultural landscape richer, weirder, and stranger. He was an instrumental pioneer of the American Odd.

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The effects of Hurricane Katrina have been reported over and over, on TV, in newspapers, magazines and blogs. With modern technology many of us got to watch it live, bearing down in all its terror, from the comfort of our safe, intact homes. It would seem that we knew all there was to know, knew the effects of the storm on people, places and things. But none of the coverage, none of the follow up reports on the storm and its aftermath can top the book Hurricane Season for sheer impact, both show more on knowledge and emotions.

Hurricane Season is the story of one football team in the Parish of New Orleans. The team, The Patriots, is from a private Christian school that prides itself on its diverse student population, its core Christian values and its football team. Coach JT Curtis has one of the best win records in the country. His players have gone on to play for top college teams, a few are even playing for the NFL. In 2005 he was looking at a rebuilding year. The quarterback they expected to lead the team has left to join a rival school, one that will allow him more chances to gain the valuable stats that colleges seek. Coach Curtis believes in team effort, not individual star making. His team, due to his no cut policy, numbers over 100 each year. In a school of only 650 students, that is a very large percentage of the student population. His players train all summer, work to stay in shape, to be physically and mentally prepared for the fall football season. Coach believes in practice too- not the common 2 practices a day of most schools but three a day, a relentless, high powered training plan. But after all the preparations the season is brought to a sudden halt by Katrina. For football coaches' wives everywhere, the scene where the town is evacuating and the coaches' spouses are calling, actually interrupting their usual after practice meeting to try to convince the men to come home and pack, will ring very true. For the coaches and players nothing, short of Hurricane Katrina, would interfere with football.

But Katrina does interfere, sending players fleeing to other parts of the country, taking away their homes, their parents' jobs and all stability. John Curtis School survives with limited damage, allowing it to become one of the first schools to reopen. The Curtis family, the extended family of the original school founder John Curtis, works to locate and convince as many students as possible to return to the area. Coach Curtis struggles to locate other teams willing and able to resume the football season. His players begin to return, exhausted, scared and confused but anxious to try to return to a sense of normality, a sense of hope for their futures, based on the foundation of the football team they love.

The book begins and ends with football. It will appeal to any football fan, player, coach or sports fanatic. But this book goes far beyond the field. It interweaves the story of the John Curtis School, its history and its football, with an insider's look at Katrina and its aftermath. Using the individual players of the team and the storm's effects on them and their families Thompson is able to broaden the scope of the book to include an in depth look at the handling of the storm by individuals, agencies and the government. The middle section of the book is a clearly written account of the plight of those that suffered the loss of everything, the impact on families, jobs and futures. It is a devastating chronicle of not only nature's worst but of mankind at its best and worst.

Hurricane Season is a journalistic view of one team, its players and the effects of the worst storm in American history. It is a tale of football, its impact on the youth who play America's favorite sport. It is a tale of one school and its efforts to create the best possible school that produces well rounded men and women. It is the tale of a government that is not able to handle the storm or its aftermath. But most of all, it is a tale of people- from the players who never give up, their families that survive the unthinkable and a school of parents, teachers and coaches that care.

Neal Thompson has written a book that will resonate will all readers. His ability to tell the facts, clearly and vividly, on all levels of his account is exceptional. He tells all his true tales with clarity of knowledge, facts and figures, data and details. But it is the emotion that comes through the portrayal of the various aspects that makes this book outstanding. It is nonfiction at its most effective; it pushes the reader into involvement, caring and action. It is impossible to read this book and not respond on some level- perhaps some extra understanding or support for local sports programs, a volunteer relief effort (it is still needed) or at the very least an awareness of the America around us.. It celebrates our resiliency as it mourns our failures. Thompson managed this extraordinary writing feat of non fiction with heart, soul and flesh, examining the entire body of one individual event in our modern history.

Reviewer's Personal Note:
I must say that I HATE football. I live in small rural town in New England that lives, breathes and idolizes our State Champion high school football team. I never quite understood it. This book certainly does explain it on many levels. If I loved this book as much as I did, any sports fan will really be impressed. But it should go way beyond sports fans for readers. I am rarely not able to put a book down (I would never do anything but read othewise) but this book had me glued to the end. I highly recommend it for all readers. show less