Review: Michael Phelps' No Limits
As we noted earlier, today is the release date for Michael Phelps' new book, No Limits. We'll give you our own take, but in the meantime, here are excerpts from a review by The Baltimore Sun's Kevin Van Valkenburg, a sports writer who covered Phelps at the Beijing Olympics:
What is there left to say about Phelps' phenomenal performance in Beijing that hasn't already been said? And if there is anything left to be said, how can it be told in a way that is more than just a quickie, post-Olympics update that rehashes his life story and weaves it into a first-person narrative?
No Limits - which was written by former Los Angeles Times reporter Alan Abrahamson, now of NBC Sports - never quite figures out how to overcome these two obstacles. ...
Abrahamson does his best to channel Phelps' voice throughout the 200-plus pages, and he often does a nice job of sprinkling in previously unreported details about Phelps' incredible 10-day run in China. But because the story is presented in the first person, as though Phelps is actually speaking to the reader,
it requires a serious suspension of disbelief when Phelps starts talking about subjects that are important to the narrative in a clear departure from the way he typically expresses himself. ...
The book does offer up occasional snippets of previously unpublished material, such as Phelps' admission that he broke his hand in 2005 punching a wall. ...
The book closes, though, by skimming over or ignoring some of the most interesting questions about Phelps' story: What does it mean to be famous in America? How do you not lose a piece of yourself when your wealth and your status mean that people are going to have trouble being honest with you? And what kind of man will Phelps one day decide he wants to be outside the pool, when he leaves behind his mother and his coach to form his own family?
