Author: Perry L. Husband
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781516994700
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 128
Book Description
Downright Filthy Pitching - The Science of Effective Velocity (EV) is the study of baseball pitch speeds and how location changes the reaction time of the hitter. This science answers why pitchers are great one day and awful the next and why hitters fall into slumps with no answers. For the first time there is scientific proof that will teach pitchers how to go from having 'Nasty Stuff' to becoming 'Downright Filthy'. This book series shows you how to maximize the effects of every pitch in your arsenal, like time management for pitch speed usage. This is the first provable explanation for why certain pitches are swung on and missed one day and hit out of the yard the next. EV gives pitchers a detailed plan to help them maximize their deception............and yes, deception is now measurable and can be practiced. The only scientific pitch calling method has been implemented by Collegiate programs in baseball and softball throughout the country and with many Major League pitchers, catchers and coaches. EV has uncovered the truth behind some longtime myths about pitching. Find out why: 'Shorter Pitchers' may actually be far more deceptive' - 'Outside fastball is not the best pitch in baseball' - 'Keeping the ball down is killing you' and many other myths explained through this new set of goggles that has changed the game. You will never look at the game of baseball the same way again.
Downright Filthy Pitching Book 1
Author: Perry L. Husband
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781516994700
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 128
Book Description
Downright Filthy Pitching - The Science of Effective Velocity (EV) is the study of baseball pitch speeds and how location changes the reaction time of the hitter. This science answers why pitchers are great one day and awful the next and why hitters fall into slumps with no answers. For the first time there is scientific proof that will teach pitchers how to go from having 'Nasty Stuff' to becoming 'Downright Filthy'. This book series shows you how to maximize the effects of every pitch in your arsenal, like time management for pitch speed usage. This is the first provable explanation for why certain pitches are swung on and missed one day and hit out of the yard the next. EV gives pitchers a detailed plan to help them maximize their deception............and yes, deception is now measurable and can be practiced. The only scientific pitch calling method has been implemented by Collegiate programs in baseball and softball throughout the country and with many Major League pitchers, catchers and coaches. EV has uncovered the truth behind some longtime myths about pitching. Find out why: 'Shorter Pitchers' may actually be far more deceptive' - 'Outside fastball is not the best pitch in baseball' - 'Keeping the ball down is killing you' and many other myths explained through this new set of goggles that has changed the game. You will never look at the game of baseball the same way again.
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781516994700
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 128
Book Description
Downright Filthy Pitching - The Science of Effective Velocity (EV) is the study of baseball pitch speeds and how location changes the reaction time of the hitter. This science answers why pitchers are great one day and awful the next and why hitters fall into slumps with no answers. For the first time there is scientific proof that will teach pitchers how to go from having 'Nasty Stuff' to becoming 'Downright Filthy'. This book series shows you how to maximize the effects of every pitch in your arsenal, like time management for pitch speed usage. This is the first provable explanation for why certain pitches are swung on and missed one day and hit out of the yard the next. EV gives pitchers a detailed plan to help them maximize their deception............and yes, deception is now measurable and can be practiced. The only scientific pitch calling method has been implemented by Collegiate programs in baseball and softball throughout the country and with many Major League pitchers, catchers and coaches. EV has uncovered the truth behind some longtime myths about pitching. Find out why: 'Shorter Pitchers' may actually be far more deceptive' - 'Outside fastball is not the best pitch in baseball' - 'Keeping the ball down is killing you' and many other myths explained through this new set of goggles that has changed the game. You will never look at the game of baseball the same way again.
Downright Filthy Pitching Book 2
Author: Perry Husband
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781536936582
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 138
Book Description
Downright Filthy Pitching Book 2 - Hitters' Attention is the second book of the Downright Filthy Pitching Series, describing the incredible discovery of the science of Effective Velocity. Every hitter that ever stepped into a batters box is limited by the human condition. A fastball at the Major League level at 95 MPH travels to home plate in under .395 seconds. The average MLB hitter takes about 1/3 of that time or about .13 to .15 seconds to swing the bat, leaving only .267 seconds to see, identify the direction, identify the spin, which leads to identifying the pitch type, which leads to identifying the true reactionary speed of the pitch and finally to the decision to swing or not. When you factor in the time it takes for the brain to process the 2-5 possible pitch choices it could be, needless to say hitters are at a massive disadvantage. Couple all of this with the fact that Ev efficient pitchers hide the identity of pitches even further by what they learned in Book 1 about Ev Tunnels. This refers to the fastball and the off speed pitches being in the same vertical and horizontal planes for 1/3 to 1/2 of the way to the plate. It is all but impossible for hitters to accomplish all of this and maintain their optimum swing mechanics. Of course hitters can 'make contact' with elite offerings but their production goes down dramatically. After testing hitter's reactionary abilities for many years, Inside Edge, the first data collection service for MLB teams, opened their database to see if the same things were happening at the highest levels. The statistics backed the findings in the reactionary tests at every point. Hitters' Attention is very real and very misunderstood. Let's shed some light on that subject and 'Get Downright Filthy.' Perry Husband
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781536936582
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 138
Book Description
Downright Filthy Pitching Book 2 - Hitters' Attention is the second book of the Downright Filthy Pitching Series, describing the incredible discovery of the science of Effective Velocity. Every hitter that ever stepped into a batters box is limited by the human condition. A fastball at the Major League level at 95 MPH travels to home plate in under .395 seconds. The average MLB hitter takes about 1/3 of that time or about .13 to .15 seconds to swing the bat, leaving only .267 seconds to see, identify the direction, identify the spin, which leads to identifying the pitch type, which leads to identifying the true reactionary speed of the pitch and finally to the decision to swing or not. When you factor in the time it takes for the brain to process the 2-5 possible pitch choices it could be, needless to say hitters are at a massive disadvantage. Couple all of this with the fact that Ev efficient pitchers hide the identity of pitches even further by what they learned in Book 1 about Ev Tunnels. This refers to the fastball and the off speed pitches being in the same vertical and horizontal planes for 1/3 to 1/2 of the way to the plate. It is all but impossible for hitters to accomplish all of this and maintain their optimum swing mechanics. Of course hitters can 'make contact' with elite offerings but their production goes down dramatically. After testing hitter's reactionary abilities for many years, Inside Edge, the first data collection service for MLB teams, opened their database to see if the same things were happening at the highest levels. The statistics backed the findings in the reactionary tests at every point. Hitters' Attention is very real and very misunderstood. Let's shed some light on that subject and 'Get Downright Filthy.' Perry Husband
Off Speed
Author: Terry McDermott
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307741982
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 226
Book Description
Longlisted for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing. The lively and fascinating story of baseball’s 150-year hunt for the perfect pitch. In August 2012, Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners pitched a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays in what Terry McDermott calls “one of the greatest exhibitions of off-speed pitches ever put on.” For McDermott, a lifelong fan and student of baseball, the extraordinary events of that afternoon inspired this incisive meditation on the art of pitching. Within the framework of Hernandez’s historic achievement, Off Speed provides a vibrant narrative of the history and evolution of pitching, combining baseball's rich tradition of folklore with the wealth of new metrics from a growing legion of statisticians who are transforming the way we think about the game. Off Speed is also the personal story of a fan’s steadfast devotion, first kindled in McDermott by his father at the local diamond in small-town Iowa and now carried forward with the same passion by his own daughters. Approaching his subject with the love every fan brings to the park and the expertise of a probing journalist, McDermott explores with irrepressible curiosity the science and the romance of baseball.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307741982
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 226
Book Description
Longlisted for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing. The lively and fascinating story of baseball’s 150-year hunt for the perfect pitch. In August 2012, Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners pitched a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays in what Terry McDermott calls “one of the greatest exhibitions of off-speed pitches ever put on.” For McDermott, a lifelong fan and student of baseball, the extraordinary events of that afternoon inspired this incisive meditation on the art of pitching. Within the framework of Hernandez’s historic achievement, Off Speed provides a vibrant narrative of the history and evolution of pitching, combining baseball's rich tradition of folklore with the wealth of new metrics from a growing legion of statisticians who are transforming the way we think about the game. Off Speed is also the personal story of a fan’s steadfast devotion, first kindled in McDermott by his father at the local diamond in small-town Iowa and now carried forward with the same passion by his own daughters. Approaching his subject with the love every fan brings to the park and the expertise of a probing journalist, McDermott explores with irrepressible curiosity the science and the romance of baseball.
Downright Filthy Pitching Book 3
Author: Perry Husband
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781536937145
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 182
Book Description
Downright Filthy Pitching Book 3 - The Science of Pitch Sequencing is the 3rd book of the series on Effective Velocity. Book 1 is the introduction into the science and understanding of what Effective Velocity is all about. Book 2 describes the Hitters' Attention or the human limitations of reacting to a pitch at such high velocities and the MLB studies that back the findings. Book 3 describes how to implement Effective Velocity into your pitching approach in the simplest and most innovative and creative ways. This is the first book to show you how the baseball actually works to create different types of movements, to aid in deception. This is the first book to scientifically show how to gain a significant advantage against hitters by learning to sequence pitches in the most deceptive way possible. This book shows pitchers how to design their most effective pitch assortment and how to use them at maximum efficiency. "I'm an old history teacher. In the history of man some innovations were so revolutionary that they forever changed the course of history. I believe Perry's study and innovation of EV is changing and will change the game of baseball...it has certainly changed the way we attack hitters at Pitching Central. Every day we have a choice. We can choose to stay current and ride the wave as the change alters the landscape...or stubbornly choose to be the cynic and swear the earth is flat...and be at the bottom of the wave when it moves through. Regardless, an innovation of this magnitude will affect us either way." Ron Wolforth Author of the Combat Pitcher- Preparing the Next Generation of Pitchers for Battle CEO Pitching Central
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781536937145
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 182
Book Description
Downright Filthy Pitching Book 3 - The Science of Pitch Sequencing is the 3rd book of the series on Effective Velocity. Book 1 is the introduction into the science and understanding of what Effective Velocity is all about. Book 2 describes the Hitters' Attention or the human limitations of reacting to a pitch at such high velocities and the MLB studies that back the findings. Book 3 describes how to implement Effective Velocity into your pitching approach in the simplest and most innovative and creative ways. This is the first book to show you how the baseball actually works to create different types of movements, to aid in deception. This is the first book to scientifically show how to gain a significant advantage against hitters by learning to sequence pitches in the most deceptive way possible. This book shows pitchers how to design their most effective pitch assortment and how to use them at maximum efficiency. "I'm an old history teacher. In the history of man some innovations were so revolutionary that they forever changed the course of history. I believe Perry's study and innovation of EV is changing and will change the game of baseball...it has certainly changed the way we attack hitters at Pitching Central. Every day we have a choice. We can choose to stay current and ride the wave as the change alters the landscape...or stubbornly choose to be the cynic and swear the earth is flat...and be at the bottom of the wave when it moves through. Regardless, an innovation of this magnitude will affect us either way." Ron Wolforth Author of the Combat Pitcher- Preparing the Next Generation of Pitchers for Battle CEO Pitching Central
Red Country
Author: Joe Abercrombie
Publisher: Orbit
ISBN: 0316214442
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 544
Book Description
A New York Times bestseller! They burned her home. They stole her brother and sister. But vengeance is following. Shy South hoped to bury her bloody past and ride away smiling, but she'll have to sharpen up some bad old ways to get her family back, and she's not a woman to flinch from what needs doing. She sets off in pursuit with only a pair of oxen and her cowardly old step father Lamb for company. But it turns out Lamb's buried a bloody past of his own. And out in the lawless Far Country the past never stays buried. Their journey will take them across the barren plains to a frontier town gripped by gold fever, through feud, duel and massacre, high into the unmapped mountains to a reckoning with the Ghosts. Even worse, it will force them into an alliance with Nicomo Cosca, infamous soldier of fortune, and his feckless lawyer Temple, two men no one should ever have to trust . . . Red Country takes place in the same world as the First Law trilogy, Best Served Cold, andThe Heroes. This novel also represents the return of Logen Ninefingers, one of Abercrombie's most beloved characters.
Publisher: Orbit
ISBN: 0316214442
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 544
Book Description
A New York Times bestseller! They burned her home. They stole her brother and sister. But vengeance is following. Shy South hoped to bury her bloody past and ride away smiling, but she'll have to sharpen up some bad old ways to get her family back, and she's not a woman to flinch from what needs doing. She sets off in pursuit with only a pair of oxen and her cowardly old step father Lamb for company. But it turns out Lamb's buried a bloody past of his own. And out in the lawless Far Country the past never stays buried. Their journey will take them across the barren plains to a frontier town gripped by gold fever, through feud, duel and massacre, high into the unmapped mountains to a reckoning with the Ghosts. Even worse, it will force them into an alliance with Nicomo Cosca, infamous soldier of fortune, and his feckless lawyer Temple, two men no one should ever have to trust . . . Red Country takes place in the same world as the First Law trilogy, Best Served Cold, andThe Heroes. This novel also represents the return of Logen Ninefingers, one of Abercrombie's most beloved characters.
Evvie Drake Starts Over
Author: Linda Holmes
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0593496663
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 401
Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Read with Jenna Book Club Pick as Featured on Today • “Everything a romantic comedy should be: witty, relatable, and a little complicated.”—People A heartfelt debut about the unlikely relationship between a young woman who’s lost her husband and a major league pitcher who’s lost his game. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR In a sleepy seaside town in Maine, recently widowed Eveleth “Evvie” Drake rarely leaves her large, painfully empty house nearly a year after her husband’s death in a car crash. Everyone in town, even her best friend, Andy, thinks grief keeps her locked inside, and Evvie doesn’t correct them. Meanwhile, in New York City, Dean Tenney, former Major League pitcher and Andy’s childhood best friend, is wrestling with what miserable athletes living out their worst nightmares call the “yips”: he can’t throw straight anymore, and, even worse, he can’t figure out why. As the media storm heats up, an invitation from Andy to stay in Maine seems like the perfect chance to hit the reset button on Dean’s future. When he moves into an apartment at the back of Evvie’s house, the two make a deal: Dean won’t ask about Evvie’s late husband, and Evvie won’t ask about Dean’s baseball career. Rules, though, have a funny way of being broken—and what starts as an unexpected friendship soon turns into something more. To move forward, Evvie and Dean will have to reckon with their pasts—the friendships they’ve damaged, the secrets they’ve kept—but in life, as in baseball, there’s always a chance—up until the last out. A joyful, hilarious, and hope-filled debut, Evvie Drake Starts Over will have you cheering for the two most unlikely comebacks of the year—and will leave you wanting more from Linda Holmes. Praise for Evvie Drake Starts Over “A quirky, sweet, and splendid story of a woman coming into her own.”—Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & The Six “Effortlessly enjoyable . . . [a] pitch-perfect . . . adult love story that is as romantic as it is real.”–USA Today “Charming, hopeful, and gently romantic . . . Evvie Drake is great company.”—Rainbow Rowell, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eleanor & Park
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0593496663
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 401
Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Read with Jenna Book Club Pick as Featured on Today • “Everything a romantic comedy should be: witty, relatable, and a little complicated.”—People A heartfelt debut about the unlikely relationship between a young woman who’s lost her husband and a major league pitcher who’s lost his game. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR In a sleepy seaside town in Maine, recently widowed Eveleth “Evvie” Drake rarely leaves her large, painfully empty house nearly a year after her husband’s death in a car crash. Everyone in town, even her best friend, Andy, thinks grief keeps her locked inside, and Evvie doesn’t correct them. Meanwhile, in New York City, Dean Tenney, former Major League pitcher and Andy’s childhood best friend, is wrestling with what miserable athletes living out their worst nightmares call the “yips”: he can’t throw straight anymore, and, even worse, he can’t figure out why. As the media storm heats up, an invitation from Andy to stay in Maine seems like the perfect chance to hit the reset button on Dean’s future. When he moves into an apartment at the back of Evvie’s house, the two make a deal: Dean won’t ask about Evvie’s late husband, and Evvie won’t ask about Dean’s baseball career. Rules, though, have a funny way of being broken—and what starts as an unexpected friendship soon turns into something more. To move forward, Evvie and Dean will have to reckon with their pasts—the friendships they’ve damaged, the secrets they’ve kept—but in life, as in baseball, there’s always a chance—up until the last out. A joyful, hilarious, and hope-filled debut, Evvie Drake Starts Over will have you cheering for the two most unlikely comebacks of the year—and will leave you wanting more from Linda Holmes. Praise for Evvie Drake Starts Over “A quirky, sweet, and splendid story of a woman coming into her own.”—Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & The Six “Effortlessly enjoyable . . . [a] pitch-perfect . . . adult love story that is as romantic as it is real.”–USA Today “Charming, hopeful, and gently romantic . . . Evvie Drake is great company.”—Rainbow Rowell, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eleanor & Park
Getting Filthy
Author: Perry Husband
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781536937503
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 106
Book Description
Getting Filthy - Implementing Effective Velocity When a pitcher of any level has great "Stuff", which means high velocity, good movement etc..... they are referred to as 'Nasty'. 'Filthy' is the term used when a 'Nasty' pitcher learns how to pitch. Teaching pitchers of all levels to get 'Filthy' is a process, just like all skill sets. This book is set up in a series of lessons to take on one element at a time. EV as a whole can seem very complex, although when you break each facet down into bite sized chunks, they are much easier to understand. 'Filthy' is a whole new chapter in the art of pitching. Getting 'Filthy' is a process that has steps and none of the steps are very complicated all by themselves. Step one is knowledge about gravity, but not the gravity that keeps your spikes firmly planted on the mound, rather the gravity that determines who wins the battle between the pitcher and the batter. This gravity is called Effective Velocity or EV for short. EV is timing and timing is what has determined the outcome of every at bat in the history of baseball and softball. And.....just as it does not matter whether you understand how gravity keeps you attached to the earth or not.......it also does not matter if you understand how EV works or not, it is still working all the time and in every at bat. Effective Velocity for pitchers is a complex subject that has a lot of layers. EV is a lot like math, in that you could not learn math in one day, at least not all of it. You can learn one aspect of math each day, such as addition or division or geometry, but when you try to learn math all at once, it's a cluttered mess. It becomes something like geovision or addometry, both of which are crazy versions of what was intended. And although you will see bits of the truth in addometry, it will never quite be exactly right. The same is true with EV. Most coaches or instructors read about EV and try to combine it with what they already 'know' about pitching, which usually turns into a watered down version of the truth. When you are ready to implement the most scientifically sound system in pitching, then it is time to start Getting Filthy.
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781536937503
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 106
Book Description
Getting Filthy - Implementing Effective Velocity When a pitcher of any level has great "Stuff", which means high velocity, good movement etc..... they are referred to as 'Nasty'. 'Filthy' is the term used when a 'Nasty' pitcher learns how to pitch. Teaching pitchers of all levels to get 'Filthy' is a process, just like all skill sets. This book is set up in a series of lessons to take on one element at a time. EV as a whole can seem very complex, although when you break each facet down into bite sized chunks, they are much easier to understand. 'Filthy' is a whole new chapter in the art of pitching. Getting 'Filthy' is a process that has steps and none of the steps are very complicated all by themselves. Step one is knowledge about gravity, but not the gravity that keeps your spikes firmly planted on the mound, rather the gravity that determines who wins the battle between the pitcher and the batter. This gravity is called Effective Velocity or EV for short. EV is timing and timing is what has determined the outcome of every at bat in the history of baseball and softball. And.....just as it does not matter whether you understand how gravity keeps you attached to the earth or not.......it also does not matter if you understand how EV works or not, it is still working all the time and in every at bat. Effective Velocity for pitchers is a complex subject that has a lot of layers. EV is a lot like math, in that you could not learn math in one day, at least not all of it. You can learn one aspect of math each day, such as addition or division or geometry, but when you try to learn math all at once, it's a cluttered mess. It becomes something like geovision or addometry, both of which are crazy versions of what was intended. And although you will see bits of the truth in addometry, it will never quite be exactly right. The same is true with EV. Most coaches or instructors read about EV and try to combine it with what they already 'know' about pitching, which usually turns into a watered down version of the truth. When you are ready to implement the most scientifically sound system in pitching, then it is time to start Getting Filthy.
This Book Has Balls
Author: Michael Rapaport
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501160338
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 258
Book Description
The sports world according to Michael Rapaport—actor, Top 50 podcaster, award-winning film maker, and sports fanatic—from the greatest and downright worst athletes, players, teams, and jerseys, but minus statistics, analytics, or anything else that isn’t pure hustle in this “hell of a book” (Shaquille O'Neal). In 1979, nine-year-old Michael Rapaport decided he was going to do whatever it took to be a pro baller. He practiced and practiced, but by the time he was fifteen, he realized there was no place for a slow, white Jewish kid in the NBA. So, he found another way to channel his obsession with sports: talking trash. In the “crazy, passionate, funny and intense” (Colin Cowherd) This Book Has Balls, Rapaport uses his signature smack-talk style and in-your-face humor to discuss everything from why LeBron will never be like Mike, that Tiger needs the ladies to get his golf game back, and how he once thought Mary Lou Retton was his true love. And, of course, why next year will be the year the New York Knicks win the championship. This book is a series of rants—some controversial, some affectionate, but all incredibly hilarious. “Something is wrong with Michael Rapaport but that’s what makes him right,” (Charlamagne tha God).
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501160338
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 258
Book Description
The sports world according to Michael Rapaport—actor, Top 50 podcaster, award-winning film maker, and sports fanatic—from the greatest and downright worst athletes, players, teams, and jerseys, but minus statistics, analytics, or anything else that isn’t pure hustle in this “hell of a book” (Shaquille O'Neal). In 1979, nine-year-old Michael Rapaport decided he was going to do whatever it took to be a pro baller. He practiced and practiced, but by the time he was fifteen, he realized there was no place for a slow, white Jewish kid in the NBA. So, he found another way to channel his obsession with sports: talking trash. In the “crazy, passionate, funny and intense” (Colin Cowherd) This Book Has Balls, Rapaport uses his signature smack-talk style and in-your-face humor to discuss everything from why LeBron will never be like Mike, that Tiger needs the ladies to get his golf game back, and how he once thought Mary Lou Retton was his true love. And, of course, why next year will be the year the New York Knicks win the championship. This book is a series of rants—some controversial, some affectionate, but all incredibly hilarious. “Something is wrong with Michael Rapaport but that’s what makes him right,” (Charlamagne tha God).
The Anatomy Lesson
Author: Philip Roth
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 1466846399
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description
Philip Roth's The Anatomy Lesson was a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. A comic masterpiece and brilliant finale to the Zuckerman trilogy. The writer Nathan Zukerman comes down with a mysterious physical affliction--pure pain, beginning in his neck and shoulders, invading his torso and taking possession of his life. Zukerman, whose work was his life, is unable to write a line. Now his work is trekking from one doctor to the next--from orthopedist to osteopath to neurologist to psychiatrist--but none can find a cause for the pain and nobody can assuage it. So begins Philip Roth's strangely comic new novel, The Anatomy Lesson. In it, we find Nathan Zukerman beset at age forty not only by his pain but by his past. He seriously wonders if he ought to be a novelist at all. At his wit's end, bewildered by both the obstinate pain and the isolating profession, and unconsolable by his "harem of Florence Nightingales"--Gloria, his accountant's wildly mothering wife; Jaga, the depressed Polish refuge from the hair-treatment clinic (to add to his suffering, Zukerman is going bald); Diana, the distressingly self-possessed Finch College heiress; and the temptingly levelheaded painter Jenny--Zukerman tries to pin his catastrophe on some source he can confront. There is no shortage of candidates. Zukerman's brother blames his acerbic bestseller Carnovsky, for ruining the lives of their late parents, and will have nothing to do with him. There's the critic Milton Appel, once Zuckerman's literary conscience, now his scourge--the Grand Inquisitor of Inquiry magazine, the New York Jewish cultural monthly. Searching desperately for a diagnosis that will lead to a cure, Zuckerman asks himself if the pain can have been caused by his adversaries, or by his astonishingly intractable grief for his mother, or by the disgust he has come to feel for the literary vocation he once loved. And while he is wondering, his dependence on painkillers grows into an addiction to Percodan, marijuana, and hundred-proof vodka. In the last half of The Anatomy Lesson, Zuckerman breaks out of invalid imprisonment in his Manhattan apartment and sets off on a journey to escape the pain, the adversaries, the grief, and the career--a journey into a new existence, a search for a "second life." Persuaded that a doctor's life is everything a writer's is not, Zuckerman flies to Chicago with the intention of applying to medical school at his alma mater. Though the pain he encounters there is worse even than what he's fled, the startling quest for the second life provides some of the funniest scenes in all of Roth's fiction. With the serious playfulness and extravagant insistence characteristic of his work, Roth, in his fourteenth published book, presents an astonishing antithesis to The Magic Mountain: The Anatomy Lesson is a great comedy of illness. Roth's strength has always been the ability to depict the boisterous, the farcical, and the extreme in human behavior while revealing at the same time a world that immediately strikes the reader as real--what the English critic Hermione Lee has called, in writing of Roth's career, "a manner at once...brash and thoughtful...lyrical and wry, which projects through comic expostulations and confessions of the speakers a knowing, humane authority." The Anatomy Lesson is one of Roth's finest achievements in this vein.
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 1466846399
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description
Philip Roth's The Anatomy Lesson was a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. A comic masterpiece and brilliant finale to the Zuckerman trilogy. The writer Nathan Zukerman comes down with a mysterious physical affliction--pure pain, beginning in his neck and shoulders, invading his torso and taking possession of his life. Zukerman, whose work was his life, is unable to write a line. Now his work is trekking from one doctor to the next--from orthopedist to osteopath to neurologist to psychiatrist--but none can find a cause for the pain and nobody can assuage it. So begins Philip Roth's strangely comic new novel, The Anatomy Lesson. In it, we find Nathan Zukerman beset at age forty not only by his pain but by his past. He seriously wonders if he ought to be a novelist at all. At his wit's end, bewildered by both the obstinate pain and the isolating profession, and unconsolable by his "harem of Florence Nightingales"--Gloria, his accountant's wildly mothering wife; Jaga, the depressed Polish refuge from the hair-treatment clinic (to add to his suffering, Zukerman is going bald); Diana, the distressingly self-possessed Finch College heiress; and the temptingly levelheaded painter Jenny--Zukerman tries to pin his catastrophe on some source he can confront. There is no shortage of candidates. Zukerman's brother blames his acerbic bestseller Carnovsky, for ruining the lives of their late parents, and will have nothing to do with him. There's the critic Milton Appel, once Zuckerman's literary conscience, now his scourge--the Grand Inquisitor of Inquiry magazine, the New York Jewish cultural monthly. Searching desperately for a diagnosis that will lead to a cure, Zuckerman asks himself if the pain can have been caused by his adversaries, or by his astonishingly intractable grief for his mother, or by the disgust he has come to feel for the literary vocation he once loved. And while he is wondering, his dependence on painkillers grows into an addiction to Percodan, marijuana, and hundred-proof vodka. In the last half of The Anatomy Lesson, Zuckerman breaks out of invalid imprisonment in his Manhattan apartment and sets off on a journey to escape the pain, the adversaries, the grief, and the career--a journey into a new existence, a search for a "second life." Persuaded that a doctor's life is everything a writer's is not, Zuckerman flies to Chicago with the intention of applying to medical school at his alma mater. Though the pain he encounters there is worse even than what he's fled, the startling quest for the second life provides some of the funniest scenes in all of Roth's fiction. With the serious playfulness and extravagant insistence characteristic of his work, Roth, in his fourteenth published book, presents an astonishing antithesis to The Magic Mountain: The Anatomy Lesson is a great comedy of illness. Roth's strength has always been the ability to depict the boisterous, the farcical, and the extreme in human behavior while revealing at the same time a world that immediately strikes the reader as real--what the English critic Hermione Lee has called, in writing of Roth's career, "a manner at once...brash and thoughtful...lyrical and wry, which projects through comic expostulations and confessions of the speakers a knowing, humane authority." The Anatomy Lesson is one of Roth's finest achievements in this vein.
How the Other Half Lives
Author: Jacob Riis
Publisher: Applewood Books
ISBN: 145850042X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322
Book Description
Publisher: Applewood Books
ISBN: 145850042X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322
Book Description