Sometimes a new sports bio comes along and you wonder how come a great bio of that athlete hasn’t appeared yet. As one of the more iconic figures in basketball both during and after his career, Charles Barkley has fascinated, entertained, annoyed and informed generations of basketball fans. While he wrote an autobiography, Barkley has admitted to never reading it and even claimed he was misquoted in his own book! This book is the biography that such an interesting figure merits.
Barkley (the book) is a conventional biography that explores its’ subject’s life in detail. The book is at its most interesting in telling Charles’ childhood and college days and the struggles he overcame to find his purpose through basketball. It presents a balanced reflection of Barkley, the good and bad and looks at his career both on and off the court. It’s packed full of interesting anecdotes and insight and delicately balances the dual aims of being short enough to remain entertaining while also being long enough to capture the fullness of Barkley’s life.
Bella, a deputy editor at the Washington Post, was also the lead researcher for hugely successful biographies from from Armen Keteyian and Jeff Benedict – the excellent “Tiger” and “The System. Those books both stood out through the meticulous amount of research that went into them. Bella has clearly adopted a similar approach and I can’t think of better praise than saying the book ranks alongside those other two as a really enjoyable sports book.
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