MADreads

All roads lead to Rome

September 15th, 2008 Jon - Central Library

Are you getting excited for the Wisconsin Book Festival?  A lot of great authors are already lined up, including Madison’s own David Maraniss, whose latest book is Rome 1960: The Olympics that Changed the World.  Maraniss is a gifted storyteller both in print and in person, so put his October 18th appearance on your calendar now.

Though not a short book by any measure, it’s still amazing to think of how much of a particular moment in time Maraniss captures in his book: changes in television (the Games weren’t live in the US! Film was sent in tubes by plane), changes in research (anchorman Jim McKay didn’t learn about smaller countries from Google, he used the Encyclopedia Britannica), tensions between China and Taiwan, tensions between the two Germanys (they competed as a unified team and behaved like divorced parents at a child’s birthday party), Cold War intrigue (can runner Dave Sime convince a Russian to defect?), sponsorship and the decline of amateurism (a German winner wore Adidas during a race but put on Pumas to collect his medal), all while telling the stories of American athletes like Rafer Johnson, Cassius Clay, and Wilma Rudolph.

Maraniss is especially interested in the ways life was opening up for African Americans and for women, and decathlete Rafer Johnson and sprinter Wilma Rudolph emerge as two of the heroes of his book.  My favorite story was of Ethopian marathon runner Abebe Bikila.  He won the race barefoot in the capital city of a country that had very recently occupied his own.  Amazing.

Entry Filed under: Nonfiction