- Hardcover: 272 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins (15 April 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0061791644
- ISBN-13: 978-0061791642
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 16 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 863,317 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Her reporting is diligent, detailed, and overpowering. This is not a book of conjecture: It's one of bootstrap journalism.--New York magazine
Product Description
Rumoured to be on the verge of a personal and professional collapse so profound it would rate as one of the most dramatic falls in major league history. Through exhaustive reporting and interviews, Roberts will detail A-Rod as a plunge-in-progress, a once-in-a-generation baseball talent tortured by an internal struggle between the polished family man he wants to be and the unabashed hedonist he has become. The storyline will include his dalliances with strippers, infatuation with Madonna, details of his record-breaking $315-million contract, shady real estate empire and further evidence of steroid use, but will also tunnel deeper into his behavior. Roberts will reveal the root of Alex's identity crisis - the night his father abandoned him - and, in so doing, answer the question: who is the real A-Rod?
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
You do not need to be that interested in baseball to enjoy this biographgy about one of the leading A celebs of our time, at least in North America. It was so good that my wife and her sister, neither of whom know anything about baseball, read it.
A Rod is not that complex a character but he came from poverty to riches and fame and there is no doubt that such a journey would be a challenge for anyone. Add in all those who can benefit either directly or indirectly from his fame and you atart to see how we cam e to be what he is.
A Rod is not that complex a character but he came from poverty to riches and fame and there is no doubt that such a journey would be a challenge for anyone. Add in all those who can benefit either directly or indirectly from his fame and you atart to see how we cam e to be what he is.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
In my opinion, this book is a great read. I could not put it down. But to me, it is yet another person ripping A-Rod because of his lifestyle and salary. Everyone is human, everyone makes mistakes. The guy is the richest baseball player in the history of the game and is an easy target for the media. Until people start accepting the fact players used steriods in the 90's/2000's and it was culturally accepted back then with no punishment, then the baseball world can not move on. Yes, it was, for lack of another word, "unputdownable" but it was one-sided slander from a woman trying to make more money by exploiting a star player - it makes me wonder if Selena Roberts has ever went against public morals in order to complete or chase a story - I bet so!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
86 reviews
34 of 42 people found the following review helpful
A Feature Article Stretched into a Book
22 May 2009
Format:Hardcover
This book, if it were to be written at all, would have been far better in someone else's hands. Selena Roberts' treatment of Alex Rodriguez is superficial at best and biased at worst.
If you dislike the Yankees or dislike players that sign long-term contracts for great sums of money, then you'll probably enjoy this book. If you're fairly neutral on both fronts (as I am), then this book won't cast a very long shadow upon your life.
There are two main problems with the book. First, it's abundantly clear that Selena Roberts personally dislikes Alex Rodriguez. She's certainly entitled to feel this way, but this should not come through in a book that is supposed to be the product of serious journalism. Second (and this is connected with the first) Rodriguez's use of steroids is this book's raison d'etre. It's as though Roberts said to herself, "Yes! We caught him using banned substances, now I can write that book."
The rather superficial picture of Rodriguez we get is of a guy who will do anything to win, including making use of stolen signs and performance enhancing drugs. Why does he do this? Roberts lacks the gravitas to tell us. Rodriguez's dad left when he was 10 years old and he was understandably affected by this. But beyond needing approval from others and missing his dad while growing up, how exactly did it affect him? We're never told. Roberts' failure in this regard shouldn't come as a surprise. Her bibliography is mostly composed of magazine and newspaper articles with comparatively few interviews.
Nearly everything in the book is told through the prism of Rodriguez's use of steroids or is only mentioned because it relates directly to steroids. For instance, we're told of Rodriguez's strong desire to win a championship and almost obsessive work habits. Yet when the subject of the 2004 ALCS arises---the closet Rodriguez ever got to the World Series---we're given a total of about two paragraphs. Wait a minute. How did he feel about the Yankees' historic collapse? What about his individual performance? Surely this must have made a deep impression on him. But Roberts doesn't see fit to probe such a significant moment any deeper, even though this book only happens to be a biography of the man.
If you've followed the major events in Rodriguez's career up to this point you're not going to learn anything new or interesting from Roberts' book. What she's given us is nothing more than a drawn out and forgettable feature article.
If you dislike the Yankees or dislike players that sign long-term contracts for great sums of money, then you'll probably enjoy this book. If you're fairly neutral on both fronts (as I am), then this book won't cast a very long shadow upon your life.
There are two main problems with the book. First, it's abundantly clear that Selena Roberts personally dislikes Alex Rodriguez. She's certainly entitled to feel this way, but this should not come through in a book that is supposed to be the product of serious journalism. Second (and this is connected with the first) Rodriguez's use of steroids is this book's raison d'etre. It's as though Roberts said to herself, "Yes! We caught him using banned substances, now I can write that book."
The rather superficial picture of Rodriguez we get is of a guy who will do anything to win, including making use of stolen signs and performance enhancing drugs. Why does he do this? Roberts lacks the gravitas to tell us. Rodriguez's dad left when he was 10 years old and he was understandably affected by this. But beyond needing approval from others and missing his dad while growing up, how exactly did it affect him? We're never told. Roberts' failure in this regard shouldn't come as a surprise. Her bibliography is mostly composed of magazine and newspaper articles with comparatively few interviews.
Nearly everything in the book is told through the prism of Rodriguez's use of steroids or is only mentioned because it relates directly to steroids. For instance, we're told of Rodriguez's strong desire to win a championship and almost obsessive work habits. Yet when the subject of the 2004 ALCS arises---the closet Rodriguez ever got to the World Series---we're given a total of about two paragraphs. Wait a minute. How did he feel about the Yankees' historic collapse? What about his individual performance? Surely this must have made a deep impression on him. But Roberts doesn't see fit to probe such a significant moment any deeper, even though this book only happens to be a biography of the man.
If you've followed the major events in Rodriguez's career up to this point you're not going to learn anything new or interesting from Roberts' book. What she's given us is nothing more than a drawn out and forgettable feature article.
72 of 98 people found the following review helpful
Dislike A-Rod only a little more than Selena Roberts
4 May 2009
Format:Hardcover
As a Red Sox fan, I've been giddy about this book coming out. I just wish it had been written by somebody other than Selena Roberts. This is the woman who convicted the Duke lacrosse team in column after column and when it came out that she had used a column in one of the world's most prominent newspapers to heap scorn on three innocent college kid's, she couldn't even admit she was wrong, much less issue an apology.
Even with her past, I was interested to read the book in the hopes that she would do some real reporting and have some real facts to back up the sordid stories. It turns out that we knew most of what she had hard core evidence to prove months ago, and the rest comes from anonymous sources and pure speculation. Given her past history of making up facts in order to sell a story, I'm a little leery.
If you're a baseball fan, I would suggest reading it. If nothing else it's pretty juicy gossip for your bathroom reading time. If you're looking for well-researched facts and good investigative journalism, keep looking. This is the National Enquirer of sports books. Sure it might be true. Some of it actually seems probable. But who knows if it's really true or not? Unfortunately, Ms. Roberts' past reputation and the lack of hard evidence presented in this book cannot answer that question.
Even with her past, I was interested to read the book in the hopes that she would do some real reporting and have some real facts to back up the sordid stories. It turns out that we knew most of what she had hard core evidence to prove months ago, and the rest comes from anonymous sources and pure speculation. Given her past history of making up facts in order to sell a story, I'm a little leery.
If you're a baseball fan, I would suggest reading it. If nothing else it's pretty juicy gossip for your bathroom reading time. If you're looking for well-researched facts and good investigative journalism, keep looking. This is the National Enquirer of sports books. Sure it might be true. Some of it actually seems probable. But who knows if it's really true or not? Unfortunately, Ms. Roberts' past reputation and the lack of hard evidence presented in this book cannot answer that question.
12 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Tabloid Trash
27 May 2009
Format:Hardcover
I'll kick myself for paying good money to read this junk. A bunch of hearsay from nameless people with no facts to back it up. Initially figured it would be as detailed as the book on Bonds. Shoulda waited for media reviews instead of buying it right away. Many facts are being refuted publicly by some former teammates and managers.
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