A review by socraticgadfly
The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created by Jane Leavy
4.0
Solid, but just not quite there. Like other reviewers who compared it to "The Last Boy," her bio of the Mick, it came up short compared to that.
I did appreciate the amount of things I learned about Ruth's childhood. As with Mantle, she was able to delve into that background and show to some fair degree how it drove him. Ditto on both his marriages, and learning that his daughter with Helen was apparently never legally adopted, and was likely Ruth's daughter, but by another woman.
That said, the structure of trying to tell Ruth's life through barnstorming appearances after the 1927 World Series is probably the biggest failing here.
It just doesn't work on its own, and otherwise, it becomes a mix of veneer and distraction from a straight-up bio.
I did appreciate the amount of things I learned about Ruth's childhood. As with Mantle, she was able to delve into that background and show to some fair degree how it drove him. Ditto on both his marriages, and learning that his daughter with Helen was apparently never legally adopted, and was likely Ruth's daughter, but by another woman.
That said, the structure of trying to tell Ruth's life through barnstorming appearances after the 1927 World Series is probably the biggest failing here.
It just doesn't work on its own, and otherwise, it becomes a mix of veneer and distraction from a straight-up bio.