Mark Kriegel - Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich

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PISTOL: The Life of Pete Maravich

A wonderfully crafted biography... Kriegel captures both Maravichs on-court brilliance and complicated off-court life.

The New York Times

Mark Kriegel has written the sports-bio equivalent of Maravich on a fast break: dazzling and smart, and, even at 381 pages, over before you knew it.

The Wall Street Journal

A stunning literary journey... not only required reading for basketball fans, but required re-reading once youre done.

New York Post

Its a compelling read, with the careful character development and page-turning urgency of a good novel... the complex relationship between Petar Press Maravich and his gifted son makes their shared story so captivating and gives the book its dramatic wallop.

Dan McGrath, Chicago Tribune

This is the best sports book Ive read in years. The research, the writing, the paceits All-Pro material.

Terry Pluto, The Akron Beacon Journal

Transcendent... Kriegel has elevated himself into the most elegant voice on epic American sporting lives.

Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports

Pistol skillfully pulls off the balancing act required of good sports biography. It plays large historical forces (segregation, the rise of televised sports) against the individual magic of its subject.

New York magazine

A remarkable book that is the best researched biography yet of this revolutionary basketball player.

The Raleigh News and Observer

Like the best journalists, Kriegel has the ability to get out of the way and let a good story tell itself.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Inside front cover

An essential read... Kriegel not only provides a wonderful evocation of the basketball life of Maravich, but he also gives readers a delightfully written biography.

Library Journal

The most irresistible sports portrait I have read in years. Kriegel has written a book that explains the greatness of Pistol Pete as well as his great mysteries.

Rick Bozich, Louisville Courier-Journal

Pistol is a beautifully written book that captures the soul and inner turmoil of this son and father.

The Tennessean

Brilliant... it is a wonderful tale reading like a page-turner that couldnt be true.

ESPN.com

The best of the couple of dozen sports books reviewed... artfully captures a figure ideally suited to the genre.

Neil Best, Newsday

Kriegel does a great job making it more than just a basketball story... it might bring you to tears.

Alan Hahn, Newsday

Fascinating look at the magic and tragic existence of one of basketballs most compelling and confounding figures.

Frank Fitzpatrick, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Highly readable... succeeds in making Pistol appealing to both the hard-core sports fan and the student of human nature.

The Dallas Morning News

Kriegel has delivered the definitive Maravich biography, like a perfect pass in traffic, a riveting and exhaustively researched work that is a must-read for hoop fans.

The Buffalo News

An enthralling biography about a sports icon who was a magician on the court and a basket case off it.

The Birmingham News

Mark Kriegel... has given Maravichs many fans the book theyve been waiting for.

The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon)

A fascinating look at one of the most entertaining but tortured performers in sports.

Marc Narducci, The Philadelphia Inquirer

The cream of the hoops crop... Kriegel is a master at research and finding people who will talk to him... superb, up there on a short list with such greats as David Halberstams Breaks of the Game .

The Orlando Sentinel

Beautifully detailed.

Jonathan Last, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Mark Kriegel makes this wizard of a bygone era come to life.

Albuquerque Journal

Pistol amounts to a trip down memory lane even for those of us who dont have the memories... deserves a place on any sports fans shelf.

Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Kriegel... writes with a New York swagger and swizzle.

Stan Hochman, Philadelphia Daily News

Kriegel delivers a lyrical look at Pistols life that is well written and weighty.

Bill Simmons, ESPN The Magazine

A rounded, insightful look at one of basketballs enigmatic icons... Kriegel is more than up to the task.

Publishers Weekly

Running hard along the parallel tracks of history, psychology, sociology and pop culture, Mark Kriegels book about Pete Maravich might long be remembered as the definitive Pistol ... Pistol is so much more than the when and how... far more compelling.

Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Must reading.

Chuck Finder, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Its all here in Pistol, a wonderful biography... In many ways its the most American of stories... if you read it I promise you wont forget it.

Bill Reynolds, The Providence Journal

Fascinating.

Chicago Sun-Times

A cautionary tale... Kriegels honest portrayal... is a compelling story for any fan of hoops history, father or son.

The Hartford Courant

Great book.

Henry Abbott, TrueHoop.com

Super.

The Biloxi Sun Herald

What Pistol Pete was to the no-look, 50-foot bounce pass Kriegel may be to the sports biography: transcendent.

Booklist, starred review

Terrifically well researched.

Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City)

Kriegel gives voice to those moments of flight and daring, the high personal cost of devotion to a sport... energetic, fast-moving.

The Times Picayune (New Orleans)

Haunting.

Evansville Courier & Press

Kriegel captures the essence of Maravich... Its a tragic story, to be sure, but a compelling one that Kriegel tells so very well.

John Perrotto, The Times (Beaver County, Pennsylvania)

A touching, incredibly sad portrait of Pete and his father, Press, and how attached they were at the heart... immaculate research.

Jim Huber, HOFMAG.com

Terrific... Just as Maravichs electrifying moves captivated millions on the basketball court, Kriegels narrative will captivate readers.

The Vindicator (Ohio)

Kriegels book will... lead you to places you would not otherwise find. It tells a storysome of it recorded and some of it forgotten, some of it exhilarating and some of it devastatingly sad. It is a story about a father and a son, about vanity, about commitment, about vision, about obsession.

American Srbobran

Kriegels Pistol is different than the slew of other biographies aimed at the Pistol because all the stories in the perfectly chronological book are firsthand accounts from those who knew Pete Maravich best.

Tiger Weekly

Pistol is a classic American tale wonderfully told. With deep research and a vivid narrative style, Mark Kriegel brings us the joy and sorrow of Pete Maravich, an inimitable basketball player who was both timeless and before his time, an original talent haunted by demonshis fathers and his own.

David Maraniss, author of Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseballs Last Hero

Pistol is not just a biography of a transcendent, doomed athlete; it is a mesmerizing tale of a striving, grasping American family as dramatic as myth, of a father and son as intertwined as Daedalus and Icarus. Kriegel has written the rarest of sports books: a fast-paced, through-the-night page-turner. This isnt a slam dunk, its a tomahawk glass-shatterer. Pistol is nothing but sensational.

Rick Telander, author of Heaven Is a Playground and senior sports columnist, Chicago Sun-Times

Pistol Petes moves on the basketball court defied the laws of physics. He did things you cant even film. He deserves a biographer with magic powers of his own, and hes found one in Mark Kriegel.

Will Blythe, author of To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever