[A] treat of a new book ... As his son tells it, his dad’s career was in its way even more dazzling than Koufax’s ... Rich Cohen writes lovingly of his father’s 'love of bull—.' But the accumulated wit and wisdom of Herb Cohen scattered through the book reveals instead a keen grasp of human frailty and a gift for aphorism no less valid for its glibness ... There’s much more compelling family drama in the book, especially the death of Rich Cohen’s mother, told so movingly that many will read the passage in tears. But it’s essentially the saga of a remarkable man who’s fond of saying 'The meaning of life . . . is more life' and knows what he’s talking about.
Wry and affectionate ... In Cohen’s telling, Herbie is a latter-day Buddha preaching a detached philosophy of life as an all-encompassing negotiation in which one should 'care, but not that much' ... The book also reads as a classic Jewish American striver’s saga ... This is a rich and beguiling homage to a larger-than-life father.
