We know the happy ending of The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse before the first page is turned. Yes, finally, hallelujah — the Cubs won a World Series ... That shared sentiment is part of the book's power. Cohen tells a story that is all of ours... Weaving between history lesson, memoir and fairly faithful sports reporting, The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse is a brisk and engaging read. It's hard to say much new or novel about the Cubs — probably no team has had more words spent in a bid to understand it — but Cohen does his best and employs an advantage even beyond his skilled storytelling...kicks into gear with Cohen's telling of the 1970s; that, not coincidentally, is when his own story also begins ... Cohen's painstaking and deliberate tone turns a bit rushed in the last chapters, most likely because he was writing in real time.
Sharp writing spiked with fascinating facts... In it, he offers three things: first, a history of the team filled with amazing trivia... Second, Cohen, who grew up in Glencoe, chronicles his own lifelong love of the Cubs, despite their curse... And finally, he reports on last year’s epic Cubs season and World Series victory. Cohen is not only good but quick ...Cohen describes things has to appeal to fan and non-fan alike, and is a great way for the latter to get up to speed ... In brief: Rich Cohen has written the best book about the Chicago Cubs ever.
Rich Cohen’s odyssey as a life-long Cubs fan is defined by two ballpark memories from his childhood ...insightful, poignant and immensely readable book... The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse celebrates the tenacity and spirit of those who endured good times and bad — mostly bad — before being rewarded with the 2016 Series title ... Cohen is too level-headed to put much stock in curses, but there is plenty of evidence to suggest less-than-divine intervention ...a journalist’s detachment and a fan’s devotion to the book, a winning combination that explains how the Cubs overcame a century in the wilderness to reach the top of the game.
Rich Cohen’s affable The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse helps explain why Cubs fans are different from Red Sox fans ... Mr. Cohen lays it all out in a breezy, just-sort-of-cruising-by insta-history of the franchise, starting with its previous championship in 1908 ...to Game 7, we have become his faithful, loyal and easy companions. That game needs little embellishment, but Mr. Cohen makes us feel its drama nonetheless. His happiness ends up being our happiness.
While several other books have covered the topic of Sianis’ whammy, the author employs a style that educates the reader without the standard 'just the facts, ma’am' used by so many other writers ...this tale lends itself as much to hearing the words as seeing them ...instances turned potential victory and advancement into soul-crushing losses ...reminds us that the Cubs were winners once, way way back when.
Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone contributing editor Cohen, a lifelong Cubs fan, rehearses in swift, entertaining fashion the genesis of the team and its glory years (there were many early on) and long decades of mediocrity, and he introduces us to some key players over the years ... The author provides smooth summaries of each of the seven contests, calling Game 7 'the greatest baseball game of all time' ... Cohen’s accounts of the team, the players, the games and the culture surrounding the Cubs are brisk and informative, and his many personal stories, strung like holiday lights throughout the narrative, illuminate a fan’s frangible heart that annually repaired itself.
...an energetic account of the drought between the Chicago Cubs’ 1908 World Series win and their incredible triumph in 2016. He nicely details the team’s ups and downs over those 108 years and intersperses his narrative with recollections from his own childhood and early-adult obsession...coupled with informative writing that’s infused with the fatalism of a long-suffering Cubs fan ... This book has something new even for the most hardcore Cubs fans.
