The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game (平装) 0393330478

"Lewis has such a gift forstorytelling...he writes aslucidly for sportsfans as for those who read him for otherreasons."—Janet Maslin, New YorkTimes One day Michael Oher will be among the mosthighly paid athletes in the National FootballLeague. When we first meet him, he is one ofthirteen children by a mother addicted to crack; he does not know his real name, his father, hisbirthday, or how to read or write. He takes upfootball, and school, after a rich, white,evangelical family plucks him from the streets.Then two great forces alter Oher: the family'slove and the evolution of professional footballitself into a game in which the quarterback must be protected at any cost. Our protagonist becomes the priceless package of size, speed, and agility necessary to guard the quarterback's greatestvulnerability: his blind side. This paperbackedition contains a brand-new 2007 afterword.

From Publishers Weekly Starred Review.As he did so memorably for baseball in Moneyball, Lewis takes a statistical X-ray of the hidden substructure of football, outlining the invisible doings of unsung players that determine the outcome more than the showy exploits of point scorers. In his sketch of the gridiron arms race, first came the modern, meticulously choreographed passing offense, then the ferocious defensive pass rusher whose bone-crunching quarterback sacks demolished the best-laid passing game, and finally the rise of the left tacklethe offensive lineman tasked with protecting the quarterback from the pass rusherwhose presence is felt only through the game-deciding absence of said sacks. A rare creature combining 300 pounds of bulk with "the body control of a ballerina," the anonymous left tackle, Lewis notes, is now often a team's highest-paid player. Lewis fleshes this out with the colorful saga of left tackle prodigy Michael Oher. An intermittently homeless Memphis ghetto kid taken in by a rich white family and a Christian high school, Oher's preternatural size and agility soon has every college coach in the country courting him obsequiously. Combining a tour de force of sports analysis with a piquant ethnography of the South's pigskin mania, Lewis probes the fascinating question of whether football is a matter of brute force or subtle intellect. Photos. (Oct.) Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition. From Bookmarks Magazine As in Moneyball (**** July/Aug 2003), which chronicled the strategies behind the Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane, Berkeley-based author Michael Lewis takes a personal look at a complicated game in his newest nonfiction extravaganza. Just as they embraced Moneyball, critics eagerly wrap their arms around The Blind Side. It's much more than a treatise on football; it's an exploration of the limits of conventional thinking and how strategic changes affect the value of quick-footed behemoths. However, while most reviewers are positive, something holds them back. Maybe Lewis makes it all look too easy. Or perhaps, as The New York Times charges, he takes the easy route through a complicated set of stories. That he makes it easy for his reader to comprehend—and enjoy—is enough for most critics to give Lewis's latest a rousing cheer.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips Nelson Media, Inc.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition. From Booklist *Starred Review* The titular "blind side" is a right-handed NFL quarterback's left side. The defensive linemen rushing the quarterback from that side often arrive undetected and thus can inflict great damage on the opponent's key offensive player as he sets himself to pass. The key to minimizing quarterback damage is an effective offensive left tackle. Lewis, most recognizable as the author of the best-selling Moneyball (2003)--about the growing reliance on statistical analysis in baseball--describes the NFL's ever-growing obsession with left tackles as a means to counter defenders who seem to grow bigger, stronger, and more vicious each season. He juxtaposes that narrative with the unlikely story of Michael Oher, who was living on the streets of Memphis when he was 15 years old. He also happened to be six-feet-five-inches tall, weigh 350 pounds, and possess definite athletic talent. Almost through sheer serendipity, he is adopted by a wealthy family whose members make it their mission to see that he has an opportunity to benefit from his amazing physical gifts. The book works on three levels. First as a shrewd analysis of the NFL; second, as an expose of the insanity of big-time college football recruiting; and, third, as a moving portrait of the positive effect that love, family, and education can have in reversing the path of a life that was destined to be lived unhappily and, most likely, end badly. Wes Lukowsky Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved--This text refers to the Hardcover edition. Review "The Blind Side is a wonderful tale." John Gapper, Financial Times "Lewis has made a habit of writing about sport recently, but sport is really only a subtext for a much more meaningful examination of class and race. I wept at the end, something I have not done at the end of a work of non-fiction for a very long time." Malcolm Gladwell, The Observer, Books of the Year 2006 "The strongest strand of The Blind Side is about sporting strategy. When brain defeats brawn in one of Michael Lewis's books, you can almost hear the prose style lift off." Ed Smith, The Times "[The Blind Side] provides deep insights about sport and America." The Spectator"

MICHAEL LEWIS is the author of the bestsellers Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, and "brilliant" (The Specator), "fascinating story and absorbing read" (The Daily Telegraph), Moneyball (ISBN 978 0 393 32481 5).

出版社	W.W. Norton & Co.
作者	Michael Lewis