Path Lit By Lightning, David Maraniss

 

Path Lit By Lightning:  The life of Jim Thorpe by David Maraniss.  I have been fascinated by Jim Thorpe since I learned his name as a boy.

Started: 6/6/2023
Completed: 6/12/2023
Recommendation: Mild recommendation
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

Since I was a boy reading about the flying wedge, I've had an interest in Jim Thorpe.  Frankly, I thought of him only as a football player, had no idea he was Indian, and did not realize he was called "The Greatest Athlete of All Time."  I have been to Cancun and seen his bust in the NFL Hall of Fame, but I was so overwhelmed by the number of exhibits (and my father's desire to move on) that I had not time to read any of the stories.  I was also aware of the Indian schools and how those had been devastating to so many families and the horrors that some (if not all) children endured.  This book was eye opening in many ways.  Thorpe played professional football, basketball, and baseball; was an Olympic champion; and a colligate track and field star.

This book is simply mind numbing in its details.  It felt like every box score from every game was discussed (surely this was not the case) and the extreme violence of early football (where dying seemed to be a regular occurrence) was another area that seemed to have surprising intensity in this biography.  Maraniss included the details of love letters between Thorpe and his second wife which also seemed a bit much (some of the details such as pet names and repeated comments of desire could probably have been omitted without any damage to the story).  Beyond those over detailed portions, the portions that dealt with the details of living as an Indian in a society that viewed Indians as, at best, a lower class of human (better than blacks) was appropriate and insightful because this framed Thorpe's life.  His familial relationships were stunning, though not surprising given his tumultuous upbringing.

I found the epilogue insightful and sad.  Most of Thorpe's life left me sad.  It seems like the people around him could have done better by him in so many ways, yet, it is hard to call out individuals beyond the individuals called out in the book.  To suggest that his children should have done more (particularly his daughters) seems wildly inappropriate.  His sons were also abandoned.  In part this was due to his inability to hold down a job for any length of time and that seems to keep going back to drinking.  In short, however, here was a flawed individual who was unable to overcome his own character flaws despite enormous effort to do so.  As with most heroes, looking at the portion of their life that is heroic is vastly inadequate and often overshadows many other problems.  It seems, however, that Thorpe, exceptional though he was in many ways, is an astounding example of how America mistreated Indians.  Surely, more could have been done to help him, particularly during his second marriage when he sought to get rid of drinking, but circumstance seemed to grind him down.