Overview

Despite some enormous differences in salary among professional athletes, most aspects of their daily lives remain surprisingly constant across sports and income levels. In Living out of Bounds author Steven J. Overman mines a wide array of sports biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, and diaries to construct a representative picture of the athlete's life. In the course of the work a portrait emerges that transcends the individual lives lived. The shared experiences of devoted training, of travel and hotels, and of tension within and beyond the clubhouse or gym, force us to appreciate the often oppressive reality of the sporting life, at the same time that the individual lives lived also provide us with a glimpse of the rewards that make sports so compelling to audiences and athletes across America. .

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<p> Sport biographies and autobiographies dominate the sport sections of bookstores, and those who read enough notice common themes: struggle, of family support or nonsupport, and finally of triumph. Overman (a journalist) has performed a kind of a meta-analysis of a large number of biographies and autobiographies of male, predominantly US, athletes. Using the athletes' and their biographers' descriptions of the lives of male athletes, he describes the common themes and bonds these athletes share. He examines topics like early family life and how many athletes view sport as both a sanctuary and a place that allows them to avoid the responsibilities of being an adult. He describes their daily activities, their struggles to maintain their health, and their response to retirement. - <p>Choice

Sport biographies and autobiographies dominate the sport sections of bookstores, and those who read enough notice common themes: struggle, of family support or nonsupport, and finally of triumph. Overman (a journalist) has performed a kind of a meta-analysis of a large number of biographies and autobiographies of male, predominantly US, athletes. Using the athletes' and their biographers' descriptions of the lives of male athletes, he describes the common themes and bonds these athletes share. He examines topics like early family life and how many athletes view sport as both a sanctuary and a place that allows them to avoid the responsibilities of being an adult. He describes their daily activities, their struggles to maintain their health, and their response to retirement. - Choice

Author Information

Steven J. Overman has spent most of his professional life writing about various aspects of sport. He has published some three-dozen articles and reviews in academic journals, including a recent article on male athletes and their fathers for the British journal Auto/biography. His book-length publications include a college textbook, a mini-text for high school history students, and a monograph on The Influence of the Protestant Ethic on Sport and Recreation (1997). Overman wrote several short biographies for David Wiggins' African Americans in Sports (2004), and he also regularly contributes columns and op-ed pieces for newspapers.

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