The world needs another book written about the 2004 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox as much as MTV needs another reality series about celebrity families. Yet, despite its media-darling subject matter, Now I Can Die in Peace: How ESPN's Sports Guy Found Salvation, With a Little Help From Nomar, Pedro, Shawshank and the 2004 Red Sox by Bill Simmons is a welcome addition to the world of sports writing.
It is Simmons, known as "The Sports Guy" on ESPN.com's Page 2, who makes the book worth reading. As Entertainment Weekly described, his work is "for anyone who worships at the twin altars of pop culture and sports." It is this fusion that Simmons brings to Now I Can Die in Peace, differentiating it from the numerous quickie books released in the months following the reverse of Boston's 86-year curse.
The book is a collection of 49 Red Sox columns, which Simmons wrote from 1998 to 2005, compiled into four sections: "Rejuvenation," "The Abyss," "Hope Is a Good Thing" and "The Great Escape." For the curse's sake, Simmons frames each column in modern day, circa June 2005.
The added introductions and 500-plus footnotes make the book more than a collection of writing with which any Simmons fan may already be familiar. Instead, as Simmons promises, his book is "like the director's cut." Such an open perspective provides the reader with interesting anecdotes from Simmons' Playboy Mansion experience that nearly ended in his divorce to a guide to buying scalped tickets.
While the commentary enhances the columns, it is the commentator who makes this witty collection stand out.
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