Book of the Week

The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis
Recommended by Alex Powell

The Blind Side, the latest book by bestselling author Michael Lewis (author of The Big Short), focuses on the story of the Michael Oher, one of the players accredited with redefining the Left Tackle position in American Football.

Overall, the story is told fluently, as the reader is given insights into the real story of this man. It is a clever blend of both fiction and fact, as the story is based on real events.

Oher's is an amazing story, which gives a great insight into the childhood of someone for who 'English was effectively a second language' and for whom even finding the next meal and somewhere to sleep were the real challenges of the day. Having grown up in the poorest zip code in the US, he would eventually find himself with a place at the local fee paying Catholic school, where, at 6’ 5” and 350 pounds, while still only a teenager, he was quickly taken under the wing of the school’s sports coach.

One of the main challenges with writing a book like this, where fact is told in the style of a story, is achieving a complete narrative, and it is clear how Lewis has painstakingly gone through each section of Oher's life, hoping to find nuggets of information that can further develop our understanding of the situation he must have been in. It is a great story and especially great in the hands of Lewis.  I would highly recommend it, to both the avid sports fan and to someone who does not even know the slightest about American Football.