Three-time Olympic gold medalist Joyner-Kersee, with Sports
Illustrated editor Steptoe, delivers an autobiography that
outshines much of the dismal competition. Track star Joyner grew up
in the impoverished city of East St. Louis, playing basketball and
running track despite family hardships and community hostility to
girls' athletics, and going to UCLA on an athletic scholarship
(Joyner-Kersee makes good use of her UCLA history education;
aspects of her life - her father's employment troubles and her own
athletic opportunites, for instance - are skillfully placed in a
sociopolitical context). Her parents divorced soon after she left
home. Her mother died of a rare bacterial infection, and her death
is wrenchingly described, as is the author's painful decision to
take her mother off life-support. She is honest about her family -
her problems with her father's hard drinking and bullying, and her
complex relationship with her strong-willed husband and coach,
Bobby Kersee. Her brother, Olympic gold medalist Al Joyner, and his
wife, Florence ("Flo Jo") Griffith Joyner, eventually stopped using
Bobby as their coach; oddly, Joyner-Kersee leaves this break
unexplained. Readers are reassured that everyone has moved on and
gotten over it, but one can't help wanting to know what happened.
Flo was widely quoted at the time as saying that Bobby had a
"cultlike" coaching style. Did she really say that? We'll never
know. Also frustrating is Joyner's tendency - shared by many other
athletes - to present the most banal personal revelations as wisdom
worth sharing with others: "Today might look gloomy, but tomorrow
will be bright" is one such pearl. Despite some omissions and
lapses into pseudo-inspiration, this is frank and lucid, and
presents an intimate picture of a star athlete and her sport.
(Kirkus Reviews)
Also Available as an eBook
Grinding poverty...aching personal tragedy...withering discrimination...life-threatening disease...Jackie Joyner-Kersee has confronted them all-and triumphed...A Kind Of Grace
Jackie is known throughout the world as the best female athlete ever-the winner of six Olympic medals, three of them gold; the current world record holder in the heptathlon (the women's version of the male decathlon); the one-time world record holder in the long jump; and an All-America basketball player. Until now, few have known of the chronic affliction that has nearly killed her three times, or the grueling sacrifices that have vaulted her to heights never before seen.
She grew up in East St. Louis in a house "little more than wallpaper and sticks." Her parents were poor teenagers when they married. She made her first long-jump pit in her backyard from borrowed playground sand. One of her first performances went unrecorded because of the color of her skin. Yet Jackie not only had an innate ability to conquer speed and distance, she possessed an irrepressible personality and a deep, unshakable love of sport.
As she harnessed her talents, Jackie began an amazing string of multisport successes. In the midst of it all, she would try to hold her family together after her mother's tragic early death (Mary was only 37), and face her own devastating grief. As she climbed the dizzying heights of international and Olympic competition, she would face relentless media attention that escalated when she married Bob Kersee, her enormously successful-and controversial-coach. As she reached her profession's peak, she would battle life-threatening asthma, unfounded accusations of drug-induced performance enhancement, and recurring injuries. Ultimately, she would unite her experience and determination to achieve the most meaningful victories of all-those that shape and build lives beyond the field.
Written with honesty and humor, A Kind Of Grace is a profoundly moving story of barriers overcome, wisdom gained-and steadfast "hope-in-progress." Few recent books-of any kind-have testified so eloquently to the power of following one's dreams.
"I see elegance and beauty in every female athlete. I don't think being an athlete is unfeminine. I think of it as a kind of grace."
-Jackie Joyner-Kersee
"A Kind Of Grace is a kind of courage and a kind of strength and a kind of beauty and a kind of hope...and a great deal of grace."
-Frank Deford
"Powerful, evocative...a world-class effort."
-Armen Keteyian, ABC News
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RELATED SITES
halala.com: African American books and authors from Time Warner Trade Publishing
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