I just love to be the first person to check
out a book from the library. It’s like you’re starting a legacy or something. I’d
read some reviews of this book a while back and put this on my ‘to read’ list. Then,
just a couple of days ago, I saw this on the processing desk so I decided to
hang around a little bit to see if it would go out. My snooping paid off as 30
minutes later; I snatched this book off the rack from shelving before it even
hit the floor!
As a kid I would say I had two favorite
wrestlers- Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant. As a kid, I was taller than the rest
of my classmates and a heck of a lot heftier. So, I really could relate with
Andre’s humongous size. Years later, I would stop watching wrestling but I
still held a fondness for Andre- so much that when my cat Sarakit had kittens a
few years back, we named the biggest of the litter Andre.
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| Had to include a pic of Andre- my little shadow cat. He's so big. |
This book is an
interesting read into the life of a man that was bigger than life and lived every
day that way too. He had acromegaly and it caused him to never really stop
growing. That also was a death sentence for him as the excess stresses took a
toll on his joints, heart, and ability to age. One thing I didn’t know was that
he had a ranch in nearby Ellerbe, NC. That’s about a 2 hour drive and is now on
my list of places to road trip too.
There’s some R-rated
language and some very bawdy anecdotes about Andre. The man loved to drink,
mingle, and play cards and fight. But above all else, he loved to put on a
show. The story has some great moments and some very sad ones. But, I wouldn’t
trade my experience seeing him on TV as a kid and I wouldn’t forgo the opportunity
I got reading his biography first.
Not for all ages, but
definitely a fun read for fans of wrestling in the 70s and 80s.
Worth Consuming
Rating: 9 out of 10
stars.
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