JEFF PEARLMAN

JEFF PEARLMAN

A great morning for Sweetness …

Whether Sweetness goes on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Chicago-based sports reporting (a new category, I hear) or winds up languishing on the $1 shelf outside the book barn, I will always remember—and cherish—this morning.

As authors, we generally try to pretend the words and opinions of others don’t matter to us; that it’s all about the craft and the art and the integrity of the project. That, however, is nonsense. Opinions do matter. You don’t merely want to write a great book—you want people to believe in its greatness, too. I feel that way more than ever now, what with the early negative reaction to the Sports Illustrated excerpt. I desperately need people to see what Sweetness really is; that’s it’s not merely a crapola slam job of an icon.

I digress. Today, two very respected journalists wrote on Sweetness.

The first, Peter King, is the most famed football writer in America. His take can be found here.

The second, Stephanie Myles, is a wonderful writer for the Montreal Gazette. Her review can be found here.

Amen.