Monday, February 20, 2017

The High-Flying Life of Evel Knievel--#10 finished

A interesting person that was a few years before my time.  I was too young to remember his big events in the '70s but I do remember seeing him a couple times on TV.  Could have been repeats or maybe the original jumps, don't remember, but he was certainly a fascinating person for a kid.  I never put much thought to him since.  I never had one of his action figures and riding motorcycles wasn't really a thing that I wanted to do.  Reading this book I was introduced to a more realistic Evel Knievel and wow, what a dick.  Really pretty much an all around asshole.  Was a thief and burglar growing up, con-artist and even when he got money, seemed to never pay people that he owed but would blow money on stupid stuff.  Was married with 3 kids, much later a 4th, but bragged about sleeping around whenever he could which as a daredevil in the make love '70s was multiple times a day seemingly.  I had no idea of the person that Evel Knievel was and this makes you kind of realism this was a different time.  Today, it just would not be accepted and with the 24 hour news cycle he would be called out on everything.  He was certainly a person of the times for the '70s.  Good read by the author and really eye opening stuff, unfortunately really can't like the subject after reading this book.

There are 3 WL for the book on PBS so I will mail it off, probably sometime soon.

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