Special thanks to Random House Trade Paperbooks and NetGalley for allowing me to read this very good book early. "Concussion" the book will be released November 24th, 2015, "Concussion" the movie will be released December 25th.
This review is dedicated in loving memory of Mike Webster and Terry Long, former NFL players who died due to the effects of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). Webster and Long's brains were the first two brains used to confirm CTE, although it took several more years before the NFL acknowledged it. My thanks to Dr. Bennet Omalu for sticking to his guns, as his Oba taught him, and for Jeanne Marie Laskas for bringing this story to the light of day.
This is my review of Jeanne Marie Laskas' "Concussion", the true story of the 10 years of Dr. Bennet Omalu's research of CTE in the brains of NFL players.
From Wikipedia's CTE page:
"Clinical symptoms of CTE are only beginning to be understood. They are thought to include changes in mood (i.e. depression, suicidality, apathy, anxiety), cognition(i.e. memory loss, executive dysfunction), behavior (short fuse, aggression), and in some cases motor disturbance (i.e. difficulty with balance and gait). While the pathology of CTE has been broken up into stages,[9] the clinical symptoms and clinical progression of CTE are not yet fully understood."
But ultimately this is a book review. What did I think of the book? Well I loved the book, it's a very well written book. My only complaint is that it ran on a bit long. But I loved meeting the Nigerian doctor Dr. Bennet Omalu, a brave, brilliant and tough doctor. I loved meeting his dynamic family and his wife. I loved how much he was helped then helped his family.
I love how this book started out, it grips one by the collar. We start out in a Pittsburgh courtroom where Dr. Omalu is on the witness stand. He's testifying against his former mentor, his American father, Cyril Wecht. Wecht, who had been involved in such fancy cases as Jon Benet Ramsey, was the one who mentored Omalu to the pathologist he became.
From that great start, the book goes back and forth in time. But that's never confusing and always fits the story well.
In 2005 Omalu had a chance to study Mike Webster's brain, Webster was the former Pittsburgh Steeler center who had so many helmet to helmet collisions in his 16 seasons of play. Omalu found CTE in his brain, which at the time was a brand new discovery. The NFL fought back by trying to discredit Omalu, they were partially successful for awhile. But through his perseverance and picking great allies the truth came out, as it always does. The NFL dragged their feet, which is a common occurrence in the NFL with Roger Goodell as the commissioner, but eventually even they had to admit Omalu's research was accurate.
I give this book 5 stars and recommend all, especially football fans, to read it. I have to admit I was reading it while I was hearing football coming from the other room. It's hard to resist the siren call of football. I think college football is the best, but NFL football is also pretty enticing. I do wonder if we should continue to feed the beast that causes permanent and negative life changing results for many former players.
The next book I'll be reading is Garth Risk Hallberg's "City On Fire".
themusicaddict
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