If you’re a fan of high school, college, or NFL football, this book is a great read. If you’re interested in discussions of class economics or discourses on race, this book is a great read. Or if you just want to read a book that will make you laugh, challenge you, and sometimes make you questions of the motives of the protagonists, this book is a great read.
The only hesitation I have about the book is that I think it purports to be about Michael Oher, the high school and college phenom left tackle. In a lot of ways it is, but only to the extent that Lewis wanted to tell Oher’s story. On the other hand, however, what Lewis is really exploring in this book is why and how a rich, white couple (Sean and Leigh Ann Tuoy) from one of the most segregated cities in America (Memphis) would become invested in young black kid who is ironically simultaneously almost impossible to notice and impossible to ignore.
In some ways, I think Lewis is interested in the Tuoys’ investment in Michael as a person as is contrasted against the system’s (Briarcrest High School Athletics Dept, Ole Miss University, and every other major college football program in the country, and the NFL). Everybody seems to want something from him, and that thing is immediately apparent and almost assured. But the Tuoy’s were invested in him long before they realized just how good a player he was. In that sense, his incredible success seems to make their investment both charming and sincere.
Tough to admit (and Lewis doesn’t address this at all, really) that I wouldn’t have been interested in reading about the Tuoy’s charity or Oher’s luck had it not been for his incredible physical gifts. Maybe that’s the real lesson of the book.