As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

"Foxcatcher" by Mark Schultz

book review by Riley Burnham 2/7/2023

super good book [audio version excellent], w/ a, if you know the story, tinge of sadness running through -- as it starts w/ Mark, the author, recounting when he found out his brother Dave had been shot & killed

this is a story of wrestling, brotherhood, the Olympics, world-class competition, meeting & working for a psychopathic multi-millionaire [the disgraceful John Du Pont], & bouncing back after tragedy levels his life

the best part of this book, for me, is just getting to know a world-class wrestler like that -- the mind, the training, the discipline... following in his brother Dave's footsteps, Mark too gets into wrestling & takes Olympic gold w/ his brother the same year(!!)

it then follows their mutual trajectories as they take on coaching, training, & future competition... the big turn; the dreadful change takes place when Mark meets John, who his opening description of rings w/ forewarning [he describes him as a repulsive addict, more or less]

John shoots Dave, seemingly impulsively, although his gun was loaded w/ hollow-point bullets... 3 times; then barricades himself in his mansion for days before finally being arrested -- he's later sentenced to prison where he dies

Mark fights & wins [1-0] in the UFC, where he says he regains some of what was lost to John

he finished the book saying he wishes John would never have been born & that he misses Dave