7

The Mickey Mantle Novel

By: Peter Golenbock

Narrated by: Alan Smithee

Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

In Peter Golenbock's shocking and revealing first novel, Mickey Mantle tells the hidden story of his life as a baseball hero, and asks for forgiveness from his friends and family. If the revelations in Jim Bouton's Ball Four were the first crack in the Mantle legend, then 7 smashes the myth to reveal the human being within.

Best-selling sportswriter Peter Golenbock knew Mickey Mantle, many of Mantle's friends, family members, and teammates. While Mickey was a good person at heart, he had a dark side that went far beyond his well-known alcoholism and infidelities.

In this fictional portrait, Mickey, now in heaven, realizes that he's carrying a huge weight on his shoulders, as he did throughout his life. He needs to unburden himself of all the horrible things he did and understand for himself why he did them. He wants to make amends to the people he hurt, especially those dear to him; the fans he ignored and alienated; and the public who made him into a hero. Mickey never felt he deserved the adulation, could never live up to it, and tried his damnedest to prove it to everyone. The fact that he was human made the public love him that much more. This is revealed as a man who lived in fear: fear of failure, of success, of life beyond baseball, and of commitment. His was a life filled with sex, yet devoid of deeper satisfactions.

From the alcohol-fueled good times and bad, to the emptiness when the party was finally over, 7 has it all.

©2007 Phoenix Audio (P)2007 Phoenix Audio

Critic reviews

"A comic, wild, sad and salacious reimagining of the late Yankee's life." (The New York Times)

7 is a 10

A person who loves baseball will love this-I did

A great behind the scenes look into an icon!

Would you consider the audio edition of 7 to be better than the print version?

I'm truly not sure which was better

What was one of the most memorable moments of 7?

The final family meeting before he died

What does Alan Smithee bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The setting of the scenes

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Both

Rude, crude,unattractive

Worse than terrible. The first book I have erased from my library. By the way, I love baseball.

Don't waste your money like I did

I kept waiting for the book to get past the level of "crass", but after 3 chapters it never did so I gave up on it. A disappointing waste of time as well as money.

Ugh...

A collection of long drawn out stories about baseball players in the fifties and sixties doing the groupies who automatically disrobe when they see "The Mick" or his buddies. A small bit of biographical material that was included as an afterthought rarely moved much below the surface. I purchased this selection early in the days of my having an audible membership and wasn't alert or cognizant enough to recognize that this wasn't a biographical look at the life of the Yankee legend. I'm not clear on the target audience for this piece of work but it isn't me.

Hideous

I am no prude and in fact was not just expecting but looking for some racy passages when I got this book. But this is some weak stuff. A dozen metaphors and similes occur to me but this book just isn't worth wasting any more time or words on.