A brisk review of the history of the ancient Greek Olympic games. I was happy to see this author's appreciation of Courtesans and Fishcakes. ( )

To quote Gertrude Stein, there's no there there. The writing is fine, but the book could have easily been cut down to a long piece in the New Yorker. It feels padded. There are plenty pf passages in which Perrottet invokes what have to be legends to make his narrative seem like a recounting of fact:

In one famous tiebreaker at Nemea, a certain Demoxenos of Syracuse jabbed out with his outstretched fingers, pierced the skin covering his opponent's rib cage, and pulled out his intestines. The judge denied Demoxenos victory, not for killing the other boxer but on the obscure technicality that he had actually struck four blows--one for each of his finger.

Really? And who cares? The book is filled with anecdotes like this: they don't ring true and aren't that interesting. ( )

Excellent "you are there" type of book that takes you on a tour of what the old games must have been like. We are shown a religious festival filled with blood and gore, and also a celebration filled with wild debauchery. The winners were immortalized in history, the losers often sank into a deep depression. If you think you might read or if you have read Steven Saylor's _The Seven Wonders_, this is a marvelous book to read before/after in order to get further background on the games and Phidias’ statue of Zeus. ( )

I'd read and enjoyed some of Perrottet's other work and so eagerly grabbed this off the library shelf. I was not disappointed (although I was glad I did not have to read out certain sections to a great aunt).

Everything you would want to know about the original incarnation of the Olympics is here and provided in an easy-to-digest and page turning manner. Additionally, "The Naked Olympics" gave many an interesting glimpse into ancient Greek life and while the mentions of the old men that used to get their jollies watching young naked boys was a tad disturbing, there is many a guffaw to be found around the description of minutia, such as the graffiti found disparaging certain prostitutes.

So do yourself a favour and get your hands on this book and whatever other Perrottet titles you can find. ( )