Fotografía de autor

Philippe Auclair

Autor de Eric Cantona

5+ Obras 85 Miembros 3 Reseñas

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Incluye el nombre: Auclair Philippe

Obras de Philippe Auclair

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The Blizzard 17 (2015) — Contribuidor — 4 copias

Etiquetado

Conocimiento común

Fecha de nacimiento
1959-06-24
Género
male
Nacionalidad
France
Lugares de residencia
London, England, UK

Miembros

Reseñas

Reasons to love The Blizzard No 176,534: The utter lack of parochialism. The modern British game barely gets a look in here, limited to a four page article on Manchester United misfit Bebe. Much of the emphasis elsewhere is on the then recent World Cup, an overview constructed from multiple reports augmented by an article on the obvious standout match of the tournament (Germany’s 7-1 semi-final hammering of Brazil finally stamping out the outdated romantic image of Brazilian football) and an article on the Dutch travails with penalties. Given they actually won a shoot-out in this tournament it’s perhaps more symptomatic of the Dutch national fatalism regarding penalties, a trait they share with the English.

Elsewhere we get articles on countries who’ve produced national sides who’ve dazzled but ultimately failed (Cruyff’s Netherlands, the Denmark of Elkjaer and the Laudrups) and a series of articles on misfits and revolutionaries. The only real false note for me is the continuing Bobby Manager story, which seems to have stretched its joke enormously thin already. Still the thinking fan’s journal of choice.
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Denunciada
JonArnold | Jan 19, 2015 |
I’m not sure whether the French have a different approach to biography than the British or whether Phillipe Auclair’s style of footballing biography is unique. Auclair’s English language books have dealt exclusively with football, portraits of his two most successful countrymen to play in England. His first book on Cantona was a masterpiece of the genre, seeking to understand his subject rather than offer a simple overview of his career to date. Auclair’s book opened a whole new dimension of appreciation; it had the form of a sports biography, a huge selling but seemingly universally derided form, and weaved literature, art and sport together into a dazzling tapestry. Cantona’s life ended up being merely the shape of the book – this was a character study disguised as biography. The logical follow-up was the other Frenchman who came to define his era in the Premier League, Arsenal’s avatar of grace and speed of thought.

I confess that I still regard Henry as the best Premier League player I saw live. His game didn’t have the needy desperation that often marred Ronaldo and Gerrard’s play, and it had infinitely more grace than the more forceful likes of Drogba or Rooney. He made brilliance seem effortless, a flawless footballing machine. Auclair’s work makes it clear that the effortlessness was an illusion, that, beautiful as it could be to witness, Henry sweated hard to achieve that effect. Amidst what’s a football aesthete’s dream of a book it strikes a prosaic though true note and it’s to Auclair’s credit that it feels perfectly in keeping. With the surface nature of much football coverage and Henry’s diffidence we never actually understood Henry as well as we thought we did.

Again, as with the Cantona book the career merely shapes the story, it’s not the essence of it. As with Dennis Bergkamp’s biography much of the meat here is his career defining spell at Arsenal. These books, along with Amy Lawrence’s 'Invincibles' show Wenger’s imperial phase (roughly speaking from Wenger taking over to the move to the Emirates) beginning to being put into their historical context. Obviously all three are positive – it’s notable how both Bergkamp and Henry eulogise Wenger, each other and their teammates.

The book ends on a triumphant note – not for Auclair the ending of Henry winding his career down in what’s perceived as a lesser league, faded abilities still dazzling lesser mortals. Nor does he end by dwelling on France’s shambolic 2010 World Cup. Instead he ends it on the perfect note, the perfect image. He leaves it with Henry’s last hurrah at the Emirates, one last goal for the club. A moment of pure joy, perfect happiness, a goal at the venue he once imperiously strode. It’s a perfect ending, a release of the tension that’s been held back through the book by nature of the subject’s character. The footballer becoming the fan, understanding their emotion and what they get from the game, shedding the simple professionalism and cool demeanour. Finally he shares the joy that Auclair confesses punctured his professional journalistic etiquette twice. It’s the perfect ending note of the main symphony, everything following would be a mere coda.
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Denunciada
JonArnold | Jan 18, 2015 |
"...Cantona was an astoundingly gifted football player, a bit like Cruyff, and difficult to contain in a single side. And that’s the reason he came to England, because the French couldn’t abide him – imagine a man too arrogant for the French! He was all that. And what the book attempts to tell you, by going back to his origins, is that he’s not even accepted as a Frenchman. He comes from this strange family that lived in a cave that was built into the side of a mountain.



In this book Philippe Auclair, a French football correspondent based in London, turns his pursuit of Eric into an obsession to unravel the strange, and thus compelling, nature of the man. ‘I play with passion and fire. I have to accept that sometimes this fire does harm’ is one line in the book. Ultimately I’m not sure that Auclair, or any man, could explain everything that moves and motivates the dark side of this wonderful showman player. But I doubt anyone gets closer to it. And the irony is that Cantona never really played for France. He did play, maybe 30 times, but I remember the day he was dropped from the French squad. I remember asking the French team coach ‘Why?’ And the guy said to me, which was an astonishing thing to say, ‘Because I’ve got somebody better.’ And actually it proved right, because the guy he had was Zinedine Zidane. So if Cantona hadn’t been such a rebel, we might never have seen the beauty of Zidane…..."(reviewed by Rob Hughes in FiveBooks).



The full interview is available here: http://fivebooks.com/interviews/rob-hughes-on-football
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Esta reseña ha sido denunciada por varios usuarios como una infracción de las condiciones del servicio y no se mostrará más (mostrar).
 
Denunciada
FiveBooks | Jun 11, 2010 |

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Estadísticas

Obras
5
También por
1
Miembros
85
Popularidad
#214,931
Valoración
3.8
Reseñas
3
ISBNs
12
Idiomas
1

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