Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book
Review: Dan McGraw made me laugh at deathbed tales and cry about football and it was well worth every page.
Rating:
Summary: Not Tuesday's With Morrie
Review: Dan McGraw returns to his hometown to write about the return of a Cleveland Browns team. Somewhat a prodigal son, he also returns to a father dying of cancer. This is the anti-Morrie book, the story of a father and son who didn't ever seem to remain on common ground for long, and their coming to grips with death and their differences. It is not a feel good book, it is filled with depression, fear, profanity, pain, drinking and self examination seems to be closer to self-loathing at times. It is the story of a father and son and the differences that could completely tear them apart, and the compassion and struggle that binds them. It is an honest book, the feelings expressed by McGraw about seeing his father laid out for the wake and the confusion, relief and anger that accompany the grief of death ring true. Paralell to this story is the story of the Browns struggle to reestablish their place in pro football...not a pretty sight.
Rating: 
Summary: Can you go home again?
Review: Dan McGraw returns to his hometown to write about the return of a Cleveland Browns team. Somewhat a prodigal son, he also returns to a father dying of cancer. This is the anti-Morrie book, the story of a father and son who didn't ever seem to remain on common ground for long, and their coming to grips with death and their differences. It is not a feel good book, it is filled with depression, fear, profanity, pain, drinking and self examination seems to be closer to self-loathing at times. It is the story of a father and son and the differences that could completely tear them apart, and the compassion and struggle that binds them. It is an honest book, the feelings expressed by McGraw about seeing his father laid out for the wake and the confusion, relief and anger that accompany the grief of death ring true. Paralell to this story is the story of the Browns struggle to reestablish their place in pro football...not a pretty sight.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Read
Review: First and Last Seasons is an honest and at times brutal look at a writer's life at one of those crossroad moments we all have in our lives. In the summer and fall of 1999 Dan McGraw took a leave of absence from his job as a writer for U.S. News and World Report to go home to Cleveland to help care for his dying dad, and to cover the return of the once proud Browns to Northern Ohio. This isn't a warm and fuzzy book, although there are some very emotional moments. It is a story of a middle age man facing his father's death, and his own checkered life and mortality. McGraw is funny and sad and always honest in looking at himself, and his life long love/hate relationships with his father, their football team, and the city that shaped their lives. A great read.
Rating:
Summary: Mandatory Reading for any Clevelander
Review: I bought it a week ago, I couldn't put it down and tonight I went to the author's signing at the local mall. If you're from Cleveland and you follow sports, if you're a fan of the grit and character of the Old Browns, if you've ever lost a loved one who had a shared memory of sports with you, this book is a keeper. I was first in line tonight and Dan's face was glowing red as he signed my book: "Thanks for being #1." The book is funny, brutally honest and an east sider's analysis of why things are the way they are in Cleveland. The author is a wild, yarn spinning, beer chugging Irishman who's father smirks right back on death when it smiles on him. I know I'll pick this up again next fall and possibly every fall because it's a piece of history. Dan doesn't paint an optimistic picture of the future of the Browns, but hey, us Clevelander's have embraced losing for decades. We can handle the truth!
Rating:
Summary: This book struck very close to home - literally. MUST READ!
Review: I didn't think it possible that anyone could really describe what it was like to grow up in the small Cleveland suburb of Euclid, Ohio, and how it feels to return there as an adult. But Dan McGraw has done just that. Cleveland has been referred to as 'the Land of Oz,' and Dan McGraw's book gives the reader a bitter-sweet taste of what it means to be called a `Clevelander.'Although I don't personally know Dan McGraw, I grew up right on the Lake Erie lakefront about a mile from where he and his family lived. His accurate, colorful descriptions of the locations and people in and around the Cleveland area are right on the mark. The book really `tells it like it is' when one is faced with the illness and death of a parent, and one's identity as it relates to their parents and their neighborhood. What is it like going back to your old neighborhood and finding things have changed but yet remain the same? It is an interesting paradox that really comes out in the story, as does Dan McGraw's attitude as he experiences a myriad of mixed emotions toward life and the city he both loved and hated. It is a book certainly everyone can identify with, and forces one to raise questions about their own experiences with family and friends, as well as one's upbringing. The book expresses the feeling held by many Clevelanders that growing up in the city by the lake was depressing yet exhilirating, dull yet exciting, comforting yet agitating. Don't miss this interesting biography of a man who saw through to the inner meaning of what it is to be a son, a father, a caregiver, and a resident of what has got to be the strangest, most unique area in America.
Rating:
Summary: This book struck very close to home - literally. MUST READ!
Review: I didn't think it possible that anyone could really describe what it was like to grow up in the small Cleveland suburb of Euclid, Ohio, and how it feels to return there as an adult. But Dan McGraw has done just that. Cleveland has been referred to as 'the Land of Oz,' and Dan McGraw's book gives the reader a bitter-sweet taste of what it means to be called a `Clevelander.' Although I don't personally know Dan McGraw, I grew up right on the Lake Erie lakefront about a mile from where he and his family lived. His accurate, colorful descriptions of the locations and people in and around the Cleveland area are right on the mark. The book really `tells it like it is' when one is faced with the illness and death of a parent, and one's identity as it relates to their parents and their neighborhood. What is it like going back to your old neighborhood and finding things have changed but yet remain the same? It is an interesting paradox that really comes out in the story, as does Dan McGraw's attitude as he experiences a myriad of mixed emotions toward life and the city he both loved and hated. It is a book certainly everyone can identify with, and forces one to raise questions about their own experiences with family and friends, as well as one's upbringing. The book expresses the feeling held by many Clevelanders that growing up in the city by the lake was depressing yet exhilirating, dull yet exciting, comforting yet agitating. Don't miss this interesting biography of a man who saw through to the inner meaning of what it is to be a son, a father, a caregiver, and a resident of what has got to be the strangest, most unique area in America.
Rating:
Summary: Very good
Review: I felt this was a fine book and would recommend it to most anyone. I did have a few random observations and minor quibbles however: 1. The chronology was incredibly scattershot, like a pinball wildly careening between bumpers. He seems to move backwards and forwards in time on practically every page in the book. Sometimes it was not clear whether--in connection with what was going on in his own life--his father had died or was in the hospice just about to die or was merely sick. 2. The topics discussed also seemed rather scattered in that it seemed that virtually any page in the book could have been placed somewhere else and it wouldn't have made much difference to the "flow". This is because, for both of the reasons given here, there really wasn't any "flow" to begin with. However, despite the lack of flow, I felt that he is a good enough writer and "raconteur" (as his Dad referred to himself) that it was interesting to read whatever he had to say. 3. The business about drinking became a little tiring after a while. It seemed as if on virtually every page, there were stories about the author getting drunk, his friends getting drunk, Browns' fans getting drunk, over and over again. I recognize that this was all in the service of gritty honesty and unvarnished truth, but still...we get the point. You drink alot and, apparently all those depressed people in Cleveland drink alot. 4. Finally, Mr. McGraw doesn't strike me as a very likable guy. But then I thought to myself: if a guy can that brutally honest in his own self-assessment (after all, I don't know anything about him except what he tells me) and such a good writer to boot, how bad can he be? Anyway, read the book.
Rating:
Summary: Very good
Review: I felt this was a fine book and would recommend it to most anyone. I did have a few random observations and minor quibbles however: 1. The chronology was incredibly scattershot, like a pinball wildly careening between bumpers. He seems to move backwards and forwards in time on practically every page in the book. Sometimes it was not clear whether--in connection with what was going on in his own life--his father had died or was in the hospice just about to die or was merely sick. 2. The topics discussed also seemed rather scattered in that it seemed that virtually any page in the book could have been placed somewhere else and it wouldn't have made much difference to the "flow". This is because, for both of the reasons given here, there really wasn't any "flow" to begin with. However, despite the lack of flow, I felt that he is a good enough writer and "raconteur" (as his Dad referred to himself) that it was interesting to read whatever he had to say. 3. The business about drinking became a little tiring after a while. It seemed as if on virtually every page, there were stories about the author getting drunk, his friends getting drunk, Browns' fans getting drunk, over and over again. I recognize that this was all in the service of gritty honesty and unvarnished truth, but still...we get the point. You drink alot and, apparently all those depressed people in Cleveland drink alot. 4. Finally, Mr. McGraw doesn't strike me as a very likable guy. But then I thought to myself: if a guy can that brutally honest in his own self-assessment (after all, I don't know anything about him except what he tells me) and such a good writer to boot, how bad can he be? Anyway, read the book.
Rating: 
Summary: McGraw running away from the truth
Review: I must admit being prejudice about this book. This book was written for me. I grew up in Cleveland in the 70's and 80's and was a big Cleveland Brown's fan. I actually attended the last Championship game a professional Cleveland team won...the 1963 NFL title game. So, I understand the pain Clevelander's have experienced for the past 40 years. McGraw moves back to Cleveland to spend time with his Father who is dying and to cover the first year experience of the "new" Browns. It sounds like a smaltzy experience, but it is anything but. The power of the book is the complete honesty that McGraw relates about his Dad and himself. There is no sugar coating of the "good and bad" about their character and their relationship. McGraw also gives an accurate description of how Cleveland has been homogenized into "any town" USA and gives a feel for today's predictable NFL machine. I'm one of those "don't care about the new Browns" type. I would love to sit down and have a beer with Dan in one of those old crappy Cleveland bars.
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