Book Review
Jonah Scores A Literary Try
Twenty-nine is an age when careers in most professions just about begin to take off‹a very unlikely age for anybody to sit back, reminisce and write the story of one's life that would have thousands of people falling over one another to get early autographed copies of the book when it hits the stores. But then, sports stars are different‹and Jonah Lomu is one of a kind. The All Black star's autobiography titled "Jonah My Story" hit the shelves in early May. This is the first time that Lomu has made a clean breast‹in great detail‹of several of both professional and personal controversies that have dogged him throughout his fast-paced career, though some of these will continue to rage; now that his "official" versions have appeared in cold print. - ADVERTISEMENT -
The private lives of celebrities are often far more interesting for fans than their professional achievements, which are taken for granted over a period of time‹thanks to the wide media publicity they receive. The interest is especially high when such private stuff appears in tidbits over the years (mainly on page three of newspapers) and then one fine day, the subject decides to tell it like it is. Sure enough, the book opens with the traumatic incidents of his troubled childhood: his birth in Auckland, the seven years he spent in Tonga, where he was sent away at age one to be taken care of by an uncle and aunt. Quite evidently, these were the best years of his childhood. He describes life in Tonga with his foster parents with great poignancy: time standing still in this country of the international dateline, its easy-going lifestyle, the legends, and those little childhood incidents that tend to get firmly etched in our minds are retold with the sense of longing that we all like to talk about (he recounts actually seeing an aunt hanging upside down from a wall while being possessed)! For several years after his return to Auckland at the age of seven, he longed for those Tongan times. He says he has never understood why he was ever sent away and brought back. Adjusting to life in south Auckland was tough. He spoke no English, had never been to school and had a fearful life back home. For the first time, Lomu reveals details about the violent treatment he, his brother and mother received from his father who seemed to be in a drunken stupor most of the time. During one such beating, Lomu, who was 15 and already over six feet tall, pushed his father throwing him to the floor. This is the time when something snapped in him, he says. That was it. He left home and shacked up with buddies and girlfriends. That was the beginning of his life on the mean streets‹stealing cars and getting into all sorts of trouble with the law. That's when his mother decided to send him away to a boarding school, which changed his life forever. He took a fancy for rugby here and the rest, as they say, is history. The angst, confusion and turbulence of this troubled teen phase are told with eloquence. Following the publication of the book, a section of the Tongan community
in Auckland took exception to this "public expose of Tongan family
life". Some letters in the local newspapers said that while violence
between father and son could be condoned, it was very un-Tongan for a
man to beat his wife. Lomu's parents shut themselves out from the
media glare following the publication of the book. The book maps Lomu's meteoric rise from a meek schoolboy to scintillating international rugby star with an unstilted, down-to-earth narrative style peppered with everyday colloquialisms. One of the best features of this pleasingly designed tome is the generous splash of colour pictures‹intense freeze frames of the many defining moments of his life on the field (and off as well). The arresting picture of him "muzzling" Wallabies skipper George Gregan on his way to scoring a try will be an all-time favourite of All Blacks supporters. Another innovation is interspersing the narrative with first-person accounts of many of his associates‹mates, coaches, team members, managers and others at relevant times throughout the book. The book is chiefly the result of forty hours of interviews by author Warren Adler at Lomu's bedside during the most unfortunate phase of the young star's life‹his serious renal ailment. It is amidst the buzz of dialysis machines and the grim environment of hospitals that Lomu unspools the story of his life. He speaks of the trauma, the love of his fans from all corners of the world and his hopes of coming out on top of this severely debilitating illness. Like the dying moments of a keenly contested game, the run up to the book's publication was also fraught with excitement. It was after the book went to the printers that Lomu split with his manager of many years, Phil Kingsley Jones. In fact, the book begins with a stop-press like post script announcing the split. Arguably, Jones was one of the major influences in Lomu's career. They had their share of tense moments about which Lomu speaks candidly admitting in places that there may be more than one version of an incident but asserting his own version‹especially since it is his book! At 29, Jonah isn't done yet. He says he will be 32 at the time of
the next World Cup in 2007 in Paris and he is determined to recover fully
and play for his beloved team‹for which he has reportedly spurned
million-dollar offers to play for overseas teams. Jonah My Story |
