McChrystal, the son of a general, commanded U.S. and NATO troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and wrote a memoir that offers exceptional insight into a complex life. The book is as suffused with historical particulars as a memoir I read years ago by another general, Ulysses S. Grant. Grant's book became the standard for excellence in autobiographical prose. McChrystal's is in good company.
McChrystal handed President Obama his resignation in 2010 after an unflattering article about him appeared in a national magazine. It was a national tragedy.
The second read was a poignant work by former Major League Baseball catcher Ben Petrick. Titled "40,000 to One," the book looks at a career that might have been one for the ages had it not been disastrously short-circuited.
Petrick, who played for the Colorado Rockies and Detroit Tigers, has written a spare but profound little book about a career that ended at least a decade too soon because of Parkinson's disease. I finished the thin tour de force in several hours and longed for more. At 35, Petrick has figured out more about life than most people twice his age.
Parkinson's is a degenerative brain disorder with no known cure. It causes nerve cells to die or become impaired, and patients exhibit such symptoms as tremors or shaking, slowness of movement, rigidity or stiffness and balance difficulties. Other signs include a shuffling gait, cognitive problems or muffled speech.
How Petrick was able to continue playing professional baseball while suffering from Parkinson's is mind-boggling. The disease relentlessly robbed him of his physical skills but, in the end, transformed him from a talented athlete into a compassionate human being and gifted writer.
