Sizzling Chops and Devilish Spins Ping-Pong and the Art of Staying Alive

by Charyn, Jerome

• ISBN13: 9781568582429
• ISBN10: 1568582420
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-09-20
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Summary

Ping-pong, played around the world by over 250 million people, cast a hypnotic spell on Jerome Charyn's childhood imagination. Sizzling Chops and Devilish Spins portrays the great pongistes and includes photos and interviews with table tennis legends Marty "The Needle" Reisman and Dick Miles. From ping-pong detente in China to the underground bars of New York City, Charyn details the sport's history while capturing the intellect, excitement, and anarchic spirit of ping-pong's golden age. This offbeat and entertaining chronicle of one of the world's quirkier Olympic sports is presented in a completely redesigned trade paper edition. "Table tennis can now add to its two certified American superstar players a certified American superstar chronicler The New York Times "Both an informed history and an intimate memoir.... [Charyn's] book is a giddy delight and a sweet elegy." The Los Angeles Times Book Review

Author Biography

Jerome Charyn was born in the Bronx in 1937. His novel The Green Lantern was one of the five finalists for the 2005 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and he is the author of more than thirty books. A film professor as well as a novelist and essayist, he is currently Distinguished Professor of Film Studies at the American University of Paris.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
The Farmer's Daughter	1	(14)
The Needle	15	(18)
The Girl Who Looked Like Ginger Rogers	33	(18)
Gentlemen	51	(10)
A Man Called Methuselah	61	(10)
Hemingway's Room	71	(16)
The Chiseler King	87	(14)
The Left-Handed Gun	101	(12)
Ping-Pong Diplomacy	113	(20)
The Manchurian Candidate	133	(14)
Player of the Century	147	(10)
Alice and the Unicorn	157	(12)
The Horse Whisperer of Paris	169	(14)
Postscript: Milan ... and Michael French	183	(13)
Selected Bibliography	196	(2)
Index	198