Praise for Jeff MacGregor's SUNDAY MONEY:
Editor's Choice: The New
York Times Book Review, The Chicago Tribune,
The Boston Globe, The Baltimore Sun, Dallas Morning
News, The Toronto Star, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
The Orlando Sentinel, The Charlotte Observer,
Corvallis Gazette-Times, San Gabriel Valley Tribune,
The Albany Times-Union, Sports Illustrated, Book Lust,
Amazon Best Books of 2005, AskMen.com, Deadspin.
"Essential...
Wry, witty and clear-eyed, Mr. MacGregor recounts enough
lore, and explodes enough myths, to keep racing followers
in thrall. But his engaging book is also a primer for those
who aren't among the 75 million who worship at the First
Church of Nascar."
- James
G. Cobb, The New York Times, June 3, 2007
- Read
the Full Article
"The
steamboat had Mark Twain. The stock car has Jeff MacGregor."
- Le
Anne Schreiber, ESPN
"...one
of our favorite sports books of all time... it's just an
amazing book about this weird, scary, beautiful America.
We know we're supposed to be all full of bile and vinegar
around here, but we have a hard time even pretending to
be cynical about this book: We desperately wish we could
write like this. Buy it. Seriously."
- Will
Leitch, Deadspin, November 22, 2005
-
Read
the Full Review & Interview
"...gripping...
Outside of short glimpses in bars, restaurants and other
places where the TV is not under my control, I've never
watched a NASCAR race. But once I read even one page of
Jeff MacGregor's SUNDAY MONEY, I was strapped in tight,
circling the track at 200 miles per hour, unable to put
the book down.... Even if NASCAR isn't your speed, MacGregor's
colorful, original language and knack for finding the perfect
detail will keep you riveted.... It's entertaining and lively,
packed with examples and anecdotes and written by a sharp
mind with a gentle hand. Put yourself on the fast track
to the bookstore to buy SUNDAY MONEY."
- Gael
Fashingbauer Cooper, MSNBC, June 24, 2005
-
Read
the Full Article
"...wickedly
funny..."
- People,
June 20, 2005
"A
fabulous new book about the phenomenal stock car association...
MacGregor traces the gothic Southern history of NASCAR,
the prohibition days when grizzled drivers earned their
stripes by carrying moonshine and outrunning cops on country
roads. At every stop along the way, not to mention every
Wal-Mart, MacGregor burrows into the cultural heart of NASCAR
and blows up -- in both senses of the term -- its stereotypes....
Better than any sportswriter to date, MacGregor cracks the
glazed personas of rock star drivers Stewart, Jeff Gordon
and Dale Earnhardt Jr. His insights into four-time champion
Gordon are killer...
MacGregor
goes to great lengths to treat NASCAR fans and drivers with
sympathy. He has a generous heart, and he succeeds.
- Kevin
Berger, Salon.com, June 11, 2005
- Read
the Full Article
"SUNDAY
MONEY, which chronicles a frenzied year on the Nascar circuit,
is MacGregor's attempt to grab the torch from [Tom] Wolfe...
In that regard, he triumphs... SUNDAY MONEY is, for my money,
the first (and maybe only) book that nonfans or casual fans
or just the mildly curious should crack in order to understand
the 'noise and speed and glory and death' that is Nascar."
- Jonathan
Miles, The New York Times Book Review,
May 22, 2005
- Read
the Full Review
"The
most remarkable parts of SUNDAY MONEY are... long, risky
strings of images and impressions that roar along the page,
no more likely to encounter a sentence-ending bit of punctuation
than Jeff Gordon is to come upon a railroad crossing out
of the first turn at Daytona. MacGregor pulls off dozens
of these high-energy twists and turns without once scraping
the wall. But he's also straight journalist enough to ask
tough questions of the sport that blithely advertises itself
as the country's most popular game..."
- Bill
Littlefield, The Boston Globe, May 22, 2005
- Read
the Full Review
"[Jeff
MacGregor] bought a motor home, sweet-talked his wife into
joining him and set out on an all-American odyssey, attending
nearly 100 races in 35 states and clocking 47,649 miles
on the odometer during the 2002 Nascar season. SUNDAY MONEY,
the drivers' term for prize money, is his overstuffed log
book, a wild, often hilarious take on the sights, sound
and smells of a multibillion-dollar sport that some political
commentators now see as the key to understanding mainstream
America.... Mr. MacGregor writes the way Nascar drivers
drive: foot on the floor, screaming into the turns, risking
a spectacular blow-out.... "
- William
Grimes, The New York Times, May 25, 2005
- Read
the Full Review
"SUNDAY
MONEY is an altogether strange and wonderful book.... If
you like NASCAR, you'll like portions of SUNDAY MONEY and
be outraged by other portions, because Jeff MacGregor is
too smart to buy the whole package without carefully turning
the product over and over in his hands until he sees its
blemishes as well as the way it shines. But this book is
really for people who enjoy drafting behind a writer who
finds in fleeting images at the races clues to what we've
become: a nation addicted to loud thrills and bright colors,
a crowd happy to grasp and cling to a notion of patriotism
built on plentiful oil and Wal-Mart -- concepts worth defending
to the death."
- Bill
Littlefield, NPR's "Only a Game," May 13,
2005
- Read
the Full Review
- Listen
to Jeff's "Only a Game" radio appearance
"...[MacGregor's]
book is a rambling, all-consuming commentary on NASCAR and
everything that crosses its path, including: Wal-Mart, motor
homes, Jesus, patriotism, Jocko Flocko, pit lizards, driving
schools and fan behavior. You name it, and MacGregor covers
it. SUNDAY MONEY is as much a look at America as it is the
NASCAR circuit. The book also is full of paragraph-length
sentences that at times give the reader a breathless, light-headed
feeling -- not unlike NASCAR. The prose is both slangish
and stylish, mixing profanity and low-ball humor with metaphors
as beautiful as any in a poetry chapbook...."
- Karsen
Price, The Charlotte Observer , May 8,
2005
- Read
the Full Review
"...Part
travelogue, part history of stock car racing, and part philosophical
exploration into the meaning of life on and off the track,
SUNDAY MONEY captures the exhilaration of being part of
a crowd focused on the tenacity and razor-sharp skills of
the drivers.... MacGregor's fast-paced prose and his hard-driving
firsthand account of what the racing life is like for NASCAR
fans and drivers alike propel him past the checkered flag
and into a victory lap around all other NASCAR books."
- Henry
L. Carrigan Jr., Orlando Sentinel, May
8, 2005
- Read
the Full Review
"Gearheads
and fans of great sportswriting will find much to love in
SUNDAY MONEY. Sports Illlustrated's Jeff MacGregor followed
the NASCAR circuit for 11 months and 48,000 miles in an
RV to create this portrait of fans, drivers and owners in
America's fastest-growing sport. The wiseguy prose is pure
daredevil, with characters and scenes so vivid you can smell
the Valvoline and grilled turkey legs."
- Parade
Magazine, Parade Picks, May 1, 2005
"SUNDAY
MONEY: Been waiting for years for a definitive must-read
for fans still trying to get a handle on NASCAR. This is
it. Hate NASCAR? Don't get it? Be smart (and open) enough
to read at least one book to understand it; Jeff MacGregor's
is the one. Excellent."
- Dan
Shanoff, ESPN's "The Daily Quickie," April
28, 2005
"...[MacGregor's]
style is the literary equivalent of an incredibly talented
dirt track racer: sliding and careening at extreme speeds
on the very edge of control, with the bravado, guts, glory
and volume to match. He comes to the sport as an urban intellectual,
and endeavors to examine what has made NASCAR an iconic
American institution. It's a glimpse under the hood for
those that may not be fans, or have never attended a race....
It's a fun ride, and if you've ever daydreamed about following
the entire circuit for a year, this is a must-have addition
to your library.... "
- Jade
Gurss, co-author of Driver #8, owner of fingerprint
inc., providing publicity for Anheuser-Busch & Dale
Earnhardt Jr.
- Read
the Full Review
"
...In fun, rambunctious sentences, some squirming over half
a page, MacGregor crosses the breadth of the country ten
times, mingling with people and absorbing the atmosphere,
then spinning the happy anarchy back at us. He can make
well-tooled, acidic wisecracks; provide dreamy sarcasm;
and show a keen descriptive talent... He never comes across
as superior to it all -- his shames and peccadilloes are
all on quiet display -- but his eye and ear miss almost
nothing... After this piece of good old new journalism's
blister of words, the season is suddenly over, the reader
wishing it weren't."
- Kirkus
Reviews
"...Sports
Illustrated contributor MacGregor and his photographer
wife took a year-long road trip to cover all 36 races of
the 2002 NASCAR Winston Cup season. The result is this wonderful
memoir, which speaks to both NASCAR fanatics and readers
who view the stock-car phenomenon with a curious horror
-- the same mix of feelings with which they might observe,
say, a traffic accident. There are lots of yuks about the
pair's travels in their newly bought 26.5-foot motorhome
and their loving but painfully "honest" relationship
with one another. But MacGregor's focus stays on NASCAR,
and he offers up a short but solid history of the sport
along with detailed, human portraits of the principals:
founders, owners, drivers, teams, sponsors, and fans...
In all, an informed and engaging account of NASCAR today."
- Booklist
(starred review)
"Journalist
and fiction writer MacGregor breaks out of the well-slicked
groove of books on NASCAR auto racing, which typically repackage
popular races, drivers, and history, to investigate the
social and cultural fabric of the sport. MacGregor, who
followed the 2002 racing tour in a motor home, has crafted
inspired portraits of the fans, the drivers, and their interactions.
His description of the carnival-like atmosphere of the Daytona
500 evokes the sensation of being there..."
- Library
Journal
"The
wittiest, most searching sportswriting since A.J. Liebling,
SUNDAY MONEY is a brilliant stream-of-consciousness documentary
of America's whirl into the twenty-first century, dragging
its fierce love affair with internal combustion into the
realm of a metaphysical circus. This is a book that anyone
in pursuit of the American nation's secret resources, spiritual
and automotive, must read."
- Robert
Stone, author of Dog Soldiers, Damascus Gate,
Bay
of Souls, Children of Light, Outerbridge Reach
"One
part comic travelogue, one part cultural history, and three
parts kick-ass sportswriting, SUNDAY MONEY is an
exhilarating ride from pole to checkered flag. Jeff MacGregor
is a witty, sharp-eyed observer; you couldn't ask for a
better guide to the mysteries, drama, and unexpected pleasures
of NASCAR."
- Tom
Perrotta, author of Election and Little Children
"Jeff
MacGregor shows a discerning affection toward the folks
and the folk customs that inhabit this squirrelly piece
of Americana. He's heard clearly over the din, seen through
the smoke and the haze, and gotten it all down perfectly."
-
Frank Deford, Sports Illustrated, NPR, and author
of
Everybody's
All American
"NASCAR
can rest. It has found its poet. In Jeff MacGregor, America
has found one too."
- Gary
Smith, Sports Illustrated
