Mike Celizic’s and Dick Traum’s book, ‘A Victory for Humanity’, records the stories of the many people connected with and/or part of the Achilles Track Club, a running group for disabled persons. Within ‘Victory’ Dr. Traum tells of his participation in races around the world, and also includes stories of other disabled persons who achieved great personal victories, even if some of them did not actually win races. Some of the most inspirational stories include the story of Pat Griskus, an amputee who ran a marathon in three hours and thirty-one minutes, and Cyril Charles, a blind runner from Trinidad who received an operation that restored his sight. Besides the inspirational stories, ‘A Victory for Humanity’ also relates the creation of the Achilles Track Club, and contains various opinions of the authors.
‘A Victory for Humanity’, though initially promising, was a very disappointing book. Dr. Traum, according to the brief biography found on the inside of the cover, is a popular speaker, a statement corroborated by the fact that the book is written more like a collection of speeches than a book. The writing is, overall, mediocre, though there are a few exceptions that successfully excite the reader. ‘Victory’ is written along the lines of the typical ‘self-help’ books, but instead of imparting information it tells stories, stories that are usually not told very well at all. Several stories that could have been inspiring were reduced to sadly flat narrative by the overall lack of style. The style, however, could have been forgiven were it not for Dr. Traum’s questionable morality. Either of these two issues, taken separately, would not be grounds to condemn the book; together, they ruin it. In justice to Dr. Traum, ‘A Victory for Humanity’ could have been excellent—the raw material was generally interesting and occasionally even inspiring, but it was very difficult to ‘get into’ the book, because of the monotony of the text. Adults.
Reviewed by Anna Kleiner
Rating: 3/10
