George Plimpton on the Importance of Suspense

George Plimpton acknowledged the importance of suspense in sports books, saying that the degree of danger, rather than the size of the ball, might be a more reliable indicator of literary quality. “Most of the great accounts,” he wrote, “have someone teetering on the edge, if not to the point of tragedy itself. Do I dare refer to this as the ‘Look Out!’ or ‘Uh-Oh’ Theory?”

—From a Wall Street Journal review by Jonathan Eig of the book Ten Innings at Wrigley by Keven Cook

 

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