Andrew johns biography book
The Two of Me - Andrew Johns
May 11,
I am a huge fan of Andrew Johns, for both his exploits on the field as well as his seemingly complex persona off of it. Naturally, I was excited to delve into both of these elements further by reading his autobiography.
I was incredibly disappointed at how much of a missed opportunity this book was. Yes, it is better (and longer) than most rugby league biographies, but for me I still expected more because ‘Joey’ was such a huge figure in the game.
A major problem with the book is its structure. It bounces back and forth between a regular auto/biography (I.e. a recollection of his life and career) and random chapters like “room mate form guide”. Granted the latter chapters can be fun, but would be better left for the end of the book so as not to interfere in the pacing.
My greatest disappointment in the book came from the avoidance of specifics, and a reliance on general statements such as “this was good…I was happy….i felt really depressed and felt life wasn’t worth living but anyway we had this game and I played well”. In his chapter about the Knights’ famous victory, he merely says that it meant a lot to Newcastle and he consumed a reservoir of alcohol. He didn’t touch on any incidents of talking to Newcastle fans and seeing first hand how much of an impact it had, or even bring up the famous story of him dragging Daniel Johns to one of their parties. Nor did he attempt to contextualise the importance of the game to the town of Newcastle by providing a background as to what is was like to live in the city at the time, or mention the closure of BHP in Newcastle which meant a lot of people found extra solace in the success of their football team during that period.
This book promises itself to be a tell-all memoir about the realities of being a famous footballer while dealing with the struggles that come with having a mental illness (namely bipolar disorder), but unlike Johns’ form on the field, he fails to stand up when it counts in the literary stakes. Oh, apparently he also has ADHD (a condition that undoubtedly would have caused problems throughout his life) which I only learned from listening to an episode of a little known podcast he appeared on in , and not from his own autobiography.
Finally, I think this book suffers from having been written so close to the end of his career. He retired the same year this book was released (), and thus it lacks the depth of perspective that would have proved beneficial had he written it maybe years later. He seems more comfortable in himself now than he was at the time this book was being written, and his repeated attempts at clarifying how great his life was in the immediate aftermath of his retirement ring hollow when you hear him talk about that period now.
Anyway, as a rugby league book it is okay. For Andrew Johns fans it is a letdown. You’ll hear more interesting stories from him in a single episode of ‘Freddy and the Eighth’ than this entire book.
I was incredibly disappointed at how much of a missed opportunity this book was. Yes, it is better (and longer) than most rugby league biographies, but for me I still expected more because ‘Joey’ was such a huge figure in the game.
A major problem with the book is its structure. It bounces back and forth between a regular auto/biography (I.e. a recollection of his life and career) and random chapters like “room mate form guide”. Granted the latter chapters can be fun, but would be better left for the end of the book so as not to interfere in the pacing.
My greatest disappointment in the book came from the avoidance of specifics, and a reliance on general statements such as “this was good…I was happy….i felt really depressed and felt life wasn’t worth living but anyway we had this game and I played well”. In his chapter about the Knights’ famous victory, he merely says that it meant a lot to Newcastle and he consumed a reservoir of alcohol. He didn’t touch on any incidents of talking to Newcastle fans and seeing first hand how much of an impact it had, or even bring up the famous story of him dragging Daniel Johns to one of their parties. Nor did he attempt to contextualise the importance of the game to the town of Newcastle by providing a background as to what is was like to live in the city at the time, or mention the closure of BHP in Newcastle which meant a lot of people found extra solace in the success of their football team during that period.
This book promises itself to be a tell-all memoir about the realities of being a famous footballer while dealing with the struggles that come with having a mental illness (namely bipolar disorder), but unlike Johns’ form on the field, he fails to stand up when it counts in the literary stakes. Oh, apparently he also has ADHD (a condition that undoubtedly would have caused problems throughout his life) which I only learned from listening to an episode of a little known podcast he appeared on in , and not from his own autobiography.
Finally, I think this book suffers from having been written so close to the end of his career. He retired the same year this book was released (), and thus it lacks the depth of perspective that would have proved beneficial had he written it maybe years later. He seems more comfortable in himself now than he was at the time this book was being written, and his repeated attempts at clarifying how great his life was in the immediate aftermath of his retirement ring hollow when you hear him talk about that period now.
Anyway, as a rugby league book it is okay. For Andrew Johns fans it is a letdown. You’ll hear more interesting stories from him in a single episode of ‘Freddy and the Eighth’ than this entire book.