Confessions of a Hero-Worshiper
Stephen J. Dubner
272 pages, Paperback
ISBN: 0380733145
ISBN13:
Language: English
Publish: January 20, 2004
As a boy, Stephen J. Dubner’s hero was Franco Harris, the famed and mysterious running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers. When Dubner’s father died, he became obsessed — he dreamed of his hero every night; he signed his school papers “Franco Dubner.” Though they never met, it was Franco Harris who shepherded Dubner through a fatherless boyhood. Twenty years later, Dubner, an accomplished writer, sees Harris on a magazine cover. His long-dormant obsession comes roaring back. He journeys to Pittsburgh, certain that Harris will embrace him. And he is…well, wrong. Told with the grit of a journalist and the grace of a memoirist, Confessions of a Hero-Worshiper is a breathtaking, heartbreaking, and often humorous story of astonishing developments. It is also a sparkling meditation on the nature of hero worship — which, like religion and love, tells us as much about ourselves as about the object of our desire.