Review: Holy Cow!

Holy Cow! by Harry Caray
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read Carey’s “Holy Cow!” right after reading the book about him read by his long-time on-air partner Steve Stone “Where’s Harry?”. I recommend reading these together. Steve includes many of the same stories as Harry, but they are obviously told from an outsiders perspective. When you read Harry’s story, you understand what Harry wants you to understand about his life. The persona that he built over the years is on display here – Harry being the voice of the fans, Harry partying it up all night, Harry shilling for his friends and his oft-times beer sponsors. Harry also explains his rise through radio in Joliet and Kalamazoo, working there with Paul Harvey. The stories of his early life focus on the drive Caray had to become a sportscaster, and it is a surprisingly motivating story. But overall, you get from Harry that he dedicated himself to broadcasting, above all else including family. But from Stone, you get the sense that there also lurks a genius behind Harry’s rise, and sometimes it is an evil genius, or at least a remarkably self-centered genius. Stone illustrates the reasons behind some of the things that Harry did, things that added to his fame and tenure. Taking Stone’s book along with this book of Harry’s together, you get a much more complex idea of who Harry Caray was, and in my mind that make’s him a much more interesting person.
By the way, Goodreads suggests that the 5 books most similar to “Holy Cow!” are all horror books, four by Stephen King. I’ll need time to process this….


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