• --

Credits

Writer: Michael Johnson; Genre: Autobiography

SLAYING THE DRAGON Michael Johnson (ReganBooks, $23) Through a rare combination of natural talent, hard work, and sheer determination, U.S. sprinter Michael Johnson won both the 400- and 200-meter races at the 1996 Olympics, setting a world record of 19.32 seconds in the latter. What could have been an interesting inspirational autobiography may be summarized in three words: Practice makes perfect. Apart from a few interesting paragraphs devoted to the author's dislike of fellow track star Carl Lewis, whose ''grandiose personality'' makes him ''a bad winner, a bad loser,'' there's scarcely a sentence in Slaying the Dragon that couldn't have been lifted intact from the children's book The Little Engine That Could. C-


 

Add Your Comments

The rules: Keep it clean, and stay on the subject or we might delete your comment. If you see inappropriate language, e-mail us. You must have javascript enabled to submit a comment.
--
Change/Edit your grade
characters remaining