A Review of Solo:A Memoir of Hope

Hope Solo is the face of the modern female athlete.  She is fearless, outspoken, and the best in the world at what she does: protecting the goal of the U.S. women's soccer team.  Her outsized talent has led her to the pinnacle of her sport -- the Olympics and the World Cup -- and made her into an international celebrity who is just as likely to appear on ABC's Dancing with the Stars as she is on the covers of Sports Illustrated, ESPN The Magazine, and Vogue.  But her journey--which began in Richland, Washington, here she was raised by her strong-willed mother on the scorched earth of defunct nuclear testing sites--is similarly haunted by the fallout of her family history.  Her father, a philanderer and con man, was convicted of embezzlement when Solo was an infant.  She lost touch with him as he drifted out of prison and into homelessness.  By the time they reunited, years later, in the parking lot of a grocery store, she was an All-American goalkeeper at the University of Washington and already a budding prospect for the U.S. national team.  He was living in the woods.

Despite harboring serious doubts even about the provenance of her father's last name (and her own), Solo embraces him as fiercely as she pursues her dreams of being a world-class soccer player.  When those drams are threatened by her standing with-in the national team, as when she was famously benched in the semifinals of the 2007 World Cup after four shutouts and spoke her piece publicly, we see a woman of uncompromising independence and hard-won perseverance navigate the petty backlash against her.  For the first time, she tells her version of that controversial episode, and offers with it a full understanding of her hard-scrabble life.

Moving, sometimes shocking, Solo is a portrait of an athlete finding redemption.  this is the Hope Solo whom few have ever glimpsed.

Above is the description in the book Solo: A Memoir of Hope.  And like all the other books I read, this book was pretty amazing!  I loved hearing her story even if it swore more than what I wished it had.  Obviously, it helped make the story.  Also, I may be a little biased on this story because I'm a huge fan of Hope Solo and wish to be like her in goal. 

 

 

The whole story talks about from beginning to present, Hope Solo's life now on display for everyone to read.  She tells of her hardships in her life and how she has gotten over most of them. She talks about her family, how messed up her life was (and sort of still is) and how she has become who she is today.  Honestly, I loved hearing her story and how she didn't try and sugarcoat anything.  She just went ahead and wrote her story out. 

 

 

Overall, the book gets a 4 out of 5 stars just like every other book I read it seems like.  But, I loved reading this book.  I finished it in less than 24 hours and there was never a dull moment.  I would recommend this book for anybody who either wants to read a story about some famous chic (and that's if you really don't follow sports if you would call her some famous chic) or if you are an athlete who looks up to her.  Of course, if you are younger, I would make sure to read the younger version just because I know there is some stuff in this book that your parents probably don't want you reading about. 

 

 

I hope that you all enjoyed reading this review about Solo.  I hope that it helped you find another book to read and hopefully you will love it just as much as I did. 

 

Until the next review,

 

-Aly