Story of André the Giant. Who I really only knew about from The Princess Bride movie, I was never into watching pro wrestling. But that was his main occupation, so of course the book mostly followed that. It was interesting to learn so much- about his youth, his genetic condition, how his health suffered from gigantism. How he interacted with friends, fellow wrestlers and his managers. How he supported the sport of pro wrestling (yes, apparently much of it is staged and theatrical, but that doesn’t mean it’s “fake”- at least that’s what I came away with from this book). Myriad stories highlighting André’s strength, and showing his sense of humor. It kept professing how much the fans admired him for being “the gentle giant” but I didn’t really see much of that. His gentleness. Except his kindness to homeless people once in a while. Mostly I was struck by how when drunk (and he drank a lot), he would get belligerent and use bad language. I suppose that was the contrast- that aggressive side came out when he’d been drinking. And he liked to play cards. And he often had difficulties because of his size: couldn’t fit into spaces, beds, airplane seats, taxi cars, etc. I think the best part was near the end, where he deliberately let Hulk Hogan beat him in a wrestling match, taking the role of “villain” to catapult the Hulk into fame- because André was ready to be done. Constant back and knee pain, tired all the time (heart problems). I appreciate that the afterward pages list incidents and tell where the stories were verified or not- because otherwise I would have no idea.
That said, it was a bit hard to follow at times because it jumped around and had very little preamble to any of the events- choppy and short, except some of the wrestling scenes which went on for pages and pages. And that part wasn’t the most interesting to me, so a few times I thought I was put this aside unfinished. Thus the rating. It would probably be better appreciated by someone who already knows quite a bit about André or is a fan, this would round things out. For me, it wasn’t quite enough detail or continuity to “get” it all.
Borrowed from the public library. I found out there’s another graphic novel about his life: André the Giant: Closer to Heaven by Brandon Easton, which tells the same anecdotes and history, but in a different perspective. I’d sure be curious to read that and compare them, but the two public libraries I’m currently using, neither has a copy. (Maybe inter-library loan again).
