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ALL BUT MY LIFE by
Ken Purdy
Reviewed by Roberto Diego
All But My Life is a rare book. Seldom does a truly
good writer have the opportunity to write about a truly great man from the
perspective of an intimate friend. The writer is Ken W. Purdy. The friend
is Stirling Moss.
Stirling Moss was one of the greatest racing drivers
of all times. He would have been the greatest, but a crash at the age of
31 forced him into retirement. This retirement itself is perhaps an
indication of his greatness. He could have continued driving and beating
lesser drivers but he would not have been as great as Stirling Moss could
have been. In All But My Life, Ken Purdy uses all of his skill as a
portrayer of competence and genius to show the American reader what the
British reader has always known: Stirling Moss is spectacular. He has won
the British Driver's Championship ten times. He has so many silver
trophies in his home they could be melted down into an ingot weighing
about three hundred pounds, which would make "a striking coffee table."
Purdy bares the soul of this man, demonstrating the existence of skill
undreamt of by most people. At a teaching session Moss would come
screaming down the track, again and again, spin sideways like a top, and
put the car into the tracks he left from the time before. Once, when
racing a sedan, he was seen waving to a friend in a turn almost
simultaneously with slamming shut a loose back door. Try that in traffic
sometime!
A racing driver needs more than just skill, however.
After all, what does it take to race, anyway? It is not a suicide complex
– suicidal motivation is obvious the first time out. According to Purdy,
the greatest race car drivers have an obsession about being perfect; to
obtain ten tenths of what they have to give. "The full terror and the full
reward of this incredible game are given only to those who bring to a car
talent honed by obsessive practice into great skill, a fiercely
competitive will, and high intelligence, with the flagellating sensitivity
that accompanies it. In these men…game becomes life.” Then he quotes Karl
Wallenda, the great high wire artist, "To be on the wire is life, all else
is waiting."
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A man like this does not just hibernate between
races, of course. Moss was a better horseman at sixteen than his sister
was as a member of the British International Team. He has written five
successful books, and more than eight hundred newspaper and magazine
articles have appeared under his by-line.
Moss is also an Englishman. His being on Her
Majesty's Honor List is almost as prestigious to him as being the World
Champion in Grand Prix racing. He could have been World Champion more
often, but the desire to drive British cars to victory led him frequently
to drive uncompetitive machines. He lives, of course, in London and the
old country of England seems to feel the same way about him. During his
driving career, only the queen got more mention in the British press than
Stirling Moss. Six weeks after his last accident, a photograph of him in
the hospital garden got a four-column spread - on page one.
Moss was a great driver, perhaps the best, and the
realization that he might be incapable of performing as he should after
the accident was terrible to read about, but it must be read, because it
shows a real champion facing defeat. The test he chose for himself was the
only one possible - to drive the same course he crashed at. His time was
only three seconds over what he considered competitive, for him, but that
was just too much.
The brain damage suffered in the accident had had
taken his edge. "I had to think...to order myself what to do. Not only
that . . . I could see the rev counter, and the road, and a friend waving
to me, all at the same time . . . live lost that, it's gone."
This book is not only for racing fans, in my opinion,
it is for any sports fan, even anyone interested about the life of great
men, or anyone who wants to read about an achiever, a genius, or a
professional. All But My Life is a worthwhile book.
All But My Life, by Ken W. Purdy, is published by
McMillan and Company, New York. |
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