West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life
Jerry West is one of the most famous figures in basketball, the player whose driving silhouette became the NBA logo, a champion and later an executive who built winning teams. This memoir, written with Jonathan Coleman, is far darker than the polished public image. West writes openly about a violent, frightening childhood in West Virginia, the brother he lost in the Korean War, and the depression and perfectionism that haunted him through every triumph. He is hard on himself about the championships he lost and the toll the game took on his mind. The result is a sports memoir that doubles as a candid account of living with mental illness, surprising readers who expected a victory lap and instead got an honest reckoning with pain and drive.
What you might want to know about West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
The NBA legend whose silhouette became the league's logo tells the unvarnished story of his hard childhood, his career, and his lifelong struggle with depression.
It is Jerry West's memoir, a frank account of his abusive childhood, his Hall of Fame career, and his lifelong battle with depression and perfectionism.
LeBron James kept it in his playoff reading rotation in 2012, among a set of books he used to slow his mind before games.
West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life was written by Jerry West, published in 2011 by Little, Brown and Company.
West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life is 352 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life takes most readers 5 to 8 hours to finish.
West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.