Official Review: The white prisoner - Galabin Boevski's s...

[Nathrad Sheare]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The white prisoner - Galabin Boevski's secret story" by Ognian Georgiev.]

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Galabin Boevsky's secret life is no longer secret... This is all the grit, the true story of a man who worked his way from obscurity to Olympic kingship and, then, nearly dealt his way to the block of his stellar career as a weightlifter, all in a little more than ten years... well, allegedly, anyway. Georgiev, to the best of his ability, answers most or all of the questions Boevsky's fans have about the modern legend's private life, particularly those about the truth of the allegations against him of drug trafficking, for which he was initially sentenced to nine years in prison.

In not only the plot does Georgiev leave little to be desired. Using direct prose, he spins the story of the years of Boevsky's imprisonment with an eye for detail and a mind for insightful characterization, both serving him well in the spaces between the published and broadcast moments of his protagonist's decorated existence wherein the writer must produce crowd- pleasing particulars about of a real- life figure out of thin air. That necessary effort having been made, we, the readers, are presented with a combination of fact and semi- fiction that has a rather magnetic effect. Georgiev is careful not to sway the opinion of his readers this way or that way regarding Boevsky, but allows the humanness of the star to speak for itself. He stands away, making a satisfying effort to show us as much of Boevsky's character as possible. Automatically, this serves to enhance the reader's experience. He is light on technical sports terminology, so that one doesn't have to be a sports enthusiast to understand and enjoy his themes.

On the more "superficial" side, Georgiev has been thorough in his proofreading. A few spelling errors are present, so well as a grammatical mistake here and there, but these are all so trivial as to be picked up only by a thorough inspector. The casual reader shouldn't find these intrusive at all.

The length of the book is very reasonable. In under two hundred pages, Georgiev gives us everything we need. When one picks up a biographical account of that size, one expects straightforwardness, and, as above stated, Georgiev delivers on that score, but at a bit of a price. There are moments we see the sands coming in, and the terrain flattening out. Fortunately for Georgiev, he has style enough to keep us from having to pinch ourselves awake in our course to the journey's finish. The pinch of wit is enough to keep things moving along as they should.

Perhaps the bestseller list isn't in our author's scope, not for this book anyway, but "The White Prisoner" certainly gives us a window into his potential as a writer of long works. If it is not one of my favorite contemporary nonfiction works, it is certainly not what I would consider an entirely displeasing offering. 3 out of 4 stars for this one.

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