Description: "Truly, this is a book that belongs on the shelves of not just wrestling fans, but anyone who wants to understand the agonized American soul." --Josephine Riesman, author of Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America
Brief description: Alison Lyn Miller has reported and written about independent professional wrestlers around her home state of Georgia and published related pieces in Sports Illustrated and Gravy. She has also written for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Washington Post, and Garden & Gun, among other publications. She lives in Athens, Georgia.
Review Quotes: I picture Alison Lyn Miller standing by the backyard training ring, or backstage at the weekend throwdown inside a Georgia strip mall. She's an anthropologist, an interpreter who aims to explain this wildly popular 'chump of sports' to people like me who read books. Neither snide nor worshipful, Miller understands wrestling as violent, cathartic storytelling by 'actors who do their own stunts, ' an art form that deserves respect. Read Rough House to learn about how the 'dulcet thunder of body to mat became a balm' for so many, the bargain between wrestlers and fans, ...and why it matters to our political moment.--Ted Conover, author of Cheap Land Colorado and Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing