The Someone You're Not: True Stories of Sports, Celebrity, Politics & Pornography Paperback – December 12, 2012

This is another selection of just a few of the phenomenal pieces Mike Sager has written his storied career as a long form journalist. Vetville is striking, Ugly is an intimate take on a topic that all of us have thought about at least once.

There is no easy way to describe what Mike Sager brings to narrative journalism and the art of nonfiction story telling. He's the type of writer that can understand almost any subject and his stories are skillfully crafted to entertain, as well as to expose, examine and explain humanity like few writers can do consistently. With every story in "The Someone You're Not," there's a reenforced sense of the fact that peoples lives are by nature different from those of others. His stories in Esquire (and the one included here that was published in Playboy) are among some of the best magazine stories of their time. Anyone who enjoys a fine story or loves to read needs to become more familiar with Mike's collections.

Mike Sager is the Hunter S. Thompson of his generation. This is yet another great read by a true master.

All of Mike's books are thoughtfully put together and they flow well. He has a great writing style and really puts you into the book. I had the pleasure of meeting him at a highschool basketball game and he's the real deal. Great job Mike.

Nothing beats the Todd Marinovich story.

This collection was a real page-turner. Sager is intelligent and insightful-- a master storyteller with an engaging writing style and the ability to humanize even the most un-relatable of subjects.

I don't remember when I first heard of Mike Sager--probably Scary Monsters and Super Freaks. I've been a fan ever since. Has never disappointed me.

To paraphrase a quote from my favorite book, The Great Gatsby, Mike Sager is the "most limited of all authors, the well rounded writer." And his book depicts this as he his able to bring to light interesting details about a variety of individuals who live in a variety of circumstances and who come from a variety of unique backgrounds. His well-roundedness is what I like most about the work he does. You never quite no who the next subject of a Mike Sager piece is going to be. This book demonstrates that.The Someone You're Not is a compilation of various articles that exemplifies the notion that Sager is able to write with great expertise on a wide-range of subjects. In this work they include a former NFL Quarterback, the Governor of Louisiana, a Hollywood starlet, the best dressed man alive (according to Esquire), and retired porn stars. In each of the stories, Sager is able to capture the essence of the time in which all of his subjects live and really brings to life the zeitgeist of an array of lifestyles.Without pity, envy, or anecdotal praise, the writer simply communicates the success and struggles of the subjects he covers in a way that allows the reader to decide where he or she stands on a certain subject. Yet, there is a common thread that is greatly appealing to all of Sager's work: He writes with great empathy and no malice. In the case of Paris Hilton, one of his subjects in this book, Sager might not know what its like to walk down the street and be instantly (and often times thoughtlessly) identified by countless passersby. Yet, he makes it clear that he knows how that instant recognition makes the likes of Hilton feel. It is that feeling of compassion which allows his subject to identify so well with Sager and therefore affords their willingness to open up to an interviewer on sometimes sensitive topics. To reiterate, though, Sager is able to connect with all of his subjects in the book-- not just the inherently famous Paris Hilton. It is quite remarkable.The best story in the book, is The Man Who Never Was, a novella written about former NFL quarterback, Todd Marinovich. It is here where one is able to see the depth of Sager's anthropological approach to subject study that ultimately crafts his writing style. And in taking the anthropological approach, he is able to depict the life of a man who seemingly always faced unrealistic expectations from his father and didn't know how to navigate life once he had achieved his goal of playing in the NFL. The reason this is such a powerful story is not because it is a tragically cautionary tale of a parent pushing their child too far-- it is because this story brings to light the fact that nothing is always as simple as it appears. In this case, one would think that the story is simple. The parent pushes the son too hard. The son achieves and ultimately fails because of the parent. But it isn't that simple and by the end of the story one is left with the truth that no matter how misguided or unrealistic, there was a bond between father and son that long endures that has nothing to do with football-- it has to do with love. I admire Sager's ability to write so ably about such a complex subject.Finally, one is often told not to judge a book by its cover or title. Yet, The Someone You're Not is the perfect title for this book because all of Sager's subjects have had to deal with being and living as someone that isn't always consistent with the person who they actually are. A person's life is never as it appears, there's always something more to discover. Sager unearths the real people behind the front and he does it exceedingly well.-Donnie Horner III, Jacksonville, FL