I read Bill Keller’s review in the NY Times of Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made A Nation over a year ago and thought, wow, this sounds great. I picked it up and found it a terrific story, told dramatically and well. I thought, at first, not being a student of modern South Africa to any great extent, that the portrait of Mandela as this nearly omnipotent force for moral good was a bit overplayed. But as the story progressed, Carlin made his case. I am someone who’s worked in progressive politics for some time, and I’m a rugger, so there’s a lot of resonance in this book for me. Some of the vignettes are terrific: Desmond Tutu stranded in San Francisco and desperately seeking a bar where he can watch the final match; Mandela in prison teaching himself Afrikaans and Afrikaner history; the largely apolitical and almost entirely Boer rugby team learning the liberation song, Nkosi Sikelele; a black member of Mandela’s presidential protection unit suggesting he wear the Springbok jersey to the final match; and Mandela’s reception from the fans at the match, almost all white, almost all Boers, chanting ‘Nelson, Nelson.’ Plus the reaction of the Springbok manager: ‘It was the moment I realized that there really was a chance this country could work.’ Great read! Pick it up. I’m going to see “Invictus” – the Clint Eastwood movie of the book – the first chance I get.