Book Review - Foxcatcher by Mark Shultz

My review of Foxcatcher: The True Story of My Brother's Murder, John du Pont's Madness, and the Quest for Olympic Gold by Mark Schultz.

(Also at 411mania.com)

Mark Schultz is one of the most decorated amateur wrestlers in US history. He’s an Olympic champion, a two-time World champion, and a three-time NCAA champion. While Schultz’ life on the mat is celebrated and historic for all the right reasons, his life away from the mat is tragic and historic for all the wrong reasons. 

Foxcatcher: The True Story of My Brother's Murder, John du Pont's Madness, and the Quest for Olympic Gold immediately gets to the heart of the story as the first chapter is about John du Pont murdering Mark’s brother, Dave. From there we are taken back to Mark’s childhood and his rise through the wrestling ranks before getting into his toxic association with du Pont. 

The book flows well from chapter to chapter, with the only exception being an out of place chapter in Part One of the book that details du Pont’s history. Aside from that chapter, du Pont is never mentioned again in Part One and I feel like that should’ve been the lead chapter of Part Two, which is all about du Pont. Otherwise it’s a well-structured and well-written book with only a few mistakes. 

One thing I really like about Schultz’ writing is how well he explains things. I don’t watch a lot of amateur wrestling, but Schultz does a nice job explaining various moves and holds throughout the book in order to enlighten the reader as to what he did or was trying to do at the time. In general he does a good job of explaining things all throughout the book, but his explanations really shine when he’s talking about wrestling. 

The first part of the book highlights Schultz’ quest to become an Olympic and World champion in wrestling along with the bond that he shared with his brother. I’ve always heard that, “wrestlers are a different breed” because of all they go through and Schultz definitely lives up to that theory. He’s a crazy competitor who wouldn’t even speak to teammates because he was afraid of revealing something. His confidence fluctuated from match to match and he hated the pressure of winning. Schultz has a really good story to tell as he went from practicing gymnastics to competing in wrestling and to excelling in wrestling in a very short period of time. Schultz is a driven individual and while some of his actions are a bit crazy compared to a normal person, I have no doubt that many wrestlers act and feel the way that he does. 

The second part of the book is when things really pick up though as Schultz describes his dealings with John du Pont. Obviously this is Mark’s side of the story and he makes it very clear that he hates du Pont and even described how he would kill him and get away with it. That said, he makes a strong case against du Pont and his manipulative ways. Du Pont was a lunatic who used his money to get what he wanted. 

Wrestling is a sport where many is scarce. Unless you land a high profile coaching job, you’re not going to make a ton of money competing in amateur wrestling after college, which is why many amateurs wrestlers transition to MMA (not prominent at the time) or pro wrestling following an Olympic run. Du Pont, for all his flaws, was smart enough to know this and took advantage of many people in setting up The Foxcatcher Farm. The Schultz brothers were two of those people and unfortunately, due to their lack of funds, couldn’t immediately escape. 

Mark is a flawed individual as well. His ego got in the way of a few obvious decisions, which contributed to his overall unhappiness. I feel like Mark recognizes this though as he’s brutally honest throughout the book, knowing that it doesn’t always paint him in the best light. 

For MMA fans, Schultz competed and won at UFC 9, defeating Gary Goodridge. The backstory is very interesting and just goes to show how great of an athlete Schultz was. He also adds to the myth of Rickson Gracie. 

I definitely recommend Foxcatcher to any fan of combat sports. Schultz has a very interesting story to tell and he tells it well. Again, I have to give Schultz a lot of credit for just how honest he is in this book. He makes his thoughts about everything, particularly du Pont and competition with his brother, very clear. I was a little concerned that this book would be nothing more than a “I had everything and du Pont took it all” slam story, and while there are flashes of that, Schultz doesn’t stray that way too far and instead presents an objective look at his life and all of his trials and tribulations.