Sister's Book: George Allen's Sadistic Attacks

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

Jennifer Allen describes real life growing up with brother George Felix Allen in her book, “Fifth Quarter: The Scrimmage of a Football Coach’s Daughter”

Blogger "Shakespeare's sister" writes:

Allen is the oldest child of legendary football coach George Herbert Allen,
and, when his father was on the road, young George often acted as a surrogate
dad to his siblings. According to his sister Jennifer, he was particularly strict about bedtimes.

One night, his brother Bruce stayed up past his bedtime.
George threw him through a sliding glass door.
For the same offense, on a different occasion,
George tackled his brother Gregory and broke his collarbone.
When Jennifer broke her bedtime curfew, George dragged her upstairs by her hair.

George tormented Jennifer enough that, when she grew up, she wrote a
memoir of what it was like living in the Allen family.
In one sense, the book, Fifth Quarter, from which these details are culled,
is unprecedented.
No modern presidential candidate has ever had such a harsh and personal
account of his life delivered to the public by a close family member.
The book paints Allen as a cartoonishly sadistic older brother
who holds Jennifer by her feet over Niagara Falls on a family trip
(instilling in her a lifelong fear of heights) and slams a pool cue
into her new boyfriend’s head. “George hoped someday to become a dentist,”
she writes. “George said he saw dentistry as a perfect profession–
getting paid to make people suffer.”
http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2006/04/authentic-asshole.html

from the book, “Fifth Quarter”
Get it at Amazon.
www.amazon.com/Fifth-Quarter-Scrimmage-Football-Daughter/dp/0679452028

[Common Sense Party]

1. You'll be a dentist

You'll have a talent for causing great pain...

[DeSwiss]

2. I think that this book review of Fifth Quarter....

....by literary agent Bonnie Nadell, is very telling:

Journalist Allen evocatively chronicles her unusual childhood in this memoir about being the only daughter of the legendary football coach George Allen. George was devoted to his teams, the Chicago Bears, Los Angeles Rams and Washington Redskins. Jennifer and her three brothers knew to stay out of their father's way, especially if he had just lost a game or had had a run-in with one of the team owners.

While George could bond more with his sons and take them along to training camps, the author stayed behind with her mother, a French woman who apparently spent most of her time building and remodeling homes while her husband lived and breathed football. Jennifer and her mother cherished their time together, eating in the bedroom, watching old movies, yet the young girl was troubled by her father's devotion to the game and his players at the expense of his children.

Her descriptions of dinner table conversation make it clear that the household was not easy to survive in; George tried to rule the family in military fashion, with strict rules and regulations; when it came to the TV, he would watch a video replay of a game over and over while his family looked on in silence. Jennifer recalls some perks, however, such as having a limo take her to school and meeting some famous people.

In this touching and often unsentimental story, George Allen emerges as a self-centered man who chose to sacrifice a normal family life for the sake of his career.

That sound pretty much like Jr.

[pacalo]

4. Imagine a kid having to sit silently while her father watched

replays of a football game over & over. After hearing so much about her brother George's insensitivity, I'm intrigued enough to want to read more about this family.

[DeSwiss]

5. Same here, I may get that book as well...

...and it occurred to me that maybe his father could also be the source of Jr's racially intolerant attitudes. The apple usually doesn't fall far from the tree.....

[pacalo]

3. I bet "Marathon Man" is one of his favorite movies, just for this scene...

[Oilwellian]

6. The reviews on the amazon link are helpful

Where was Macacawitz's mother Etty, when he was ruling the roost and assaulting his siblings?