THIS BOOK DOES NOT TEACH ANY PING PONG PLAYING SKILLS. Do not buy this book if you want to know HOW to do Sizzling Chops and Devilish Spins.

This book only talks about older famous people who used to play ping pong. This book is not instructional AT ALL. I almost bought this POS thinking it would help me with my loops/counter loops and forehand chops, but luckily I looked inside it before I went to the register or I would have been really[mad]...

I checked this book out expecting it to be an instructional book of table tennis. Nevertheless, I proceeded to read beyond the first few pages of the book and was enveloped in a different side of table tennis that I have never looked into before.

For a person who would like an instructional book, "Sizzling Chops and Devilish Spins," is not going to be the right book for you, but if you would like to read a book filled with witty anecdotes and info about the greatest players of all times (e.g. Dick Miles, Marty Reisman...etc) then this book should not be overlooked.

Delving into this book is like opening the lid of a treasure chest. It's filled with gems of information about a forgotten era when ping-pong was in its heyday in the borough of Manhattan--at a spot called Lawrence's Broadway Courts. There played the biggest names in table tennis from around the world and produced such U.S. champions as Marty Reisman and Dick Miles.

But the best part of the book is the delightful writing of Jerome Charyn. His sentences are so interesting and evocative that I couldn't stop reading it once I began. You actually look forward to picking up where you left off. If you've ever picked up a paddle and found yourself hooked, or if you are any kind of paddle or raquet sport enthusiast, this book is a must buy.

It's interesting to see the classic plot of drugs, disappearances, cop shops, and action games all thrown in from a Jewish perspective. How does it fit? I dunno. I'm left wondering in the middle of the book, but the feeling is pleasant: I get the goods and enjoy the page-turning.

How many chapters can you root for an author before you finally admit that he isn't going to deliver? This book will tell you. Charyn gets off to a zany start and has a sardonic hipper-than-thou style that promises much. Unfortunately he never pulls them together and the book fails to take off. Each chapter is more promise, but no delivery. The book reads like a first draft that was phoned in to the publisher. An editor should have said, "Great draft, bring us the finished manuscript in six months." Very disappointing.