Hayes lists his two natural environments as the gym and the library. This book marries the two, and there’s a neat synchronicity between the subject and its research methodology. Many writers investigating a topic would be more than satisfied doing their research online but this is too static and sedentary. Hayes prefers to travel the globe seeking information in person: he’s exercising in the pursuit of ‘exercise’. This effort resulted in the key element around which the book weaves itself. In a library of rare books, Hayes is presented with Girolamo Mercuriale’s 1573 book, De Arte Gymnastica. Hayes immerses himself in information. His writing is the equivalent of method acting. His exercise regime coexists within the narrative, including detailed instructions. He can find exercise in the least likely places, such as the marathon walk within the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
Sweat has a poor reputation: it’s ‘… something to be stopped, sopped up, apologised for, covered over with deodorants [or] ended with Botox’. The ancient Greeks, however, prized it, bottling gloios – the combination of sweat and oil – thinking it contained the essence of the athlete who produced it.
Various forms of exercise are covered (walking, swimming, running, bodybuilding, yoga and the gentrified barbarity of fencing and boxing) as well as the history of the engagement/disengagement with it. The book is a combination of science, history and memoir. His writing style is informative without the top-heaviness of dense terms. Energised by his enthusiasm, it’s hard to sit still while reading the book. Perhaps listening to the audio book version while at the gym would be more appropriate.
Reviewed by Bob Moore
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in nonfiction, Bill Hayes is a frequent contributor to the New York Times and the author of seven books, including Sleep Demons; Five Quarts; The Anatomist; Insomniac City; and How We Live Now: Scenes from the Pandemic. His writing has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Review of Books, the New York Times “T” Style Magazine, BuzzFeed, and The Guardian.
SWEAT: A History of Exercise, is a narrative nonfiction look at exercise from antiquity to the present, is available now wherever books are sold.
Hayes is also a photographer, with credits including The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and the New York Times. His portraits of his partner, the late Oliver Sacks, appear in the volume of Dr. Sacks’s suite of final essays Gratitude. A collection of his street photography, How New York Breaks Your Heart, was recently published by Bloomsbury. His photographs have been exhibited at the Steven Kasher Gallery and at The Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD), New York City.
Hayes has lectured at NYU, UCSF, and University of Virginia, and has appeared at the Sydney Writers Festival, the 92nd Street Y, the Times of India (Mumbai) LitFest, and other venues. He serves as a co-editor of Dr Sacks’ posthumously published work. Hayes, 61, lives in New York.
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