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BROKEN HARTS: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF OWEN HART BY MARTHA HART & ERIC FRANCIS BOOK REVIEW

By David Tees on 8/19/2009 10:05 PM
For every book published that criticizes the pro wrestling industry, you rarely get that feeling from the author about their personal feelings about the evil of the business. However, this book written by Martha Hart and Eric Francis compels the reader the feel what Martha Hart feels as she details her life with the late Owen Hart and the effects his death had on her and her family.

The book begins with a chilling recollection from Martha Hart about the last night her and her children spent with their father/husband Owen Hart. You can instantly tell from the writing of Martha Hart, that Martha Hart still goes through some very tough emotions as she describes the events, a wave of emotion that flows through all of the pages in the book.

Following the opening chapter, Martha Hart goes into detail about Owen Hart’s life in the famous Hart Family all the way through his finals days of life. These chapters also focus on the relationship formed and the love felt between both Owen Hart and Martha Hart, whom met at a Stampede Wrestling show, which was run by the Hart Family.

Martha Hart also speaks on the Hart Family, discussing both the positives and the negatives of the family from her experiences throughout her time with Owen Hart. While praising certain members of the family, like Bret Hart, Martha Hart also pulls no punches in discussing how callous other family members where, especially following the death of Owen Hart.

The hardest part of the book to get through for me was chapters six through nine, which discuss the death of Owen Hart until his funeral. Martha Hart first talks about the night Owen Hart died following his fatal fall during a live pay-per-view broadcast of WWE Over The Edge. The detail and emotion she writes about after getting the tragic news of her husbands death was a truly heart wrenching ordeal.

Through reports from lawyers, police, witnesses and others involved in the incident, Martha Hart writes a chapter detailing what she believes happened to Owen Hart before and leading up to his death, during a stunt gone wrong at a pay-per-view event. Whether or not all of the details giving are completely true, this chapter comes as close to detailing Owen Hart’s death as anything I’ve read up to this point.

Martha Hart then takes aim at the lawsuit she filed against the WWE, amongst other, following the death of Owen Hart. Just reading the words Martha Hart wrote in the book detailing her struggle to gain justice for her husband almost makes you believe you were right there with her throughout the struggle. This portion of the book also turns Vince McMahon into a monster, which I can truly believe after this section ended.

Despite the obvious doom and gloom of this book, there are a few bright spots in this book that Martha Hart writes about. Most notably is the portions discussing the non-wrestling life of Owen Hart, who is written about in glowing fashion and his relationship with Martha Hart is written with great love. Like I mentioned earlier with the tragedy, you can feel the love from Martha Hart when she talks about her life with Owen Hart.

The other notable bright spot is when Martha Hart talks about The Owen Hart Foundation, which was established after the death of Owen Hart. Martha Hart discusses how she started up the foundation following the settlement of the lawsuit she had against the WWE. If there was a good way to honor the memory of Owen Hart following his untimely passing, this foundation was a good method.

You can find this book at the PWInsider Store for only $17.46, along with other great merchandise.

You can contact David Tees at bigtees360@yahoo.com