Hurt Yourself

Hurt Yourself presents a collection of Harry Hurt III's Executive Pursuits columns from the New York Times, in which he volunteers for one wild activity after another, from playing professional football to driving high-performance sports cars to dancing with the ballet. Harry Hurt III is a journalist and professional dilettante who puts it all on the line in the search for freedom and joy in the most unlikely of places. And the likely ones, too. Whether he's flying a vintage Mustang, risking his neck at polo, or risking his dignity dancing with the New York City Ballet, Hurt gives the readers of his "Executive Pursuits" columns in The New York Times a Plimpton-esque glimpse of the adventures hidden just around the corner. Hurt writes about hedonism, but the columns collected for the first time here in Hurt Yourself are really about finding fulfillment as a man in the second half of his life. He writes about marriage, as he gets into, and out of, trouble with wife; fatherhood, as he struggles to connect with his son; and manhood, as he battles the demons of vanity, insecurity, and fear. Through it all, Hurt tackles each premise—from playing quarterback for the New York Jets to finding a swim suit a middle-aged man can actually wear—with self-deprecating humor and an unfailingly honest journalist's eye.