While the paperback sat on my desk for a few days before I actually picked it up, I knew how it ended. I’d never read the book, but I’d read the story and lived through it, like many others.

Jamie Moffatt, a Cornell alum, who has chronicled wrestling stories with the books “Wrestlers at the Trials” and “Strobel,” has released another book with a storytelling angle: “Adam Frey: A Collection of Blogs and Stories.”

How do you review something you’ve already read, but haven’t already read? With Moffatt’s very unique style of collecting great stories from wrestling greats, reading the book wouldn’t be the problem, reliving it with teary eyes and a quivering lip would be.

Book reviews typically take the writer out of it, replacing their opinions with some random third person passive voice, but the Frey book has several voices – Adam Frey and those close to him. Moffatt packages Adam’s courageous battle extremely well. 

As I started reading, I remember my own reactions when I heard the news. I’d known Adam since he was in high school at Blair Academy, first meeting him and his father at the T.G.I. Fridays in Newark, Del., after the conclusion of the Beast of the East. I joined them for dinner amidst all the chaos and relief that accompanied the completion of the nation’s toughest high school wrestling tournament. 

I can’t quite remember the year, but I was still living in Virginia at the time and of course, through wrestling, we had our fair share of mutual friends. 

We talked frequently and infrequently throughout the rest of his high school career, then through his run in Fargo at the Junior Nationals, and through the first few seasons at Cornell.

The last conversation I had with Adam before his accident was at the EIWA Championships in Lancaster, Pa., at Franklin & Marshall College. After the tournament, Adam lay on the training table, with ice on his shoulder with a puzzled look on his face.

“JB, I don’t know what’s wrong with me man,” Adam said. “I just don’t have the energy and I’ve never had trouble making weight.”

The aftermath of the March 24 car accident showed why. 

For the next year and a half, we followed Adam’s journey via his blog at adamfrey.us. 

His passing on December 26, 2009 hit those that knew him, and those that knew of him, like a ton of bricks. I stood, tears pouring from my eyes, staring out at a cold and harsh Minnesota winter. I’d just proposed to my now wife three days prior, but was brought down to even more cold and harsh reality that our world brings us. 

Reading through Moffatt’s book, all those memories flashed back, as clear as they ever were. I can’t speak on what people think when they read the blog or the book having never spoken to Adam, because I can’t think of a time where that goofball wasn’t doing something forgettable. 

Jake Herbert sat in my office a few days ago telling stories about Adam from their days wrestling in Western Pennsylvania. The book has similar stories from coaches, parents, friends, teammates, basically anyone who ever had a connection to a young man named Adam Frey. 

While it was difficult to read having already read every word before, it wasn’t difficult to read. It captivates. Midway through the book, you want to believe he’ll beat this, because Adam believed he would beat it. From the standpoint of novel, the protagonist has to win – but this wasn’t a work of fiction. 

What more can you say that hasn’t already been said by Adam and his friends? The only one who could do Adam’s story justice was Adam, and Moffatt packaged this masterfully. 

Adam was real. His story was very real. 

I think back to the last time we “socialized” at the NCAA Championships in St. Louis. Covering his bald head with a cowboy hat, Adam was in his element. He was the life of the party. Others were out celebrating All-American finishes and NCAA championships, while Adam was celebrating life. It would be the last time I saw my friend. 

As 2011 approaches, one passage, the first one from 2009, struck me with great sadness, but also with a profound vision. 

Adam talks about his goal of finishing the Bible in 2009, then adds, “I will also have my own book ready to go this year … I can’t finish it, because there is no real ending, but I am getting there.”

Adam will be proud to know that Moffatt’s book finished the story admirably, although none of us liked how the story ultimately played out. It still stings to read the words, “because there is no real ending, but I am getting there.”

Because of Adam’s inspirational fight, he’s right in some ways. There is no real ending. Moffatt’s book makes sure of it. Adam Frey’s stories and life won’t be lost in a world of cyberspace, they’ll be ready and available on bookshelves around the nation. 

If you’re looking for a glowing review, one with sound bytes and endorsements fit for newspaper or television ads, you won’t find one. Moffatt’s packaging of Adam’s final 20 months speaks for itself, rather, Adam speaks for himself. 

To borrow a cliché term, this book is a game changer. It changes you. It puts things in perspective on how fragile life, friendship and family really is. We’ve all dealt with tragedy and adversity, life and death, success and defeat – and we can all see it and hear it from someone who was cut down before they had a chance for true athletic greatness.

But the greatness in physical and athletic ability that Adam possessed pales in comparison to the greatness in Adam’s wherewithal to not only fight a deadly disease, but to do so with gusto. 

All I can really surmise is this: just buy the book, it speaks, literally, for itself. 

More Information on buying the book, the Adam Frey Foundation and the Adam Frey Challenge.
To purchase the Adam Frey book, go to www.adamfreybook.com
Adam Frey: A Collection of Blogs & Stories On Facebook
Adam Frey Challenge: http://www.themat.com/section.php?section_id=3&page=showarticle&ArticleID=22789
Adam Frey Foundation: www.adamfrey.us