Review: One Life by Megan Rapinoe

One Life is such a wonderful memoir. This book is such a well-organized and well-written presentation of Megan Rapinoe's life, Rapinoe, and her co-writer Emma Brockers did such an excellent job.

This book entails Rapinoe's childhood, her relationships with her family members, her involvement with soccer recreationally and professionally, the fight for equal pay for the USWNT, and her journey figuring out she is a lesbian and coming out as well as some of her romantic relationships. I adored this book.

My original review of this book had been deleted on accident, and it has now been a few weeks since I read this book. But I loved so many things about it. It is hard to pull out parts of the book that I particularly loved because I truly enjoyed the whole book.

I was very moved by the way Rapinoe writes about her family. She is so careful to paint everyone as fully human and to bring to light the parts of their environment that shaped their lives. She does not excuse the behavior of others but explores the way you can deeply disagree with people and still have familial love and still maintain a relationship with the hope that civil conversation, and perhaps change, is able to be had.

Equally moving were the sections of the book about equal pay and racial justice. Rapinoe makes it very clear that she has been able to maintain her career (though that was very nearly not the case) and Kapernick has not is a function of white privilege and is deeply unjust. She followed in suit with him, and he has been so terribly maligned by the nation and the NFL. Rapinoe also makes sure to highlight the Black WNBA players who protested before her. Reading about the way Rapinoe was almost phased out of the USWNT was so incredibly frustrating.

I loved the chronicle of the fight for equal pay. And the reminder that despite all the pressure, the fight has still not been successful. No matter how plain it is that the situation is deeply unfair, the organization in charge has still not actually taken steps to correct this. They are unwilling to acknowledge the way this situation is unjust and to meaningfully support women's sports even though the USWNT is so incredibly successful.

I really also liked hearing about Rapinoe's personal life. She is funny and brash and so interesting to read about. I liked the way she spoke about coming out and how important she feels it is whenever it is possible. I also liked the way she talked about people with who she was in relationships in the past; she is very kind in the way she talks about the women she dated in the past and is able to talk about the ways she has failed in those relationships. Obviously, I was incredibly interested in the way she talked about her fiance Sue Bird. She talks about their relationship in such a lovely way; it is truly sweet to read about. and I adore these two amazing athletes who are such a cool sports power couple.

I loved this book. I would recommend this book to any sports fans, to people who want to read about public figures involved with social justice, and to people who love a personal narrative in general. I gave this book five stars on Goodreads and The StoryGraph.