I hand Foley Is Good to clients as an example of how a memoir should be done. When someone asks me for models of the form, I point to both of Mick Foley’s books, because they get right the thing most celebrity memoirs get wrong: a real voice on the page, written by the actual person, not sanded down to nothing by a ghostwriter. This is his second memoir, the sequel to his surprise number-one bestseller Have a Nice Day, and I have read both of them half a dozen times. Foley, who wrestled as Cactus Jack, Dude Love, and Mankind, writes the way he performed: with more energy, humor, and willingness to take a hit than anyone expected. He turned out to be a natural storyteller, and these books are why.

He is one of those people who has done a great deal and done it well: a wrestler who became a genuine bestselling author who writes every word himself, and who is now a working stand-up comedian. That kind of life makes for a memoir worth reading, because the person is fascinating before they ever sit down at the keyboard.

The voice is the book

What makes Foley’s memoirs work, and what made the first one a publishing surprise, is the voice: conversational, funny, self-deprecating, and unmistakably his own, in a register that sounds exactly like a smart, candid person telling you stories across a table. That he writes it all himself is the whole point. There is no ghostwriter smoothing him into a generic celebrity-book cadence, so what you get is Foley, and that is far more compelling than polish. For any writer working on a memoir, this is the lesson I keep coming back to with clients: authenticity and personality on the page beat literary refinement nearly every time. A memoir lives or dies on whether the reader wants to keep listening to the narrator, and Foley’s narrator is genuinely good company for hundreds of pages.

Memoir as a window into a world

The book’s other great strength is access. It takes the reader inside professional wrestling, a world most people know only as televised spectacle, and reveals the craft, the physical cost, and the human reality behind it. The best memoirs offer exactly this kind of authentic entry into a life the reader could never otherwise see, and Foley’s candor, about the industry, the genuine toll on his body, the artifice and the real danger both, gives the book substance well beyond celebrity anecdote. For a writer studying the form, it demonstrates how specific, insider detail about an unusual life is what fascinates a reader. The particulars carry it, and Foley has the particulars and the honesty to share them.

A personal note

I will admit my regard for these books is not purely professional. I wanted to meet the man. He does stand-up comedy now, and a show of his was booked close to me, scheduled for April 1, 2020. I had a VIP seat right in front of the stage, the kind where he would likely have sat down beside me and we would have had a real conversation. Then guess what happened in April of 2020. The pandemic shut everything down, the show was canceled, the money was refunded, and he has not come back through the area since. I still want to meet him, because by every account he is exactly the sort of person his books suggest: funny, generous, and genuinely interesting. The near-miss only deepened my appreciation for the work, which is the next best thing to the conversation I did not get to have.

Verdict

It is one of my favorite memoirs and one I use as a teaching example, lifted far above the celebrity-cash-in norm by a strong, authentic, entirely self-written voice and candid insider access to a world few readers know from the inside. Whether or not you care about wrestling, the voice carries you, and what you learn about the craft of memoir from watching Foley simply be himself on the page is worth the read on its own. For a wrestling fan it is essential; for a writer it is a master class in voice and authenticity; for anyone, it is a far better book than its genre label would lead you to expect. I have read it half a dozen times and I will read it again. Highly recommended.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Foley Is Good about?

Professional wrestler Mick Foley’s second memoir, the sequel to his bestseller Have a Nice Day, continuing his account of life in wrestling as Cactus Jack, Dude Love, and Mankind, written entirely in his own candid, humorous voice.

What makes it stand out?

Its voice. Foley writes conversationally, funnily, and self-deprecatingly, without a ghostwriter, in a register that sounds exactly like a smart, candid person telling stories. That authenticity and personality carry the book far further than literary polish would, which is why I use it as a memoir example with clients.

What can a writer learn from it?

That a strong, authentic, self-written voice and specific insider detail carry a memoir more than refinement. Foley is not a conventional stylist, but he is genuinely himself, and his candid access to the wrestling world shows how the particulars of an unusual life make for compelling reading.

Is it only for wrestling fans?

No. Fans will love it, but the voice carries any reader, and the lesson it teaches about memoir, that sounding like yourself beats sounding literary, makes it valuable to writers with no interest in wrestling at all. It is a better book than its genre label suggests.

Does Mick Foley really write his own books?

Yes, and it is central to why they work. There is no ghostwriter, so the books read in his genuine voice rather than a smoothed-out celebrity cadence, which is exactly what makes them strong models of the memoir form.

Should I read Have a Nice Day first?

It helps but is not essential. Foley Is Good is the sequel and picks up where the first book left off, so reading Have a Nice Day gives fuller context, though Foley’s voice and self-contained storytelling make this volume enjoyable on its own. Both are worth your time.