Genre: Sports/Coming-of-age
Description:
“A first-person account of one young man’s quest to make his high
school basketball team, navigating the challenges of punch drills, and a
belligerent coach, and countless ‘suicides’ to earn his spot among the
finalists – but will his training, his perseverance, and his faith be enough to
help him prevail?”
The author explains it this way, “I wrote this piece some forty years
after my own encounter with high school basketball tryouts, during an equally
difficult period for me in which, even as an adult, I found myself relying on
those same lessons learned way back then – and, in so doing, everything about
that earlier time came back to me as vividly as if I were living through it all
again.”
Author:
“Peter J. Stavros is a writer and playwright
in Louisville, Kentucky, and the author of Three in the Morning and You
Don’t Smoke Anymore, winner of the Etchings Press 2020 Book Prize for a
Chapbook of Prose. Other works by him include the short story collection, (Mostly)
True Tales From Birchmont Village.
A former reporter for the Associated Press,
Peter has published his writing in literary journals, magazines, newspapers and
anthologies …”
Appraisal:
The hero of our story, is trying to make the varsity basketball team
in high school. He’s motivated for all the normal reasons, plus one that most
don’t have. Years ago his dad was on a team that won the state championships
which was a big deal for their small town. Now the son (if we ever learned his name
I forgot and couldn’t find it skimming through the book, but sometimes called “Varsity
Guy” by his smart-mouthed friends) wants to follow in dad’s footsteps.
Does he make his goal? Maybe, maybe not. But as his friends get cut
and “Varsity Guy” perseveres, he learns plenty of life lessons and teaches us
(or maybe reminds some of us) those same lessons. A quick, fun, intense, and
even a bit inspiring read.
Buy now
from: Amazon US Amazon UK
FYI:
Some adult language.
Format/Typo
Issues:
No significant issues.
Rating: ****
Four Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate word count: 14-15,000 words
No comments:
Post a Comment