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somanybookstoread's review against another edition
3.0
Eh, this was an OK book. I'll start by saying that I'm an admittedly hard sell on memoirs.
I found this one to be slow moving. Pat Conroy seemed to vacillate between being absolutely full of himself to being completely self-degrading. That got on my nerves. Which was it? Likely, it was somewhere in between and he should have just stayed there in his narration.
"Oh I sucked so much at basketball. Oh I got the basketball MVP. Oh I was such a mediocre player. Oh I took them to the hoop and scored 25 points..."
I think he should have decided on his self worth (and identity) before taking us along for a ride that wasn't always easy to get through.
A dear friend recommended this to me as one of her all time favorite books. The is the last book my father read before he died and he loved it (probably because of said friend's recommendation). As for me, I'm just happy its over. Pat Conroy's prose is quite nice and I'm curious to see whether another book would have more to offer, but I do not recommend this one to anyone who doesn't love basketball. If you do love basketball, you'll probably enjoy it for that alone if you can stomach Conroy's simultaneous cockiness and whining.
I found this one to be slow moving. Pat Conroy seemed to vacillate between being absolutely full of himself to being completely self-degrading. That got on my nerves. Which was it? Likely, it was somewhere in between and he should have just stayed there in his narration.
"Oh I sucked so much at basketball. Oh I got the basketball MVP. Oh I was such a mediocre player. Oh I took them to the hoop and scored 25 points..."
I think he should have decided on his self worth (and identity) before taking us along for a ride that wasn't always easy to get through.
A dear friend recommended this to me as one of her all time favorite books. The is the last book my father read before he died and he loved it (probably because of said friend's recommendation). As for me, I'm just happy its over. Pat Conroy's prose is quite nice and I'm curious to see whether another book would have more to offer, but I do not recommend this one to anyone who doesn't love basketball. If you do love basketball, you'll probably enjoy it for that alone if you can stomach Conroy's simultaneous cockiness and whining.
andyc_elsby232's review against another edition
4.0
You can sense a phantom of suffering and failure passing through Pat Conroy's hands as he wrote this miserable book. A damn good book, yes, but one of the most miserable and brutal I've read. I didn't come to this book to read about basketball (I've been to about a dozen games in my life and have never gotten into it), I came to soak in Conroy's unabashedly sensitive, soulful, lyrical command of language. 75% of this memoir is all basketball matches where you know more often than not the teller of the tale will lose and then lose some more (hence the title), but Conroy transforms these pitiful displays of sporting (f**k it) into momentous, Godly encounters. Do they overreach and almost embarrass the reader with their self-importance? Sure, but did my heart race when success actually popped it's head during rare, mercilessly brief intervals? Absolutely. The book puts you in the blackest prison of Pat Conroy's seemingly endless parade of abuses and let-downs and makes you kiss the feet of any goodwill that shines through. It's a very problematic book, but for the countless number of times I was moved, shaken, and gripped by this narrative of a ticking-time-bomb of a human being struggling to enter adulthood a good person, I'd call it great.
knightedbooks's review against another edition
3.0
I love Conroy but I just couldn't get into this one right now. I'll try it again some other time.
Took me almost 8 years to finish this one. I love Conroy but am not a basketball fan. Listening to the audiobook helped, though.
Took me almost 8 years to finish this one. I love Conroy but am not a basketball fan. Listening to the audiobook helped, though.
abrswf's review against another edition
4.0
As is usual for me with Pat Conroy, I find myself with mixed emotions. On the negative side, I always find Conroy a bit operatic. He generally uses two or three adjectives where one would do, over the top metaphors, and highly dramatic phrasing. I normally like a much more understated style. And I feel the same discomfort with Conroy’s self-flagellation for things like protesting the Vietnam war instead of serving and not being the world’s best point guard. I realize some of this is his lifelong depression speaking, but it’s still too much. Further, I don’t think I can agree with Conroy on the life and death significance of his college basketball games. Finally, I dislike the fact that except for Conroy’s unpredictable and confusing mother, not one woman who appears in the book emerges as a real person — they are all “beautiful,” “lovely,” and “brilliant” ciphers. And now that I’ve explained why Conroy always grates on me a bit, here’s why I still think this was a wonderful listen, admirably narrated by Chuck Montgomery, with a little bonus recording of Conroy himself speaking about the book at the end. First, Conroy has a compelling story to tell about how it feels to be subjected to cruel tyranny from older men — including in this book not only his infamous father, the Great Santini, but his very abusive and mercurial college basketball coach. The book’s backdrop, Conroy’s itinerant childhood in the service of his father’s military career, and his attendance at the rigidly disciplined Citadel, just adds to that oppressive history. Second, Conroy loves and understands basketball, and this book actually made this game much clearer to me too. And third, Conroy tells us a great deal in this book about his own post-college life, and since he is a fine author, it is interesting to learn what came after the traumatic childhood and young manhood that are the subject of almost all his novels. Overall, this is a worthy read.
randybo5's review against another edition
3.0
Pat Conroy's autobiographical novel about his last year playing basketball at The Citadel is actually as much as the genesis of his writing career as the life lessons he learned during that season. He captured the angst of an abused young man suffering further abuse at the hands of his coach. This would have been a better book if he had stopped at the end of the season instead of overexplaining at the end.
jules1278's review against another edition
5.0
I would have given it probably 4 stars, even though I love love loved it, because I want to save room for the rest of his books, which I haven't read yet, but I just gave The Host 4 stars, so. And I don't mean to say The Host is beneath me or anything, but Conroy is so much more my cup of tea than Meyer.
<3
<3
tjmcq's review against another edition
4.0
Author story about it in abusive father, years at a military college, and his basketball team. Many good lessons. A
katiereads42's review against another edition
3.0
I didn't really think I was going to have any desire to read this book since it is about basketball and I haven't been much into sports stuff. However I found it a very interesting read. This is the 2nd book I have read by Pat Conroy (the other was for an English class). He is a very good writer.
korey's review against another edition
5.0
Loved the writing, loved the story. In-depth details of being a college basketball player. Bigger story of overcoming adversity. Now I want to read all his books!
bobbo49's review against another edition
3.0
Conroy's autobiographical reflection on his days at The Citadel - with a particular focus on his impossibly horrible father (subject of The Great Santini), his impossibly difficult coach, the horrible plebe year at this military college, and the travails that led him to grow as a man and as a writer. Conroy somewhat implausibly foregives everyone at the end - but the story of his senior year, the "losing season" of the title, is a fine reflection on basketball, and the lessons that losing brings to life.