My Losing Season

Oct 6, 2024 6:32 AM

Author:Pat Conroy

My Losing Season

In 1954, in Orlando, Florida, nine-year-old Pat Conroy discovered the game of basketball. Orlando was another new hometown for a military kid who had spent his life transferring from one home to another; he was yet again among strangers, still looking for his first Florida friends, but when the 'new kid' got his hands on the ball near the foul line of that unfamiliar court, the course of his life changed dramatically. From that moment until he was twenty-one, the future author defined himself through the game of basketball. In My Losing Season, Conroy takes the reader through his last year playing basketball, as point guard and captain of The Citadel Bulldogs, flashing back constantly to the drama of his coming of age, presenting all the conflict and love that have been at the core of his novels. He vividly re-creates his senior year at that now-famous military college in Charleston, South Carolina, but also tells the story of his heartbreaking childhood and of the wonderful series of events that conspired to rescue his spirit. With poignancy and humour Conroy reveals the inspirations behind his unforgettable characters, pinpoints the emotions that shaped his own character as a young boy, and ultimately recaptures his passage from athlete to writer.

Reviews

Conroy's prose is sweepingly lyrical-taking on emotionally laden issues in chapters so direct and powerful that readers will be moved by his intimacy with the material, and perhaps astonished by his authority over it

—— Publishers Weekly

Wonderfully crafted . . . One of the most gifted chroniclers of mountaineering . . . Perrin records it all with a subtle sympathy, laying bare British mountaineering's most mythologized figure

—— The Independent

An extraordinarily rich and unsentimental vision . . . The genius of this exceptional biography is that it articulates both sides of Whillans' character . . . It is by turns funny and tragic . . . This is a fine book. It was worth the wait

—— Climb

Compelling, beautifully written . . . There could not have been a better writer qualified to tell it

—— Ed Douglas , Climber

A kind of modern tragedy . . . Yet for all his failings, Whillans remains a legend

—— Observer

Created an enduring, breathtaking legend

—— The Glasgow Herald

His book is not only the day to day battle with the boredom of training, finding the courage to go one step beyond and an utter dedication to a dream, it is also a tribute to the strength that can be found within a loving family

—— Sunday Express

Trower has the perfect pitch for a sentence that illuminates an entire culture

—— Financial Times

His dedication to finding a spiritual dimension to a lost art is hard to fault

—— Wanderlust

Notable for its honesty. The Liverpool defender's published opinion that he is happier retired from international football prompted a media frenzy

—— Martin Pengelly , Guardian

One of the few current footballers worth an autobiography

—— Jonathan Ruppin , Bookseller

Amid the basketful of bland post-World Cup books, McGrath's life story stands out a mile... Fascinating reading.

—— Evening Standard

The Republic of Ireland's most popular sportsman, still adored by fans of Manchester United and Villa.

—— BBC Sport

An all-too honest account of a playing career that just got better and better, despite threatening to go off the rails.

—— Sunday Mercury

An extraordinary book.

—— Irish Independent

Harrowing and brutally honest...a gripping story.

—— Derby Evening Telegraph

Brutally honest.

—— The Irish Post

Less a football autobiography, more repentant confessional.

—— Kevin Hughes , FreeSport

stunning

—— FourFourTwo

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