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4.47 AVERAGE
4.47 AVERAGE
I didn't get many of the basketball references but I still had a great time with this book. It made me want to play basketball again. But it also made me want to hug my dad.
This book completely confounded me during the entire first HALF of the reading experience and was nearly beyond my reading comprehension level— I was disoriented, uncertain, way out of my league. I have no connection to Columbus, Ohio. I don’t care about basketball, even a little bit. My lived experience is very different from a Black man’s in America. I had no context for any of the cultural references, historical recollections, or regional musings. From the very first page: I felt like I’d walked into a conversation midway, and then was constantly interrupted by tangent thoughts and inside jokes and stories that had no end (or middle, or beginning sometimes).
In so many ways, this book was not made for me. But also: the existence of a book means an author has invited you into something very intimate, and very real. We get to step into somebody else’s shoes. And I can’t help but be so thankful to have gotten to see the world through this author’s eyes. He writes about 1 slice of 1 specific world, with the care of somebody who really, deeply loves where they are from and the things that shaped them.
I have read poetry, and caught glimpses of how poets see the world. But I’ve never spent so much time inside the mind of one, processing time and relationship and love and grief and life in the way that a poet does (spoiler: it’s non-linear and contemplative and flowery and melodramatic). This book was completely immersive, and it affected me a lot in the way I reflect on my own hometown, and how I make meaning out of things, and how I measure time. By the second half of it, I understood the rhythm and style a bit more and was able to receive the stories the same way I’d receive a collage, or a deep dive of somebody’s un-chronological notes.
This book felt beyond a rating. But I’m really glad I read it. Authors are amazing. This author impressed me. I’m so glad he wrote the book.
In so many ways, this book was not made for me. But also: the existence of a book means an author has invited you into something very intimate, and very real. We get to step into somebody else’s shoes. And I can’t help but be so thankful to have gotten to see the world through this author’s eyes. He writes about 1 slice of 1 specific world, with the care of somebody who really, deeply loves where they are from and the things that shaped them.
I have read poetry, and caught glimpses of how poets see the world. But I’ve never spent so much time inside the mind of one, processing time and relationship and love and grief and life in the way that a poet does (spoiler: it’s non-linear and contemplative and flowery and melodramatic). This book was completely immersive, and it affected me a lot in the way I reflect on my own hometown, and how I make meaning out of things, and how I measure time. By the second half of it, I understood the rhythm and style a bit more and was able to receive the stories the same way I’d receive a collage, or a deep dive of somebody’s un-chronological notes.
This book felt beyond a rating. But I’m really glad I read it. Authors are amazing. This author impressed me. I’m so glad he wrote the book.
challenging
emotional
reflective
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Hanif Abdurraqib makes me care about basketball and all of its valences spinning out across North American culture. This is a brilliant piece of writing, I only wish I knew more about the NBA going in.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality
Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Death of parent
“it’s that the victim can’t see what’s coming, but the distant witness can.”
i really enjoyed this book, I haven’t met a hanif abdurraqib book yet that i haven’t liked. you can really feel his love for ohio and his city through the page, i kind of love how there’s not the sense of making it and leaving the city for something better but like making it concepts like that come with staying with your city/community and embracing it.
i don’t totally agree with the reviews saying this book has no narrative, to me it felt like you were kind of growing up alongside ohio basketball/hanif in a way, especially with the ending on the 2016 finals.
“love alone is not enough, and yet the love of people i buried helped carry me here. and so i do not fear death, the only thing promised. the steady breath i have felt growing heavier with each year i survive again and again.”
i really enjoyed this book, I haven’t met a hanif abdurraqib book yet that i haven’t liked. you can really feel his love for ohio and his city through the page, i kind of love how there’s not the sense of making it and leaving the city for something better but like making it concepts like that come with staying with your city/community and embracing it.
i don’t totally agree with the reviews saying this book has no narrative, to me it felt like you were kind of growing up alongside ohio basketball/hanif in a way, especially with the ending on the 2016 finals.
“love alone is not enough, and yet the love of people i buried helped carry me here. and so i do not fear death, the only thing promised. the steady breath i have felt growing heavier with each year i survive again and again.”
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Love Hanif, dont love basketball. He comments on way more than just basketball but that’s the central theme so it is hard to look around that.
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
emotional
reflective
medium-paced