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Reviews tagging 'Racism'
There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib
8 reviews
cindypepper's review
4.5
(Fleabag voice): This is not a book about basketball.
Yes, this book uses basketball as a lens to explore far-ranging themes of homecoming, what we owe the places we grew up in, the Midwest, police brutality, religion, and why people like sports so dang much.
No, I wouldn't say it's actually about basketball, so much so that basketball is an incisive and deeply personal lens to examine the above topics. And it works very well. Hanif Abdurraqib's style defies categorization; his writing is all at once cultural criticism, memoir, and poetry. There's something very dynamic about the way he writes, in the way that basketball moves at a breakneck pace, until it doesn't. Even if you don't know much about basketball, you can easily read this and understand why and how people love it, which (imo) is the hallmark of a great writer. (For context, I spent 8 years as a Dubs fan smack-dab in the Bay Area, including the year 2016, where thinking about those NBA finals stung. And I relived that trauma by reading the perspective of a fan from the other side!!! And it was more than fine! I loved it.)
All facetiousness aside, props to anyone who can make me feel nostalgic for something I never experienced. I found his meditations on the Midwest and coming back particularly resonant, especially as somebody who used to live there and was all too ready to leave.
Moderate: Police brutality, Gun violence, Hate crime, and Racism
christie_esau's review
5.0
Moderate: Police brutality, Gun violence, Racism, and Violence
sheridan_powell's review against another edition
5.0
Moderate: Racism and Police brutality
sarahyjackson's review
5.0
Moderate: Police brutality, Racism, Gun violence, Grief, Child death, and Blood
tenderbench's review
5.0
Graphic: Police brutality, Grief, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Racism
Moderate: Child death and Death of parent
uranaishi's review
4.75
Graphic: Child death, Grief, Police brutality, and Racism
Moderate: Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Car accident, Abandonment, Death of parent, Murder, Gun violence, Hate crime, and Violence
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Slavery, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Classism, Drug use, Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Addiction, and Sexual content
mmccombs's review against another edition
5.0
Abdurraqib has a way of writing moments to feel like personal memories I’ve lost and have just now recovered. I’ve not once been to Cleveland or Columbus or Ohio, but it almost feels like I have, his writing flowing into and illuminating the cracks in the concrete, the corners of his neighborhood. This is a book firmly about Home, about coming home and loving home even when home is called a “war zone” by the people who will never understand it. This is also a book about how difficult it is to be alive or to survive, how hard and violent and lonely life can be. But there’s basketball. There are underdogs and miracles and dreams. There is longing and love songs. There are people who love us and people who we have loved, even if they are gone and can’t return home.
If you have already read and loved Hanif’s other works, you will once again fall in love here. And if you haven’t, this is a great place to join in! So much thanks to Netgalley and Random House for this eARC, this was one of my most anticipated releases of the year and it certainly delivered!
Graphic: Police brutality, Grief, Racism, and Death
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
ktkeps's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Police brutality, Gun violence, Death, Classism, and Grief
Moderate: Racism, Mental illness, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, and Child death