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A review by cindypepper
There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib
dark
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
(4.5 stars, rounded up to 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.
(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.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Police brutality, Gun violence, Hate crime, and Racism