| Can I Come Look At These Items? | | This online store is in association with Amazon.com, so these great, high-qualiy products will come from their warehouse or from other partners. Thanks for shopping! |
|
|
|
My Losing Season | 
 enlarge | Author: Pat Conroy
Publisher: The Dial Press
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $14.99 (100%)
New (37) Used (121) Collectible (3) from $0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  57 reviews
Sales Rank: 13597
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.6
ISBN: 0553381903
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.32363092
EAN: 9780553381900
ASIN: 0553381903
Publication Date: August 26, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy!
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
PAT CONROY—AMERICA’S MOST BELOVED STORYTELLER—IS BACK!
“I was born to be a point guard, but not a very good one. . . .There was a time in my life when I walked through the world known to myself and others as an athlete. It was part of my own definition of who I was and certainly the part I most respected. When I was a young man, I was well-built and agile and ready for the rough and tumble of games, and athletics provided the single outlet for a repressed and preternaturally shy boy to express himself in public....I lost myself in the beauty of sport and made my family proud while passing through the silent eye of the storm that was my childhood.”
So begins Pat Conroy’s journey back to 1967 and his startling realization “that this season had been seminal and easily the most consequential of my life.” The place is the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, that now famous military college, and in memory Conroy gathers around him his team to relive their few triumphs and humiliating defeats. In a narrative that moves seamlessly between the action of the season and flashbacks into his childhood, we see the author’s love of basketball and how crucial the role of athlete is to all these young men who are struggling to find their own identity and their place in the world.
In fast-paced exhilarating games, readers will laugh in delight and cry in disappointment. But as the story continues, we gradually see the self-professed “mediocre” athlete merge into the point guard whose spirit drives the team. He rallies them to play their best while closing off the shouts of “Don’t shoot, Conroy” that come from the coach on the sidelines. For Coach Mel Thompson is to Conroy the undermining presence that his father had been throughout his childhood. And in these pages finally, heartbreakingly, we learn the truth about the Great Santini.
In My Losing Season Pat Conroy has written an American classic about young men and the bonds they form, about losing and the lessons it imparts, about finding one’s voice and one’s self in the midst of defeat. And in his trademark language, we see the young Conroy walk from his life as an athlete to the writer the world knows him to be.
From the Hardcover edition.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 52 more reviews...
Successful Losing Season September 27, 2008
In My Losing Season Pat Conroy chronicles his painful senior year playing basketball for the Citadel Bulldogs. Though Conroy's timeframe is limited to one year, this memoir melds the past with the present to bring reflection and perspective to the memories. The title forecasts a negative experience--on the court, with his team, and with life in general. It was a losing season. But a losing season may not be as downbeat as it initially appears. It's possible a losing season may be an opportunity for growth. That is Conroy's conclusion, but not the original story.
The year was negative for Conroy; so negative he forgot many of the details. He used newspaper accounts of the games, and interviews with the other players to recall events. He found that his depressing experience was equally as depressing for many of the other players. Conroy shares his interviews with the reader--interviews with his middle aged teammates.
Ostensibly Conroy divides chapters into wins and loses of the season, but the games are only an excuse for him to delve into the personalities on the team pitted against the callous behavior of their coach Mel Thompson. Why was Thompson so heartless? Conroy and his team mates try to understand. Conroy uses dialogue and descriptive body language to describe the coach and the players. His writing is so clear it puts readers into the action and emotion of the sweaty young men.
The Losing Season goes beyond Conroy's life and becomes a joint memoir of a team of players. The story takes place during the Viet Nam War era in a military academy where athletes were not valued. None of the men had wanted to revisit the losing season, but once Conroy began the process they had an opportunity to examine what had happened, and try to make sense of a difficult time. These old men confess to each other. They absolve each other. They annoy each other.
In his interview with Al Kroboth, the one Conroy says he feared the most, Conroy, who did not deploy to Viet Nam but demonstrated publicly against the war, listens to Kroboth's story. Kroboth recounts his capture, humiliation and torture by Viet Cong. The two men and Kroboth's wife cry together. Conroy acknowledges his shame for not fighting in the war. He says he should have protested only after fighting for the country. He calls Kroboth a hero. He said he now knew the country was good enough to fight for.
Conroy's chapters are not only a play by play account of a basketball season, but real life reflected on by old men who had been young men together. Universal questions are asked. There are no definitive answers; questions remain, but the losing season was a success. Finally the pitiful team that had not bonded during their losing season came together with love and generosity. They are no longer a losing team, but a team bound by maturity, forgiveness, and hope. That is the success of Conroy's literary effort.
 If you're in the mood for this sort of thing... September 22, 2008
One of my favorite fictional books of all time is The Prince of Tides, by Pat Conroy. I enjoyed it so much I read all of his other books, which I had to confess were disappointing. Nonetheless, when I saw his memoir on the bookshelf, I thought perhaps it was worth a read. Unfortunately, I was disappointed again. In fiction, his characters can be self-absorbed and still be engaging. The character doesn't even have to be aware of this flaw as long as the reader and narrator are. And through imaginative plot development and counter characters, he can wring the melo out of drama. But in memoir when an author is held to perceived reality, and the narrator, author, and protagonist are all the same individual, Conroy's penchant for overstatement is embarrassingly revealed. Still, if you're in the mood for a sappy story that will grab easy-to-pull heart strings, go for it. Conroy does have his moments.
salvation through basketball February 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Amazon.com Book Review
My Losing Season by Pat Conroy
The difficulty and pain that military basketball players go through are shown in My Losing Season by Pat Conroy. Pat Conroy writes about his life as a Southern college student at The Citadel during the 19676 basketball season.
Pat Conroy's father grew up in the South. His father is in the military and is constantly being sent to work at different places. This causes the author to attend many different high schools during his teenage years. These years are filled with the beatings from his father to his entire family. Pat Conroy is able to put everything he was into the basketball he plays at high school and college. These games and practices help keep Pat from killing his father during one of the many depressing times Pat has. After high school, Pat accepts a basketball scholarship at The Citadel, a military college. His first years at The Citadel are filled with the harsh practices from his coach, the sweat parties during plebe week, and the constant reminder of his father. When the author is a senior he doesn't start the first basketball games and isn't picked as a captain. Instead, he rides the bench with the Green Weenies. Pat battles with his coach, his father, and his college throughout his time at The Citadel.
As time progresses, Pat goes through numerous challenges. The author is faced with the conflict of depression, and does whatever he can to survive the painful time it brings. Conroy is forced to deal with his father and his basketball coach. He is constantly beaten by his father. Pat is also benched by his basketball coach and yelled at for doing nothing. Pat has to somehow go through the challenge of living his own life happily. The author shows the pain his father caused him when he says, "The game kept me from facing the ruined boy who played basketball instead of killing his father" (6). Along with Pat's father, Conroy has to deal with his basketball coach, Mel Thompson. Mel forbids dates, laughing, or any fun a basketball player could have. This causes pat to go through most of life unhappy and causes him to do whatever it takes to become happy. The basketball that he played was one of the few things that solved his conflict.
Pat Conroy is able to write in a way that makes one feel that they are attending the events that Pat Conroy is talking about. He is able to write in a way that shows what his life was as a child, but still make it interesting and exciting for the reader. He is able to show the things that he is feeling and the suffering he has as his college. Pat Conroy shows his writing when he describes his team when he says, "I felt my team coming together at last, the way teams are supposed to feel, the ones who you would go to the wall for, dive on the floor for, and shed your blood for" (331). Pat Conroy has the writing style that is very descriptive. The way he writes makes me feel I am watching a movie, instead of reading a book. I am able to see and feel the pain, depression, and rare happiness during the story.
I felt that this is one of the best written books that I have ever read. This book made me keep reading and kept me from putting the book down. I felt that Pat Conroy did a very good job of writing about his college basketball career in a way that anyone would like it. I liked how he made his own life interesting and true. Also, I liked how nothing was hidden, and he told the truth like a clear jump shot from the corner.
 A Winning Read February 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Growing up Catholic in the 1960's and 1970's and playing basketball every day because we didn't have the money to go on vacation, are two of many drivers that singles out Pat Conroy's "A Losing Season" as the most talked about book among my friends in our New York suburb.
Mr. Conroy's ability to balance brutal honesty with a sensitivity toward young men of our era, dwarfs my favorite writers such as Tom Wolfe in nailing the complexities of being innocent in a period that was conflicted with our feelings of supporting the beliefs of our fathers who were from WWII and the realities of the 60's and 70's.
When a writer as strong as Pat Conroy takes on young men growing up in the 60's and 70's trying to figure out their catholic up-bringing, clashing with their generation's challenge to conventional beliefs - the result is explosive. Don't miss the best read of your life.
themes January 17, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A rough life is an understatement for young Pat Conroy. His abusive father and enabling mother help make it an enduring test of character for Pat. He walks away a strong person and also a wise one. Mel Thomason awaits Conroy as yet another test of will power for Pat. Mel is a stubborn man looking to rule a team of basketball players. His ways of braking down a player only to rebuild them and smash them down again, is a test of just how much a man can take. Pat endures a very painful character building period.
Pat Conroy tells a story like a god. Throughout the book Pat is inquisitive about what he will be after basketball is over for him. He lets us know that he has always known he was a great writer but was unsure of himself. He was at a loss for what it was he was meant to do. This book is not only about basketball, but also of self-inquiry. It is a journey of Pat's search for his life road.
Along with Pat's struggles came reward. Pat felt as though he was coming into himself. He discovered life lessons and set life goals. He believes he learn more about himself his senior year at the Citadel then any other single year he as lived. Life is full of self-discovery, especially for Pat.
|
|
|
| |
News 
