More Like Wrestling

by Danyel Smith

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing . . .

More Like Wrestling is the magnificent debut novel by one of the most acclaimed music journalists of her generation. It tells the story of Pinch and Paige, two sisters coming of age in Oakland, California, in the 1980s, a time when that beautiful, crumbling city is being transformed by tectonic shifts, both literal and figurative.

The novel unfolds through the alternating narration of the two sisters: Pinch, quiet and observant, and Paige, louder and wilder but faltering under her facade. The sisters are teenage refugees from a violent home, living alone in a faded Victorian mansion where they survive by creating a closed world centered around each other and their new friends—a rowdy makeshift family of castoffs, dealers, and drama queens on the periphery of the burgeoning drug game, some looking for a way out, some looking for a way deeper in. As the sisters grow from girls into women, they are confronted with a series of surprising reversals—death, imprisonment, and, just maybe, love—that force them to come to grips with the truth about their choices, their friends, and their tangled roots.

More Like Wrestling takes readers into fresh and surprising terrain, bringing a complex set of characters to vivid life with bracing honesty and sophistication. With a journalist’s eye for detail and a poet’s ear for language, Danyel Smith has written an unforgettable tale about memory, forgiveness, and love in a world built on fault lines.

Genres: Fiction, African American

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

DANYEL SMITH is completing Shine Bright: How Black Women Took Over American Pop and Changed Culture Forever (One World / Random House, 2020). Until recently, Danyel was a senior editor and producer at ESPN, and before that, a 2013-14 John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. She has served as editor of Billboard, editor-at-large at Time Inc, and as editor-in-chief of VIBE in its classic era. Danyel is cofounder of HRDCVR, a design-centered hardcover media project created by diverse teams for a diverse world. She has written two novels—More Like Wrestling (Crown, 2003) and Bliss (Crown, 2005). Among other outlets, her profiles and other nonfiction has appeared in ESPN The Magazine, the Guardian, NPR, CNN, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times. Danyel lives in California.

Reviews

[She Reads for Jesus · Rating 3 out of 5]

More Like Wrestling, is the debut novel from acclaimed music journalist Danyel Smith. More Like Wrestling unfolds the story of two sisters, Paige and Pinch, who are raised in Oakland, California in the 1980’s, during the time of the emergence of crack cocaine in the community, and the violence and death associated with this destructive epidemic. Young, and both living alone together, Paige and Pinch meet a group of friends that they bond with and experience life changing moments together. Author Smith did a remarkable job of presenting authentic Oakland, California to the reader. She describes and references the area by describing authentic places, landmarks, and cultures within the African American community in Oakland. However, I was a bit disappointed by this novel. Smith leaves the reader completely unknown to the underline issues that have affected Paige. Throughout the story she addresses the emergence of the issues, however never provides the reader with a clear explanation of what exactly happened. The reader is left with more unanswered questions at the end of the novel. Although I cannot rate this book with five stars, I will give it three stars, in that Smith is able to write with such great detail, that the reader truly feels apart of the environment in which the story takes place. She is able to create such vivid characters, that are indeed relatable.

[Jacky · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books ever! A love letter to Oakland, the descriptions of Oakland are beatiful!

[Nakia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review at http://ZoraToniAlice.tumblr.com soon!

[Michael Alan Grapin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paige and Pinch are sisters. They grew up together in Oakland California, escaped the abuse of a stepfather and were surviving the best the knew how. Their closest friends were crack dealers and criminals...we don't learn of Pinch's real name until the last page of a confusing narrative full of ethnic stereotypes. It had its moments but I think that I lacked a background that would have made the experience easier to understand.

[Meg B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A snapshot in time telling a story about a love affair with one’s hometown; the push-and-pull of not knowing which way is up or out. “More Like Wrestling” shares an intimate personal perspective on the rise of the crack epidemic in ‘90s Oakland. This story, told in alternately narratives by the two sisters who center it, has a lyrical lilt and is full of local references, cultural nuance and the deep, conflicting emotions of growing up in a broken family that is full of love.

[Paulo Flores Chico · Rating 4 out of 5]

This made me miss Oakland sooo bad. Even though this is far from my bay area life, it references Lake Meritt, the bakery, the Parkway, etc.. Besides that it is a touching story about two black sisters in Oakland. How they dealt with and survived abuse and neglect in their childhood and how it impacted the way they dealt with their trials and tribulations as an adult... dealing and surviving love, death, family, drugs, and the OPD.

[Whitney Dwyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book because of all of the Oakland references! It started off a bit slow but quickly becomes a page turner. Besides doing a good job of taking me back to my hometown Smith does a really good job of illustrating the love sisters have for eachother, the complexities of family structures, and the transformations that occur with young adults growing up in the "hood".

[S.]

Ehhhhh. OK. But writing was a little rambly. Smith's skill may be in the brevity & structure of journalism. She rocked a most recent review of Timberlake's new album and managed to shout out Proust in a way that didn't feel extra. But it was hard to get into this story, even though on the surface, two brown girls navigating 1980s Oakland should've held my attention for the long haul.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its been awhile since I've read a book that thoroughly engaged me as much as this one. I couldn't read but a few pages without her scenery evoking memories of my own. This is such a beautifully written love story. A sisterly relationship to envy.
Kudos on the ending, It made me smile.

[Drea · Rating 3 out of 5]

An emotionally hard read - almost too much to read while living in Oakland.

[David]

"an original take on 1980's crack culture... dealers as regular people." -- NY Times Book Review

[RK Byers · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book starts a little slow, but picks up like Dorsett once he's hit the hole.

[Chantal · Rating 4 out of 5]

So good! Her language is so lyrical and powerful.

[ms dailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars, good read about family dynamics and also an interesting look at drug dealing and how people choose to see and believe what they want to believe or see.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loving this very well-written novel of young African-American sisters sited in 1980s Oakland, CA.