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Crux: The Georgia Series in Literary Nonfiction
Hoop: A Basketball Life in Ninety-Five Essays
Brian Doyle himself explains it "A few years ago I was moaning to my wry gentle dad that basketball, which seems to me inarguably the most graceful and generous and swift and fluid and ferociously-competitive-without-being-sociopathic of sports, has not produced rafts of good books, like baseball and golf and cricket and surfing have . . . Where are the great basketball novels to rival The Natural and the glorious Mark Harris baseball quartet and the great Bernard Darwin's golf stories? Where are the annual anthologies of terrific basketball essays? How can a game full of such wit and creativity and magic not spark more great books?""'Why don't you write one?' said my dad, who is great at cutting politely to the chase."And so he has. In this collection of short essays, Brian Doyle presents a compelling account of a life lived playing, watching, loving, and coaching basketball. He recounts his passion for the gyms, the playgrounds, the sounds and scents, the camaraderie, the fierce competition, the anticipation and exhaustion, and even some of the injuries.
Kindle Edition
Published October 1, 2017
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About the author
Brian Doyle
60 books728 followersDoyle's essays and poems have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, The American Scholar, Orion, Commonweal, and The Georgia Review, among other magazines and journals, and in The Times of London, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Kansas City Star, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Ottawa Citizen, and Newsday, among other newspapers. He was a book reviewer for The Oregonian and a contributing essayist to both Eureka Street magazine and The Age newspaper in Melbourne, Australia.
Doyle's essays have also been reprinted in:
* the Best American Essays anthologies of 1998, 1999, 2003, and 2005;
* in Best Spiritual Writing 1999, 2001, 2002, and 2005; and
* in Best Essays Northwest (2003);
* and in a dozen other anthologies and writing textbooks.
As for awards and honors, he had three startling children, an incomprehensible and fascinating marriage, and he was named to the 1983 Newton (Massachusetts) Men's Basketball League all-star team, and that was a really tough league.
Doyle delivered many dozens of peculiar and muttered speeches and lectures and rants about writing and stuttering grace at a variety of venues, among them Australian Catholic University and Xavier College (both in Melbourne, Australia), Aquinas Academy (in Sydney, Australia); Washington State, Seattle Pacific, Oregon, Utah State, Concordia, and Marylhurst universities; Boston, Lewis & Clark, and Linfield colleges; the universities of Utah, Oregon, Pittsburgh, and Portland; KBOO radio (Portland), ABC and 3AW radio (Australia); the College Theology Society; National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation," and in the PBS film Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero (2002).
Doyle was a native of New York, was fitfully educated at the University of Notre Dame, and was a magazine and newspaper journalist in Portland, Boston, and Chicago for more than twenty years. He was living in Portland, Oregon, with his family when died at age 60 from complications related to a brain tumor.
Doyle's essays have also been reprinted in:
* the Best American Essays anthologies of 1998, 1999, 2003, and 2005;
* in Best Spiritual Writing 1999, 2001, 2002, and 2005; and
* in Best Essays Northwest (2003);
* and in a dozen other anthologies and writing textbooks.
As for awards and honors, he had three startling children, an incomprehensible and fascinating marriage, and he was named to the 1983 Newton (Massachusetts) Men's Basketball League all-star team, and that was a really tough league.
Doyle delivered many dozens of peculiar and muttered speeches and lectures and rants about writing and stuttering grace at a variety of venues, among them Australian Catholic University and Xavier College (both in Melbourne, Australia), Aquinas Academy (in Sydney, Australia); Washington State, Seattle Pacific, Oregon, Utah State, Concordia, and Marylhurst universities; Boston, Lewis & Clark, and Linfield colleges; the universities of Utah, Oregon, Pittsburgh, and Portland; KBOO radio (Portland), ABC and 3AW radio (Australia); the College Theology Society; National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation," and in the PBS film Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero (2002).
Doyle was a native of New York, was fitfully educated at the University of Notre Dame, and was a magazine and newspaper journalist in Portland, Boston, and Chicago for more than twenty years. He was living in Portland, Oregon, with his family when died at age 60 from complications related to a brain tumor.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
February 6, 2018
Brian Doyle played basketball every day from age 7 to 32. These are his stories over all those years and beyond. Basketball is my favorite sport and so I read all his 95 essays which are often redundant but made me laugh, but also made me weep with joy. If you love basketball, you will love this book. I can guarantee, there is nothing like it, but there isn't another author who is anything like Brian Doyle. Rest in peace.
August 26, 2017
Brian Doyle could be considered a hoops junkie. While he never played the game as a college or professional player, he has a deep and profound love for the sport. That is clearly evident in this wonderful book of 95 essays all dedicated to the game he loves.
The book covers a wide swath of topics related to the game. Doyle writes about coaches in the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) leagues and his own days of playing CYO basketball. He writes about drills like the weave. He, like many others, feels it is a waste of time – how often will a team actually run the weave during a game? Answer: none. Also mentioned is the drill every player dreads – suicide sprints (aka wind sprints). For those who don’t know what they are, read about them in the book. For those who ever played the game and ran them, the dreaded memories will come back.
There is so much more covered about basketball. The nets on the baskets, the type of court that one plays on, the shorts and sneakers worn, the best player he ever played against, the kid who knew he wouldn’t make the high school team, but played very well in the last practice before cuts – they are all covered in the book along with so many other aspects of the game.
Doyle’s writing on the game drew me in like how a shooter on a hot streak draws defenders. The more I read, the more I wanted to keep going. Just as that shooter should be fed the ball as often as possible (another topic of one of the essays) the reader should keep going on with this book until finished.
Readers who have ever played the game, no matter the skill level or how long he or she laced ‘em up, will want to read this book for the memories and to gain a newfound love for the game itself. For readers who have never played, but often wonder what draws people to the sport, these essays will tell that in a beautiful manner.
I wish to thank University of Georgia Press for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
http://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/201...
The book covers a wide swath of topics related to the game. Doyle writes about coaches in the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) leagues and his own days of playing CYO basketball. He writes about drills like the weave. He, like many others, feels it is a waste of time – how often will a team actually run the weave during a game? Answer: none. Also mentioned is the drill every player dreads – suicide sprints (aka wind sprints). For those who don’t know what they are, read about them in the book. For those who ever played the game and ran them, the dreaded memories will come back.
There is so much more covered about basketball. The nets on the baskets, the type of court that one plays on, the shorts and sneakers worn, the best player he ever played against, the kid who knew he wouldn’t make the high school team, but played very well in the last practice before cuts – they are all covered in the book along with so many other aspects of the game.
Doyle’s writing on the game drew me in like how a shooter on a hot streak draws defenders. The more I read, the more I wanted to keep going. Just as that shooter should be fed the ball as often as possible (another topic of one of the essays) the reader should keep going on with this book until finished.
Readers who have ever played the game, no matter the skill level or how long he or she laced ‘em up, will want to read this book for the memories and to gain a newfound love for the game itself. For readers who have never played, but often wonder what draws people to the sport, these essays will tell that in a beautiful manner.
I wish to thank University of Georgia Press for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
http://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/201...
March 19, 2024
Ball is the poetics of life.
September 8, 2024
Simply a collection of love letters to the game of basketball and the culture of pickup basketball. Beautiful.
July 3, 2018
If you ever played basketball at any age in your life, at any level. Or if your experience was just shooting hoops in your driveway ..... and most likely even if you never played, you'll love these short essays. Not only are they about the game but also about all the often forgotten intricacies of the game .... the dead spots in the floor, your first pair of sneakers, the painted box on the backboard, the ball with a bubble protruding from the perfect roundness, the process of traveling to the game. It's all there and I've not even reached page fifty yet. How much more is there to be discovered or most likely fondly remembered with a smile or a laugh? I wonder if I'll ever finish the book because I'll read a sentence or two and feel the need to put in words, my own experiences growing up, often with a basketball in my hands.
May 21, 2025
This is a book of Brian Doyle’s stories, but they are also your stories, and my stories.
In telling his own life story through basketball, Doyle reminded me of mine. He revived buried memories - my first tryout, the squeak of basketball shoes in the dusty gym. The purple mats on the walls, the court so small there was no corner three. He also showed me a piece of my future, giving me a preview of the endings I will one day face. How my relationship with the game will change as I get older; how I will have different versions of myself within the game. Experiences I hope to one day have (coaching, for example).
I loved this book and recommend it to anyone who thinks the way you play basketball is a reflection of how you live your life. Doyle certainly does.
In telling his own life story through basketball, Doyle reminded me of mine. He revived buried memories - my first tryout, the squeak of basketball shoes in the dusty gym. The purple mats on the walls, the court so small there was no corner three. He also showed me a piece of my future, giving me a preview of the endings I will one day face. How my relationship with the game will change as I get older; how I will have different versions of myself within the game. Experiences I hope to one day have (coaching, for example).
I loved this book and recommend it to anyone who thinks the way you play basketball is a reflection of how you live your life. Doyle certainly does.
February 20, 2022
I was predisposed to love this book since I share the author’s feelings about the greatest and most beautiful sport, and was ready to follow him through the full 95 essay journey as long as he guided me through it eloquently, which he very much did. A basketball fan will likely have the same experience as me; someone who cares less about this sport or sports in general will still find moments of absolute clarity.
November 21, 2025
This one easily makes the “our all time favorite” shelf on our bookcase. You do not have to have grown up playing the game to enjoy his well-written, witty, and at times poignant guide through all things basketball. From the smallest of features (the joy of new basketball shoes or an entire essay on nets) to watching one last game with his brother before he died….this book is about basketball. It’s also not about basketball
May 29, 2021
As someone who loves basketball in all the ways Brian Doyle does and who also greatly appreciates great writing, I treasure this collection of essays. Some of the essays are a bit repetitive but then there is something else the author notices and includes about basketball and the Joy of living (this book is truly about both!) and you think “that was also delightful.” A wonderful book.
October 26, 2021
This is a collection of skillfully written essays about a game that a lot of us watch but few of us understand as well as this skillful and talented writer. A hard book to borrow from a library, I had to buy it to have a chance to read it and I am delighted with my decision as I know I will pick it to enjoy again and again.
November 18, 2021
If you read Brian Doyle, even if you don't play basketball, have a husband, sons or daughters who play don't miss this book. Of course it is about basketball and life and loss and love like everything he wrote. Like every other book I read by him, I did not want it to end. Luckily we own it so it there to read and reread and sigh and cry a bit and love over and over.
April 11, 2023
“Many fine things were invented in America, among them jazz and Mormonism and the blues and Flannery O'Connor and the zipper and Abraham Lincoln, but I do not forget that basketball was also invented here, one winter in Massachusetts, 124 years ago, or that the game now elevates and enlivens the world, and for that, this morning, we ought to be very proud, seems to me.”
October 23, 2022
Brian Doyle was an exceptional writer, and the 95 short essays on basketball that comprise this book are a beautiful homage to the game he loved beyond all others. Sweet and sentimental, insightful and often humorous, this is well worth reading whether you’re a fan of the sport or not.
August 25, 2017
Excellently writes about passion for basketball and action on the court, but I was put off by the long sentences.
January 23, 2021
My favorite writer, writing about my favorite thing in the world? Yes plz.
April 10, 2020
If you're a baller, you will relate to this book in ways you expected and didn't. It definitely took me back to my first tryouts, to Varsity games and all the fond memories, full-court press, intense drills, grueling suicide sprints, boiled eggs, basketball summer camps, stretching as a team, popping Tylenol like it's candy, boxing out, my last game senior year of high school, intramural and pick-up games in college, and all the little moments I thought I had forgotten. More here: https://prabdoowa.wixsite.com/home/po...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews