Playing Days Lib/E

by Benjamin Markovits

Fresh out of college and uncertain how to proceed with life, the narrator of Ben Markovits' "Playing Days" finds himself drifting towards a career that once obsessed his father - professional basketball. Gaining a place on a minor league German team, he leaves Texas and lands in the small rather desolate town of Landshut, playing basketball with an eclectic group of teammates, training for most of the day and then trying to find ways to fill the rest of it. It's an odd, isolated existence, punctuated by the intense excitement - and often intense disappointment - of the game. But then he meets Anke, a young single mother who happens to be the former wife of one of his teammates; and their tentative, burgeoning relationship becomes as significant and as life changing as the game itself. Beautifully written, "Playing Days" is entirely recognisable in its depiction of the first long summer after university. Tinged with the melancholy and nostalgia of early steps into adulthood, it's the story of a young man's first experience of adult love, and of the discovery of his own limitations.

Genres: Novels, Sports

Audio CD

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Tom Mooney · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoroughly enjoyable autobiographical novel about a young man coming of age during a season playing pro basketball in Germany. I really love Markovits's style. This is the second of his novels (the other was about basketball too) that I've read this year and they were both profound and entertaining.

[Steve Holden · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't grab this one with any set expectations. I was perusing a current shelf at the library, and the idea of reading the account of a semi-pro basketball player playing in Germany and his growing up sounded intriguing.

There were parts of interest in this one for me, but the writing style and the lack of enthusiasm expressed by the author in his own life accounts really make most parts quite labor intensive for the reader.

The trials and challenges of attempting to play a sport for a living with all of the barriers of doing it in a foreign country take a backseat in the narrative to the lust and intrigue found in a young woman living in the same flat who has a young daughter whose father happens to be one of his teammates. This just wasn't a great read to me, and in reading it, unsure of the big idea or story the author was truly trying to get across with his account.

[Jamie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story begins promisingly in the early 90s with Markovitts, a recent American college graduate, who hasn't played organized basketball since high school who he gets the idea to send a tryout tape to some European club teams. Unexpectedly, he makes it and ends up playing for a small market squad in Germany and falling for the ex-wife of the only other American on the team, an aging star hoping for his last shot, along the way. Yet this book never went where I hoped it would. Of course, it's a memoir, not a novel, and you can't change real life, but I couldn't help being struck by the lack of humor throughout - as if Markovits, now in his 40s, can't look back upon this part of his life with anything but a great big, tired sigh. The tone is heavy and dour. You might think that a privileged American 20-something getting paid to play basketball, see a new country, and fall in love would have enjoyed himself at least a little and it's a shame that he didn't, or couldn't - even though nothing bad, tragic, or even unfortunate happens to him.

There are some interesting parts though, especially a thread about how athletes, or anyone doing something at a high level, need to come to grips with the fact that there will always be some one better than you - and not just better, but so superior that competition with them is impossible - but that topic has been covered before and better (notably in David Foster Wallace's famous Esquire piece on the US Open, The String Theory). Basketball fans take note though, this part of the story focuses on the differences between players on Markovits's team, notably between a rising star names Kurt (a thinly disguised Dirk Nowitzki) and everyone else.

[Crt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really into basketball so didn't really get the game scenes. Otherwise, quite a nice easy to read story

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

A big long sigh of a book. I wanted to like it -- and like how Markovits writes -- but it's hard to feel engaged with a novel when even the author sounds bored.

[Glenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

To me this was a slow go start to finish.

[Joel Gladstone · Rating 4 out of 5]

A melancholy and thoughtful memoir about a young man at a kind of crossroads. Also a memorable sports book, with lots of interesting insights on athletes. He is unafraid it seems to try to know himself, his father and his fellow athletes. Clear eyed even about love, it's sort of about the birth of a writer.

[Rafelmenmell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un buen libro de deportes, está en el grupo de la literatura de verdad basada en deportes junto con Open y el del tenis de DFW. El ambiente algo desolado de jugadores acabados en ligas de segunda mezclados con jóvenes emergentes está muy bien desarrollado.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Came to this after Rest of Our LIves - and while I recognised the style I did not connect with this story or its feeling in the same way and so found it somehow disappointing - I could sense the subtle observational style but did not connect with the protagonist almost at all...

[Florina · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Athletes are basically delusional human beings." Amen.

[Kevin]

to-read

[Alberto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bella scoperta Markovits (poi recensito anche sul magazine settimanale delle Gazzetta dello Sport). Bel libro di sport con il basket ben disegnato e coinvolgente anche nelle azioni di gioco (non facile da farsi). Ottima la traduzione dei termini tecnici. Ci sta anche la traballante love story per 300 pagine che qualcosa sanno trasmettere.

[Jeremy Greenfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though I appreciated how this this quasi-autobiographical novel taught me about how Benjamic Markovits made his way to Germany to play basketball, and though I did like parts of the novel because of my love of the game, ultimately this was a slog. Good writing, good thinker, but not my favorite.

[Aaron Lozano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read on the life of a minor league basketball player in Europe. Left me feeling like it could have been better. Not a bad read though!

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like basketball, and I sort of liked this book. The premise is interesting: a recent college grad and aspiring writer heads to Germany to land a spot on a second division club. Despite the team earning a promotion to the first division by book's end, the story and writing doesn't live up to that sort of excitement. I felt the romantic entanglement our hero finds himself in to be a bore and this sideshow is probably what leaves the story a bit flat.