Rating: 
Summary: A Long Awaited Treat
Review: Pat Conroy has a way of bringing me into his world in such a way that I actually feel and experience everything that he describes. I'm not a big basketball fan, but I read every word that he wrote with great relish. I suffered his defeats and gloried in his wins. I was outraged at his father's treatment of Pat, and I can now see the roots of many of his other books which contain an abusive father. I've read all of these books except LORDS OF DISCIPLINE, and this "bonding" has happened with every one of his novels. My husband and I visited the Citadel when we were in Charleston and had an opportunity to watch the plebes "quick-timing" their way to class. Therefore, I especially enjoyed the description of his treatment as a plebe at that institution. I just cannot say enough good things about his glorious descriptive passages and the poetry of his words. This is a must read!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Sla-a-am Dunk!
Review: As a former basketball player who experienced a similar senior season, I was wowed by this book and all the eerily familiar scenes. Throw in the prose and insights by an author like Conroy, and you have a real winner. In addition of course this book has a lot more to say besides its focus on the world of hoops, and even someone who has never been enamored of the game will thoroughly enjoy this unforgettable read.
Rating:
Summary: Out of Abuse Comes Strength
Review: Domestic abuse, physical or emotional, in childhood or as experienced by an adult, carries the combined forces of dependence, love, hate, and the survival thread of the human spirit that says, "if only I could be better...stronger...wiser, everything would be alright. In MY LOSING SEASON, Pat Conroy weaves all these emotions and the desire to survive and succeed despite seemingly overwhelming negative pressure from father, coach, and school into a collage of sweat, tears, joy, frustration and exhilaration painted on the wooden basketball court and buildings of The Citadel. This is a book for anyone who sat on the bench, went to the wrong school, lost a sweetheart, had a parent who didn't care, or cared too much. Conroy examines how winners go to the depths of their despair and find strength to fight the demons of self-doubt, fear, and poisoned relationships. MY LOSING SEASON is not only a great recreational read; it is a "must read" for anyone attempting to understand the dark side of human existentence, and the strength that can come from adversity.
Rating:
Summary: It's Not Whether He Won or Lost- It's How He Wrote the Game
Review: Having practically memorized the football accounts in The Prince
of Tides (carefully handling my prized signed copy as I re-read
it) and the basketball scenes in The Great Santini, I was eager
for more when My Losing Season came out. Indeed, when Pat
Conroy turns his incredible ability to put the nuances of a
situation into words, it is beautiful and when he turns it again
to basketball and his life, it's even more so. It's not whether he won or lost, it's how he wrote the game ! I found lots of "winning" in the stories that he tells. A lover of basketball will be engaged by the descriptions of every play, pass, dribble and lay-up; and about how he developed his game, what it meant to him, and how he interacted with the various people who were part of it. The meta-message in this book, to me, is one of resilience. The
real gripper is how Mr. Conroy, under relentless pressures from
his violent father, the Citadel and his coach, simply kept going.
To apply the words of that famous North Carolina State coach,
Jim Valvano, Pat might be envisioned as having said to himself,
"Don't give up, don't ever give up !" We know that sports in
the lives of some youths make them more resilient in the face
of life's stresses and unfavorable circumstances, and this
account is a compelling support for this. However, the reader needs to be steeled for a noir aspect to Mr. Conroy's account. This is the subtext of violence - physical and emotional - that like the proverbial river, runs through it. It can be as shaking as an elbow in the face when posting up to the basket. I was also left hungry by My Losing Season. Why ? Pat Conroy
still has another story to tell that he just holds out tempting
tidbits about here. This would be about the origins of his
desire to write and his love of books that he describes all
too briefly as coming from the place in himself that he went
to in order to deal with the violence that surrounded him.
There are a few marvelous passages describing this true
scholar-athlete's interactions with English teachers and professors. I would love to read more of this. Now that Mr.
Conroy has told us his story of basketball, perhaps for his
next book he'll tell us the story of his life as a writer.
Rating:
Summary: This work of heartbreak and loss is honest and true to life
Review: MY LOSING SEASON is a sports memoir as honest and heartbreaking as a double overtime loss to a hated rival. It is also the only memoir that deals directly with the true story --- step by step, game by game --- of an NCAA Division I basketball team that won a mere eight games (out of 25). This is counterintuitive for a sports book. You see, we are supposed to remember those athletes and teams that never lose, the Knute Rocknes, not the Bill Buckners. Yet both examples offer powerful stories. This was the only type of sports book Pat Conroy could write. In a moment of kismet while on the book tour for BEACH MUSIC, Conroy reconnected with his former teammate John DeBrosse. They found themselves replaying the minutiae of a loss on a basketball court 30 years ago. Both men were marked by that losing season. This encounter served as catalyst to search for meaning from this lost season. Conroy devoted two years to pouring through old newspaper clips, interviewing former teammates and diving into his own memories to reignite the fires of regret and disappointment. He recalls that the best memories his teammates had from the 1966-67 Citadel Bulldogs Varsity Basketball team were of the great players they went up against. They remember the Michael Jordans --- or in this case the Johnny Moates. Conroy writes, "In every home I entered as I reconstituted my team, I found instead of memory scar tissue and nerve damage. There is no downside to winning. It feels forever fabulous. But there is no teacher more discriminating or transforming than loss." This memoir peeks audaciously into the minds of players on a losing team: what made them tick, what they thought and who made them what they became. So the daring part is --- who cares about a bunch of losers? You will, and whether or not you ever played college ball you will soon discover what pushed this entire team to fixate on a single season, letting it overshadow major accomplishments. This was no ordinary team --- these men were the products of the Citadel, a military college in Charleston, South Carolina. Recounting the emotional destruction that is Plebe life (freshman military hazing) to the harsh demands of athletic scholarships (vomiting on the basketball court during six-hour workouts), it is the story of a terrible rise to manhood in a microcosm. Before landing at the Citadel, Conroy was a military brat whose family was always on the move, with the only consistency being a father who wielded love with flying fists and words of debasement. Bloody beatings, unexplainable scars and raw masculine brutality slowly built the foundation of Conroy's childhood memories. His very first memory is from age 2, "my mother tried to stab him (Conroy's father, Colonel Donald Conroy) with a butcher knife and he backhanded her to the floor, laughing, a scene I observed from my high chair." After each game Conroy played, his father made a point to wait and dismantle his self worth. He loomed above him at 6' 4" to his 5' 10". "You're ... You didn't have an off night. You couldn't hold my jock as a ballplayer. I used to eat guys alive on the court," he would say. The treatment of Conroy by his father is often overwhelming. At age 9 the young Conroy decides to become the best basketball player alive and prove his worth to his father. At 17, when he enters the Citadel, he is a human emotional husk (a neophyte, a virgin), and it becomes for him the ultimate fantasy to conquer the windmills of his father's brutal Chicago childhood. He wants to show his father he exists, that he is unique and worthy of love. The intimate domestic politics of Pat Conroy's family is well-mined territory (THE GREAT SANTINI., THE LORDS OF DISCIPLINE, THE PRINCE OF TIDES, BEACH MUSIC), but never has it moved with such visceral force as when it is described through the eyes of a young, willful basketball player whose only and last bridge between father and son is sport. Conroy does not overstate his pain, it is real. (Conroy's brother committed suicide and his mother died of leukemia.) Conroy has contemplated suicide many times when taking stock of the shipwrecks in his past. Mirroring life, the story of Conroy's senior year basketball season in 1967 is complex, his pain is fierce and its shadow lurks behind every word he writes. This was no ordinary season; it was a dismal season, one of loss, pain and very few personal triumphs for the author as well as his teammates. In this personal history the moments that make up Conroy's brutal upbringing find an equal immediacy to the game of basketball. Conroy never gives up on himself or his team because he yearns for the freedom a Citadel education can give him. He eventually graduates from the Citadel a member of their prestigious honor board, the head of its literary magazine and the captain of his basketball team as well as its most valuable player. In this way the budding author overcomes the regrets --- the "what ifs" --- that have pursued him throughout life. MY LOSING SEASON is work of heartbreak and loss, it is honest and true to life, not a testament to "ifs", it simply is. --- Reviewed by R. Scott Hillkirk (
Rating: 
Summary: Life Changing Books
Review: I recently read The Gravel Drive by Kirk Martin thegraveldrive.com, which provides a heartfelt and genuine journey inside the heart of a father whose son is missing. Then I read Pat Conroy's memoir, which again is another honest look inside the heart of a man. These books touched me deeply, and I recommend that every man, father or son, read these books.
Rating:
Summary: Knowlege of sports not required
Review: I was a bit unsure at first if I was ready to read a non fiction work by Pat Conroy. I enjoy non fiction and have lately devoted most of my reading to it, but I wasn't sure what I was going to be getting when I read the description of "My Losing Season". After all, who cares about an unknown college basketball team that played in the sixties? I haven't read all of Mr. Conroy's books yet, not because I don't think he is one of the great writers of all time, but because I know that I'll only get to read them once for the first time. My introduction into his worlds of fiction caught me by surprise because I was well into 'The Prince of Tides' before I realized that the book wasn't a true story. I now realize after reading 'My Losing Season' that everything he writes is true, even the fiction. I would have broken down crying several times during the reading of this book, but my heart is still guarded by never sleeping sentinels whose tireless detail is to walk the stone walls that guard my interior. Mr. Conroy manages to gain an entrance, however, and at times during reading his work I feel a sense of hatred towards him. Not meanness, just anger with no where to go. So what is it about this book, this story that makes it so worth reading? The nakedness that Pat Conroy brings to the page. The truth. Simple and raw and courageous. Enduring and joyful, sad and painful. I envy his memories, his legacy, his past, not because I feel that the journey was easy or he was lucky, but because whatever molded him into the man he became, whatever blessing or curse that was bestowed him at birth, whatever angels or demons followed his path, he has been able to live outside of the shells and caves and fortresses that most of us dwell in. Or at least he has done so enough to make a difference. While I can't recommend 'My Losing Season' enough, I do have one slight reservation, that being I don't know whether or not a first time reader will enjoy it more before or after they've read one of his previous books. But do read it, whether or not you are familiar with basketball, military colleges or the journey of broken boys trying to become men, you will turn the last page wishing there was more. I promise.
Rating:
Summary: Best book of our generation?
Review: This is my first Pat Conroy book although I have seen two movies from his books, Santini and Prince of Tides. The Great Santini I enjoyed immensely. Conroy is a brilliant writer who weaves many sentences with excellent descriptions and analogies. While I grade his writing style highly, I was originally attracted to the book for the story line as I thoroughly enjoy basketball. But while this book is centered on basketball that is only the spine around which this book is developed. This is a story of the growth of Conroy with many subplots: life at Citadel and the murderous Plebe system, his complicated family life particularly with his father, his meager love life and his early development as a writer. But, as always, character development is critical to a great book and in addition to Conroy, we see his interaction with teammates and coaches. In fact, it is a comment from one of his teammates who years later provokes the idea of this book of supposed "losers". Conroy writes without an ego and clearly he is a better player than he describes. But after 3/4 of the book, it's rewarding when Conroy visits the aged teammates to find out how their lives have developed. Particularly his coach and one role player for whom all readers will have a high degree of respect for his sacrifices. While I enjoyed the whole book, the most touching passages are of his trips to the Vietnam Wall and the story of the student team manager, Rat. READ THIS BOOK. YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED. I read books for enjoyment or to learn. I enjoyed the story and marveled at the superb writing. I learned a great deal about Conroy and his life and influences. And I also visualized my life and whether I will have the great memories and be touched by so many wonderful teachers and friends. ADDENDUM: The book had kind words for Jerry West who worked at a camp with Conroy. I met West and asked had he read the book as it had kind words of him. He considers Conroy a good friend and had read the book. He also mentioned that Tom Clancy had come through the camp as well. I guess basketball and authors are a great combination.
Rating:
Summary: If this book is boring...
Review: If this book is boring, I'm a snowy egret. I went to Conroy's book signing in Denver and expected him to talk for a few minutes, sign books, and get out as quickly as he could. He spoke for an hour, took questions, and spent time with everyone.
This book answers the between-the-lines questions everyone has who has loved The Prince of Tides, The Lord's Of Discipline, Beach Music, and The Great Santini. I read the passage about Christmas, his father's reaction to Pat's gift, and the way Pat's coach spoiled Christmas to my wife last night. Haunting. Come to think of it, maybe I am a snowy egret who loves the style and passion of Conroy.
Rating:
Summary: MY LOSING SEASON HAS WINNING READINGS
Review: Both Jay O. Sanders and Chuck Montgomery render thoroughly enjoyable readings of Conroy's love affair with basketball. A stand-up comedian and TV performer (The Sopranos, Law & Order), Montgomery brings nuanced richness to his performance on the Unabridged version. The acclaimed author of "Beach Music" and "The Prince of Tides," Conroy was a military child whose constant was change, from town to town and house to house. He discovered basketball at the age of nine and hung on for dear life. While enduring a less than perfect childhood, Conroy has said that basketball "provided a legitimate physical outlet for all the violence and rage and sadness I later brought to the writing table.......It was also the main language that allowed father and son to talk to each other. If not for sports, I do not think my father would have ever talked to me." Thus, "My Losing Season" is not just about a sport, but about a life. It is a memorable coming of age tale. Conroy played for the Citadel Bulldogs during their 1966-67 season. The team coach, Mel Thompson, was a harsh disciplinarian who was known for his 3 ½ hour Christmas Day practices. Rather than encouragement he doled out abuse. In retrospect Conroy looks at that season as a benchmark experience in his life. Although his teammates may very well wish they had been victorious, Conroy writes, "I consider it one of the great years of my life. If I could change history, if I could change everything that happened that year, if I could bring us a national championship I would not do it...It was the year I learned to accept loss as part of natural law. My team taught me there could be courage and dignity and humanity in loss...." Listen to this remarkable true story - listen and learn. - Gail Cooke
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