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Summary: Still the greatest.
Review: Pat Conroy proves again that he is the greatest author of our time.
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Summary: Losing as learning.
Review: "I was born to be a point guard, but not a very good one" (p. 1) bestselling author, Pat Conroy, writes in the Prologue to this memoir of his 1966-67 senior year basketball season at the Citadel. It was a season that haunts him still (p. 399). THE LOSING SEASON is not only Conroy's sentimental story of "a mediocre basketball team," The Citadel Bulldogs, a team that spent a year "perfecting the art of falling to pieces" (p. 14), but it is also the story of his encounters with loss, an experience which enabled him to endure a "child-beating father" (p. 388), aka "The Great Santini," and an experience which later sustained him during the "stormy passages" of his life, "when the pink slips came through the door, when the checks bounced at the bank," when he left his wife, and when he later contemplated suicide (p. 14). He observes, "losing prepares you for the heartbreak, setback, and tragedy that you will encounter in the world" (p. 395). Conroy spent four years interviewing members of his team and writing his book as an "act of recovery" (p. 394).Does Conroy turn his mediocrity as a basketball player into great writing in THE LOSING SEASON? Well, not quite. While this book does not reach the heighths Conroy previously travelled as a writer in THE PRINCE OF TIDES (1986), THE GREAT SANTINI (1989), and BEACH MUSIC (1995), it will not disappoint basketball fans or Conroy's following of readers. G. Merritt
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Summary: If you love basketball, this book will haunt you!
Review: I'm a great fan of Conroy's novels and this one I especially enjoyed. Basketball lovers will probably appreciate the book more than those who only have a passing fancy, although the music director at my church bought the book and loved it and she doesn't even go to basketball games. The book took me back to my own college years and unlocked locks of memories that are still stirring in me. It's an easy read...very entertaining, poignant and inspiring. You'll love it!
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Summary: Conroy: "Same Old Greatness"
Review: All Of Conroy's books blossom from the same themes, yet all of them are invidualistic in their own way. Only a real artist can make each charecter (fiction or non) rich with emotions of love, hatrid, sadness, humor and devastation.
All of Conroy's books live in a warm spot in my heart, each individually eliciting a wonderful storm of emotion that can only be found within the pages he writes. "My Loosing Season," is another fine example of what makes Conroy such a elite writer. This book will touch the hearts of all that have experienced the feeling of loss in any facet of life, not just on the basketball court.
This books modest prose is very enlightening about the man Pat Conroy is. For those of you who have read Conroy in the past, this book ads much in the way of insight to how and why those books were written. For those who have not read Conroy before, this book is as good a starting point as any. The man is a genius, a writer that comes around once in a lifetime. My only fear is that this will be his last novel. I can only cross my fingers and wait.... Thank you Pat Conroy
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Summary: Disappointing and boring
Review: The review of My Losing Season in the New York Times Book Review gets this book absolutely right. That is, the book is just plain awful.
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Summary: A great writer has done it again!
Review: This book is an epic, destined to become a classic. It is like "The Odysessy" in the way the young Pat Conroy faces the challenges of life, one after the other. It contains so much that I plan to read it over and over. "My Losing Season" is a treasure, to be savored for a long, long time.
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Summary: My # 1 Favorite Book!
Review: I have been waiting for this book since reading the Water is Wide. The autobiographical Pat Conroy is poignant, passionate, and above all - honest. Everyone can find (at least) a shadow of himself somewhere in Pat Conroy's world. If that doesn't peak your interest, consider this: Conroy's books are the only ones I buy in hardback editions. Can there be a greater compliment?
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Summary: A 5 Star Season
Review: As an avid reader of Pat Conroy, I am thrilled to read his most autobiographical book to date. In My Losing Season, his insights are so reflective and passionate that reading his book is a learning and insightful experience that I can apply to my own life. No wonder he continues to remain the best of Southern writers. Now, his new book places him at the pinnacle of American authors.My Message: You MUST read this book!
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Summary: A wonderful yet disturbing personal tale
Review: The power of a good writer is in his ability to bring you into the lives of his characters. You relate to them, sympathize with them and feel as if they've been with you your whole life, they seem to know you that well. Conroy's fictional characters have always had that appeal, and now he does too. With the brilliance of an experienced tale master he opens up his life for you to share. Punches aren't pulled and embarrassing facts are not omitted. Not since Rousseau's "Confessions" has a successful writer so taken his reading audience by storm. What he shares is rich with emotion and experience, colored in an English he seems to have invented and (sad to say) more than a bit mad. Why genius is so often allied on the dark side of sanity I do not know, but the world is richer for it. I'm only sorry for the people who bring us those riches. "My Losing Season" is a sparkly stone - possibly onyx.
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Summary: My Losing Season a Winner!
Review: "My Losing Season" by Pat Conroy is a reflective catharsis of the author's yearning to understand his past from an emotional distance that only the passing of the years can provide. Drawing upon interviews with former basketball teammates, family members, and friends, Conroy paints a picture that, while framed within his senior basketball season, spills over into his whole composite canvas of experiences in life. It is the mixture and texture of his past that create a book that is both haunting and, ironically, uplifting.
Pat Conroy's father was physically and verbally abusive against a helpless son, mother, and family. The monster that was his father hated himself so much that he punished his son for all of his unfulfilled dreams. The glimpses into the abuse are brief yet tangible enough that the reader wishes he could reach through the pages and retaliate for the injustices. Yet out of this abuse, the author chose to not only persevere, but to excel against the odds. Too short and too average to be an exceptional athlete, Conroy instead fused all of his intensity into being the best basketball player he could possibly be. His coach at The Citadel in his "losing season" mirrors his own father in that there was never much communication, especially positive. Conroy, having been told that he will not start any games in his senior season, does not quit; instead, he plays even harder as a point of pride and determination. The quality of not letting others define us and of not allowing other to control our lives is, by itself, a monumental theme for all regardless of the reader's age or gender.
If there's room your book collection for a story that is uplifting and will make you reflect upon your own life's destination, I would highly recommend this as a "must read book."
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