THE OLYMPIAN

Williams debut novel fictionalizes the story of black American athletic pioneer John Baxter Taylor.

Taylor, the straitlaced teenage child of hardworking parents at the turn of the century, is a preternaturally gifted runner who easily outraces his competition, earning him the respect of several peers as well as the ire of many others. Also an adept scholar, the young Taylor gains admittance to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he continues his stellar track and field career until running afoul of a particularly nasty and entitled bigot, Charles Cook, who resents Taylor’s success and can’t brook the humiliation of being bested by a black man. Just as Taylor begins to find himself—wooing the beautiful and talented daughter of a local family, joining a prestigious fraternity and realizing that finance is not his calling—Cook engineers a plot that unravels Taylor’s life and forces his withdrawal from school. Rudderless, prideful and given the cold shoulder by his parents, it takes a chance encounter with his hero, boxer Jack Johnson, to set Taylor on the right path once more. With expert pacing and a confident writing style, Williams demonstrates command of his craft, and his decision to novelize Taylor’s life lets him play around with descriptions and metaphors that mostly show off sound word choices. He’s not immune to rookie mistakes, however, unleashing a few clunky turns of phrase and too often falling prey to literary clichés, improbable plot twists and several instances of clumsy exposition—Williams overexplains the action numerous times and falls into a habit late in the book of repeating information for the benefit of characters on the page. And electing a first-person narrative is a tricky choice that doesn’t quite pay off; considering the character’s fate, the ending reads especially odd. Nonetheless, this marks a solid and promising debut.

Engaging, if not quite on the medal stand.