Colton's account of the environment he witnesses, while not particularly enlightening, does provide good dramatic background...
The social dilemmas faced by present-day Native Americans are revealed in this journalistic look at a high school girls' basketball team in Crow, Montana.
In a previous book, Goat Brothers (1993), Colton examined the lives of fraternity brothers from the 1960s to the 1990s. Here, he spends a season living and observing the Hardin High School girls' basketball team, a team comprised of white girls and Crow Indians. Although Colton manages to give a face to the different players, he is particularly fascinated by 17-year-old Sharon Laforge, an extremely talented American Indian who hopes to earn a college basketball scholarship, but whose future is threatened by several factors, including an absentee father, an alcoholic mother, a possessive and abusive boyfriend, an undisciplined lifestyle, and pressure from peers and community. The racial oppression that Native Americans still face, especially in small rural towns, is another factor. Hardin's population of 2,990 is 49 percent Crow Indian, and mistrust and misunderstanding exists between cultures: the Crows see the whites as having inherited privilege, and the working-class whites see the Crows as having access to government funds, services, and scholarships that they themselves cannot get. In addition, the emerging status of women, especially star athletes such as Sharon, threatens the downtrodden and jealous Crow men who traditionally are used to being in charge. "Counting coup," an Indian battle term that referred to warriors gaining honor, respect, and dignity, is now also a Hardin High School basketball term that refers to dominating one's opponent. In this Hoop Dreams for American Indians, Colton shows how a handful of girls try to count coup against opponents who appear on more than just the basketball court.
Colton's account of the environment he witnesses, while not particularly enlightening, does provide good dramatic background for his story of the team's attempt to make, and win, the state championship.Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2000
ISBN: 0-446-52683-5
Page Count: 432
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2000
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.
Known for her often contentious perspectives, New York Times opinion writer Weiss battles societal Jewish intolerance through lucid prose and a linear playbook of remedies.
While she was vividly aware of anti-Semitism throughout her life, the reality of the problem hit home when an active shooter stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue where her family regularly met for morning services and where she became a bat mitzvah years earlier. The massacre that ensued there further spurred her outrage and passionate activism. She writes that European Jews face a three-pronged threat in contemporary society, where physical, moral, and political fears of mounting violence are putting their general safety in jeopardy. She believes that Americans live in an era when “the lunatic fringe has gone mainstream” and Jews have been forced to become “a people apart.” With palpable frustration, she adroitly assesses the origins of anti-Semitism and how its prevalence is increasing through more discreet portals such as internet self-radicalization. Furthermore, the erosion of civility and tolerance and the demonization of minorities continue via the “casual racism” of political figures like Donald Trump. Following densely political discourses on Zionism and radical Islam, the author offers a list of bullet-point solutions focused on using behavioral and personal action items—individual accountability, active involvement, building community, loving neighbors, etc.—to help stem the tide of anti-Semitism. Weiss sounds a clarion call to Jewish readers who share her growing angst as well as non-Jewish Americans who wish to arm themselves with the knowledge and intellectual tools to combat marginalization and defuse and disavow trends of dehumanizing behavior. “Call it out,” she writes. “Especially when it’s hard.” At the core of the text is the author’s concern for the health and safety of American citizens, and she encourages anyone “who loves freedom and seeks to protect it” to join with her in vigorous activism.
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-593-13605-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2019
A heartfelt if somewhat unsurprising view of old age by the former president. Carter (Living Faith, 1996, etc.) succinctly evaluates the evolution and current status of federal policies concerning the elderly (including a balanced appraisal of the difficulties facing the Social Security system). He also meditates, while drawing heavily on autobiographical anecdotes, on the possibilities for exploration and intellectual and spiritual growth in old age. There are few lightning bolts to dazzle in his prescriptions (cultivate family ties; pursue the restorative pleasures of hobbies and socially minded activities). Yet the warmth and frankness of Carter’s remarks prove disarming. Given its brevity, the work is more of a call to senior citizens to reconsider how best to live life than it is a guide to any of the details involved.
Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1998
ISBN: 0-345-42592-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1998
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