An endearing recollection of one man’s long career in basketball.
Dowdall recounts a lifetime of amateur basketball in this debut sports memoir.
Born and raised in small-town Montana, Dowdall was the son of a basketball coach who introduced him to the sport in the 1950s, when the author was just 3 years old. So began a lifetime love of the game. Though he never performed at the professional or even collegiate level, Dowdall has consistently played basketball throughout his life and hopes to keep at it for as long as he can: “I have played through many stages of my life, and the circumstances of each necessarily had some impact on my playing. I’ve progressed from being the youngest on the court to the oldest on the court.” This book represents a treasury of stories from Dowdall’s decades of play, from participating in high school games and rec leagues to coaching youth basketball and finally competing in the Over The Hill pickup group. Dowdall not only tracks his own life via his long relationship with the sport, but also charts the rise of basketball as a new American pastime, enjoyed by people of all ages and skill levels, in games both formal and casual, from elementary school gymnasiums to the White House itself. (Dowdall refers to Barack Obama as “our first basketball president.”) The author is a natural raconteur, and his ability to recall the details of games, locations, people, and rivalries from yesteryear provides a colorful bed of specificity. Though occasionally nap-inducing in that charming way that sports minutiae can often be, many of the stories are quite entertaining and artfully constructed. Dowdall frequently builds them around the other competitors on various teams, their personalities, and career trajectories—from pro players in Belgium to future Democratic nominees for governor—providing a human lens through which to view the sport. One might be incredulous that a memoir by a basketball nobody could be of general interest, but Dowdall represents the perfect Everyman baller, intimate with the sport not at its heights but at its grass roots. Sixty years on, he’s still excited just to be out on the court.
An endearing recollection of one man’s long career in basketball.Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9976902-0-0
Page Count: 469
Publisher: Goosetown Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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