My Losing Season
by Pat Conroy

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Book Reviews of My Losing Season

Book Review: More than a Sports Story:Conroy Conquers Great Adversity
Summary: 5 Stars

Conroy does develop academically at the Citadel and in spite of his frustration with the Plebe system, he continues to develop in literature and his aspirations of day being a writer seem to coincide with his confidence as a basketball player. While experiencing difficulties with communicating with his coach, Conroy develops excellent academic relationships with his professors achieving scholastically beyond his basketball endeavors.

But the bulk of the story is the telling of his development into a better than he describes basketball player. Conroy tells the entertaining story of the Citadel basketball team from his freshman year to that final year where he battles better athletes for the starting point guard position. He provides biographies for each player including their strengths and weaknesses while they play for a college that does not have any real affection for jocks. Their coach is a former NC State rebounder of high regard who seems frustrated that he is coaching in the Southern Conference. He handles his players harshly with virtually no positive feedback. On Christmas Day they practice for 4 hard hours only to have baloney sandwiches twice a day while they live in the visitor's dorm on the empty campus seems incredibly Spartan. But in spite of the negatives Conroy survives to eventually take his place as the captain of the team and as the eventual starting point guard. In addition, he blossoms as a student and makes strong friendships with his mentors that derive pleasure from his grasp of literature.

The telling of the basketball season is virtually game-by-game as he tells of teams familiar with anyone in the south who is aware of the Southern Conference. Conroy captures the exciting play as the team plays Davidson, then coached by Lefty Driesel, VMI, VA. Tech, Richmond, Jacksonville, William and Mary, Clemson and many others. He not only describes the game action well but also he describes the arenas such as the old Blow Gym at W & M, the VMI pit with the Keydets and playing in the hostile world of Clemson. Conroy provides insight to the players and their feelings and their struggles to play well in spite of their coach who at times punished the best players and sometimes wore them down before the games even started.

As the book evolved it seems that Conroy got in touch with himself realizing the consequences of living in a suffering house hold made him attracted to the down trodden particularly women that had a hard life. The psychological damage that he feels is portrayed through the book and after the season is over Conroy seems to look back not only at the lives of his teammates but his own life as well. After graduating, Conroy becomes estranged from the Citadel because of his books and then his father because of the "Great Santini" ("It put a missile in his cockpit"). But this a positive story after all because in spite of his modesty, Conroy achieves beyond his dreams on the court, and academically at the Citadel and eventually his father makes a dramatic turn for the better. The basketball story is riveting but Conroy's survival even more so. And in his openness about his athletic limitations, the reader has to think that any point guard that can score over 20 points a game four times in a season has got to be a good player. But the high point is the bonds between the players that although they were not obviously evident during the losing season actually become cemented almost 30 years later as Conroy contacts his teammates as they jointly explore that catastrophic season. The one mystery is how his father could change so dramatically that at his death he was beloved by his family and his community. That aspect deserves more detail.

Summary of My Losing Season

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