The Schoolyard Game: An Anthology of Basketball Writings

This uneven collection of both fiction and nonfiction tries to touch all aspects; included are articles or book excerpts from nearly everyone noteworthy who has written about basketball since WW II. However, one senses that many of the pieces have been added pro forma, like a four-page reprint from John Updike's Rabbit, Run , an even shorter entry from Philip Roth's Goodbye, Columbus and inconsequential selections from John Edgar Wideman, Pete Axthelm, John McPhee and Ira Berkow. Even so, some material is excellent--a chapter from Bill Bradley's Life on the Run ; a capsule history of the Boston Celtics by Bob Ryan and Terry Pluto from Forty-Eight Minutes ; a scene from The Great Santini (which is about generational conflict, not basketball); and David O. Weber's novella ``American Pastime'' (about racism, not basketball). Despite these moments, though, the book is less than impressive. Wimmer is the author of Baseball Fathers, Baseball Sons . (May)