Hoopla

Author of Esquire's ""Ethics'' column, Stein sets his first novel in the aftermath of baseball's ``Black Sox'' cheating scandal in 1919, a device that allows him not only to explore the familar turf of ethics but also to probe both mythmaking and racism in sport. The narrators are an ambitious fictional reporter who uncovers the scandal and Buck Weaver, one of the eight actual ballplayers charged with accepting bribes and fixing games. PW noted that while the book affords ``a sharp and imaginative look at the underside of the national pastime at a time when baseball and America were supposedly more innocent,'' Hoopla unfortunately ``falls victim to Stein's overly ambitious narrative scheme.'' (April)