Who Are You?

Game Changer by Neal Shusterman

New York, NY : Quill Tree Books, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2022.

387 p. ; 21 cm.

This will probably be my last posting here. Why? Because in just over a week, I'll be retired from my high school library job! I wanted to end this review blog with a recent book, and one I liked--Game Changer is that book.

The best thing about this book is its appealing set up. Ash, a young white guy who plays high school football makes a hit and - the shock of the hit - propels him into a slightly different universe. Further hits in later games send him into other alternate universes, each one more radically different than the original universe he started out in. In these alternate universes Ash is a somewhat different person with memories that match that new universe (while he retains memories of previous ones too). 

As Ash figures out who he is in these new circumstances (worlds where segregation never ended, where he is gay, where he is rich, etc.) he has to confront how much of him is essentially "him" and how much who he thinks he is, is the result of circumstance. Also given the disturbing nature of these worlds (the racist segregation world persists throughout) Ash also wants to get back to the original universe he came from. He sort of does and let's just say getting there is an adventure.

Shusterman manages to keep the plot believable, especially in how he wraps it up. He also has an ambitious scope for his novel - taking on racism, sexism, poverty, relationship abuse, etc. I think it stretches the novel a little thin at times, but given the wackiness of the plot, the humor and the likeability of the main character - I think it's overall an effective effort. And with a Netflix deal in the works, this one is likely to be in high demand. I would recommend it.

Game Over

Against Football: One Fan's Reluctant Manifesto by Steve Almond
Brooklyn : Melville House, [2014]
178 p.; 20cm.

In late summer this year, I heard Steve Almond on several talk shows [you can hear him talking with the superb Dave Zirin at the 13 minute mark here] discussing this book, Against Football.  Hearing him talk about the moral problems of being a fan of football was interesting, especially because he was a devoted and obsessed fan of professional football, mainly of the Oakland Raiders.  He brought to the discussion an element missing in some criticisms of football - a passion for the thrills of the game for the fans.

To my mind, Almond has written a powerful and passionate denunciation of the popular love of football by the American public - something that polling data backs up.  Almond manages in this short [178 p.] manifesto to expose football as a brutal [even lethal] sport that embodies many of the shortcomings of US society - sexism, racism, militarism, and unbridled capitalist greed.  However, he also tries to explain why it is such an appealing sport for millions of fans.  He backs his critiques up with facts and data that are hard to dispute. 

Of course many fans will be angry or frustrated with Almond's critique.  Any fan reading this book, will have to confront that their support of football, is a support for a sport that ravages the brains and the bodies of its players [including this tragic injury at a nearby high school this fall].  For those reluctant to give up football, I would suggest checking out this moving video from Time magazine which explains a lot about CTE - the brain injury that is a direct result of football violence and is at the heart of the injury crisis confronting football.

Want to keep watching, enjoying football?  If you do, you at least owe it to yourself and your conscience to read this passionate renunciation of American football.