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A brutally honest look at the world of an inner city high school through the eyes of the basketball team. This is an enlightening look at the sacrifice and dedication of a high school coach and the overwhelming odds he must face. From the dysfunctional shool system, lack of parental role models, and the impact of the overworked legal system. it is all here. I have read many high school basketball books, and this ranks right up there. Great job by first time author Neil Swidey.
His players and the principal of the school have fascinating stories too. If you look at the cover of this book you would think this is a book about basketball, but you would be wrong. I found this book very hard to put down. Actually, the parts about basketball get in th way of the real story about people lives. Jack O'Brien is the head coach of Charlestown High School, but this book is so much more than just his story. For his first book, Neil Swidey did an outstanding job. I loved this book.
But, as many have said, this is more about life in the inner city than about basketball. Neil Swidey's THE ASSIST chronicles three years in the life of coach Jack O'Brien and the players of Charlestown HS in Boston. It is his way or no way. Swidey did his job as a writer when you realize that half the time you loathe this coach and the other half of the time you respect him. It that sense the book ends in an unsatisfactory manner. And the results, at least the wins, are a staggering five state championships.
This is their way out. O'Brien is a minature high school version of a young Bobby Knight--obsessive, compulsive, and brilliant. The young men who are his players are so overwhelmed with the disfunctional nature of their family lives combined with the violence of the streets that O'Brien's controlled environment becomes something of a safe haven. But like the "rabbit hunter" that Knight has always been, so O'Brien never knows when to let something drop. His greatest strength is also his greatest weakness. But even when they make it out, they struggle because they have become accustomed to his constant oversight.The book ends with the bizarre situation of O'Brien stepping down as the coach and then wanting his job back.
But, in another sense, it's the perfect ending in that there are no easy solutions at Charlestown.
At the forefroent, this non-fictional account reveals the inter-workings of a small community. basketball team - with particular attention dedicated to their coach - Mr. His passion for Charlestown's basketball players extends well beyond the basketball court - and deeply penetrates his players' personal, professional and academic lives. The book, as noted by others, is much more than another story about basketball.
O'brien, however, transcends his community and leads his team through personal, academic, and basketball trials and tribulations. In the background, his book provides atmospherics on the racial tensions that have impacted Mass. for the last several decades. Swidey, a truly embedded journalist, follows the daily lives of a Charlestown, Mass. The topical order of the book, however, left some room for improvement. Coach O'Brien, an Irish Catholic, is no ordinary coach or man.
Swidey also explains the life stories of several basketball players, but pays particular attention to "Hood" and Ridley, the co-captains of the Charlestown basketball team. They come of age under the tutelage of Coach O'Brien and illustrate both the best and worst of their community.
The narrative jumped from one Swidey character to the next and slowed down the story at some points in the work. O'Brien.
His struggles are eloquently captured by Swidey and used in a fashion that highlight and expose nuances and complexities in our society that we, as Americans, are yet to fully understand. In Charlestown, elements of academic bureaucracies interact with high school athletics, and these bed partners marry, or sometimes divorce, with community norms and regional policies and protocols.
Swidey reveals that one man, Coach O'Brien, has dedicated his life to understanding the aforementioned societal system and makes it work to the advantage of his under-appreciated and largely African American basketball squad. The ending of this work it not necessarily happy or sad, but very realistic and relevant to our lives in the 2000's.
Other than this minor distraction, the work provided an insightful and raw account of the American landscape in New England.
O'Brien (along with Mr. First off, I must confess that I just purchased the book and haven't read it yet. Swidey's delightful parents) at the Medford Public library this last week. But I did have the wonderful opportunity of meeting both Mr. Swidey and Mr. They did a wonderful job telling the story of the challenges facing these kids. I hope the book is at least a quarter as good as their discussion and I am pretty sure it will be.
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