Too Far
|
Too Far
|
(2 Votes)From Publishers Weekly
Most of New York Daily News columnist and ESPN commentator Lupica's work, fiction (Red Zone, etc.) and nonfiction (Summer of '98, etc.), is grounded in the world of sports. This thriller/mystery tells of a high school basketball team whose winning season is threatened by the murder of its manager, Bobby Ferraro, and allegations of sadistic initiation rites. Former sportswriter and television commentator Ben Mitchell has quit the business and retired to self-imposed exile in South Fork, his Long Island hometown, after one of his columns exposed a coach's lies about his war record, which led to the coach's suicide. Ben spends his days reading newspapers, watching television and endlessly rehashing his responsibility for the coach's death. When novice sportswriter Sam Perry, a high school senior, shows up with what looks like a sensational story, Ben finds his old reporting juices flowing again. Soon the two of them are crashing around town investigating Ferraro's murder, angering the citizens of South Fork, who want nothing to interfere with their team's climb to the state championship. Real-life news reports of out-of-control hazing by high school sports teams give Lupica's tale a ripped-from-the-headlines thrill, but the slow pace and predictable plot may tire readers not fascinated by the sports angle.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From
Famed journalist Ben Mitchell has "retired" to his eastern Long Island hometown of South Fork, having exposed L.A. Dodger manager Tom Robards for lying about serving as a marine in Vietnam. Humiliated, Robards has committed suicide. And now Mitchell only wants to be left alone. However, he can't avoid a scandal unfolding before his eyes: South Fork High School might have the best basketball team in the nation, but team manager Bobby Ferraro is dead, and Drew Hudson, a player on the team, has been brutally assaulted but won't say who did it. Was it the athletically gifted but troubled DeShawn "Show" Watkins, who has just transferred from the South Bronx to South Fork? His brother, Antoine, a cop gone bad? Or coach Ken Glass, who will do almost anything to safeguard the upcoming season? Or Detective Commander Hank Bender, whose son could pull a scholarship from a South Fork championship? Sam Perry, a Ben Mitchell wanna-be who's been bird-dogging the story for the local paper, has now come to Mitchell for help. As a mystery novelist, Lupica is a great sportswriter. This is a fairly predictable story, but with dialogue that has some snap and a sports setting that's credible. And count on Lupica's fine reputation to create demand. Alan Moores
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) | 
26/09/2005
26/09/2005
In TOO FAR veteran sportswriter Mike Lupica has written a thriller from a moral high ground, a plea for tolerance and against sadistic hazing. In the wake of the notorious Mepham High School football scandal, this book comes as a wake up call. It would be fair to say that actually this novel is nothing more than the Mepham case with the names changed and the athletic action switched from the gridiron to the hoops; it's pretty transparent that way. Well, Upton Sinclair wasn't subtle either. Nor is any man on a crusade against sodomy.
Old school print journalist Ben Mitchell gets interested in the death of a high school basketball player on Long Island, whose body has floated ashore. With the help of student reporter Sam Perry, Ben quickly maps out the lay of the land in a perverted, though very starry, b-ball organization. Its pecking order is maintained in to teams with multiple "stars," since such teams have a radical instability that implodes on itself. Shag and Kobe, he says, dislike each other, because on any team there can be only "one f--ing man." These codes of masculinity may seem outdated, but to the guard with blood dripping out his butt, staining the radiant white of his uniform shorts, it's no laughing matter.
Ekaf (Long Island, USA) | 
02/05/2005
02/05/2005
In Mike Lupica's latest novel, "Too Far," we are presented with an interesting concept: the exploration of team pushed to and beyond the limit. The idea of participating on a team is very real to us, as we've all done so before, and we all know what it's like. Lupica's story takes the idea of competition to the extreme, and in the process, loses a base of reality. It would have been a much wiser decision on Lupica's part to explore a high school team plagued with realistic problems that the layperson could relate to. The rampant sensationalism and melodrama that characterize "Too Far" prevent Lupica from doing justice to a good concept. Finally, Lupica is unable to keep his writing strong throughout. Witticisms are disseminated throughout large sections of uninteresting prose and poorly done dialouge. On the whole, one would expect more out of Lupica; this is sub-standard work.
Showing 1 to 2 of 2
Write Review
Your Name:
Your Review: Note: HTML is not translated!
Rating: Bad Good
Enter the code in the box below:
