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My Losing Season: The Point Guard's Way to Knowledge | 
 enlarge | Author: Pat Conroy
Creator: Chuck Montgomery
Publisher: Random House Audio
Category: Book
List Price: $39.95
Buy New: $12.15
You Save: $27.80 (70%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  95 reviews
Sales Rank: 1100953
Format: Audiobook, Unabridged
Media: Audio Cassette
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 9
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 6.4 x 4.2 x 2.7
ISBN: 0553714090
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.32363092
EAN: 9780553714098
ASIN: 0553714090
Publication Date: October 15, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
PAT CONROY—AMERICA’S MOST BELOVED STORYTELLER—IS BACK!
“I was born to be a point guard, but not a very good one. . . .There was a time in my life when I walked through the world known to myself and others as an athlete. It was part of my own definition of who I was and certainly the part I most respected. When I was a young man, I was well-built and agile and ready for the rough and tumble of games, and athletics provided the single outlet for a repressed and preternaturally shy boy to express himself in public....I lost myself in the beauty of sport and made my family proud while passing through the silent eye of the storm that was my childhood.”
So begins Pat Conroy’s journey back to 1967 and his startling realization “that this season had been seminal and easily the most consequential of my life.” The place is the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, that now famous military college, and in memory Conroy gathers around him his team to relive their few triumphs and humiliating defeats. In a narrative that moves seamlessly between the action of the season and flashbacks into his childhood, we see the author’s love of basketball and how crucial the role of athlete is to all these young men who are struggling to find their own identity and their place in the world.
In fast-paced exhilarating games, readers will laugh in delight and cry in disappointment. But as the story continues, we gradually see the self-professed “mediocre” athlete merge into the point guard whose spirit drives the team. He rallies them to play their best while closing off the shouts of “Don’t shoot, Conroy” that come from the coach on the sidelines. For Coach Mel Thompson is to Conroy the undermining presence that his father had been throughout his childhood. And in these pages finally, heartbreakingly, we learn the truth about the Great Santini.
In My Losing Season Pat Conroy has written an American classic about young men and the bonds they form, about losing and the lessons it imparts, about finding one’s voice and one’s self in the midst of defeat. And in his trademark language, we see the young Conroy walk from his life as an athlete to the writer the world knows him to be.
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 90 more reviews...
 A must for Conroy/basketball fans July 21, 2008
This book is an autobiography of Pat Conroy. If yourexecting the Prince of Tides...look elsewhere for FICTION!... I must admit a bias since I went to college in the South and attended many games against the myriad of colleges Conroy excelled against, seven years later though. I also played basketball, and as most of my teammates would say i had more desire than skill...so I identify with Pat Conroy of his Citaldel days. If basketball bores you, move on and find your reading enjoyment elsewhere!
mix of hoops and a stressful life March 1, 2008
Pat Conroy hasn't written a basketball book in the style of the wonderful "A Season on the Brink". Here, the actual season takes a bleacher seat compared to the main theme of coming of age and dealing with a wide emotional range, from great pleasure to enduring abuse that can make a reader squirm.
The basketball itself is interesting enough, with details pulled together after 30 years thanks to a concerted mining expedition with former teammates, a rather successful lot in middle age. As Conroy says, winners develop bonds with each other that last, with memories they want to keep. Losers, well, they move on and don't need any reminders.
The Citadel team underachieved, losing several close games, with the finger-pointing going to themselves and their mediocre coach Mel Thompson. One might think of Bobby Knight or some other screamer as a coach, but at least Coach Knight knew what he was doing and could usually motivate his boys. On Coach Thompson, we hear plenty of how he brought out the worst or sapped their energy with an ill-timed remark or action. Plus, the average college player didn't have to survive the brutal hazing of freshman year and the other challenges of a military school.
In Conroy's case, life intervenes even more in the presence of his father, well-known to people already aware of Conroy's work. A vision of Robert Duvall as the obnoxious Dad was impossible to avoid, with never a kind word and, in reality, degrading insults even when Pat was at his best. How he could (usually) shrug off the abuse is beyond me, other than it must have come from the same reservoir that make him a tough scrapper on the court.
Other threads include some fine mentors on campus who helped Pat survive and develop his literary interests, a distressed pregnant girl he falls for, the honor system, and a nice summary of high school hoops while on the move. As with many survivor stories, a key individual often makes the difference at a critical time or over a sustained period, and Conroy had his benefactors. There is no doubt that he is a very loyal person who appreciates what others did on his behalf. He even had enough loyalty to Coach Thompson, for some reason, leading to some strange appreciative remarks at the end, and he even had some surprising partial reconciliation with Dear Old Abusive Dad. Conroy is one guy who is all over the map emotionally.
Engrossing and delightful November 5, 2007
Pat Conroy, the brilliant novelist, brings his fantastic writing style to his own memoirs in My Losing Season. Pat describes his life from his early childhood through his college years at The Citadel. His father, a Marine, was both physically and verbally abusive throughout Pat's lifetime. When Conroy Senior wasn't beating Pat's mom, he was taking his aggressions out on any one of the seven Conroy children. They learned to avoid him whenever possible and do what they could to avoid raising his ire. Pat found solace in the game of basketball anywhere he could find it. In school he found structure and guidance, on the street courts he found art and guts. But no matter where Pat played he loved every aspect of the game and the various nuances that he could learn.
Conroy chronicles the difficulties of his home life and then the hardship of being a plebe in a rigorous military college where athletes were practically loathed. In many ways, Conroy's situation did not improve when he escaped his father's daily wrath. But what Conroy explains is that these tribulations were the basis of his personal character building and moments that he now looks back on with feelings of gratitude and appreciation. He writes of his journey to becoming a writer and how he balanced his academic studies with the rigors of college athletics.
Conroy has written a delightful book that reads like his novels but with the added touch of his reality. He does not hesitate to address his own shortcomings as a human, writer, and athlete. This lends credibility to his descriptions of his youth and how that youth shaped his adulthood. My Losing Season contains many references to Conroy's works of fiction and at times discusses the outcome or plots of his novels that may be considered spoilers by those that have not read the novels. However, mostly, it is a unique insight into the author's thought process that will likely lead to a more enjoyable reading of these fictional books. My Losing Season will be enjoyed by those already loyal to Conroy and those that are finding him for the first time.
 A Great Life Lesson Learned! January 12, 2007
My Losing Season is the story of The Citadel's '66-'67 season. Pat Conroy begins the book with a little background as to how he got into basketball and fell in love with the game, as a child in a military family moving from town to town every year. He takes the reader through his journey up until he arrives at The Citadel for college. While Conroy does give tremendous details about his experience at The Citadel, the majority of the book deals with the '66-'67 basketball season. Conroy takes the reader game for game through the ups and mostly downs of the season - their crazy coach Mel Thompson, the Green Weenies, the loss of confidence of the starting 5, and all the teams they play in the Southern conference.
As a reader you'll get to know these guys - DeBrosse, Cauthen, Kennedy, Zinsky, Tee Hooper, etc - you truly feel for them especially because they're real people and these games really happened! It's a great lesson on what one can learn from losing. Are those lessons more important that having a winning season? My only complaint was that since every chapter was really a different basketball game it got tedious at times. You definitely have to be a sports enthusiast to enjoy this book!
 Stop the whining!! December 24, 2006
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have a message for Pat Conroy: STOP YOUR WHINING. I read the book on a recommendation from a friend - however, I wish had not wasted my time on it. Mr Conroy did a masterful job of weaving the story of his life into his expereinces at the Citadel. But, personally, I could not take his whining attitude - the tough plebe system at the Citadel, his "Great Santini" father, his demeaning basketball coach, the reaction from Citadel alumnists over his bashing of their school. This book seemed to infer that he was suffering some inhumane, life-long injustice. Give me a break!! I regret that Mr Conroy's reputation as a great writer and the publisher's willingness to support this project allowed the book to be published in the first place. For anyone paying attention to the rest of the world, this book is a crock...one word of advice for Pat Conroy: suck it up!! Alas, I think it's too late for Mr Conroy. One other note: You would never, ever see wrestler write a book like this!!
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