In the beginning, it was just for boys. Originating in the late nineteenth century as a popular, morally instructive piece of entertainment for preteen males, the sports novel has had a long, slow climb to respectability. Ever since it began to encroach on more elevated terrain in the middle of the twentieth century, the genre has maintained an uneasy relationship with the higher claims of literature. With its cast of larger-than-life characters, its central place in the lives of so many fans, and its mirroring of the world beyond the field, the sports universe is a rich site of inquiry for the receptive novelist. Yet the novel of athletics has only sporadically taken advantage of these possibilities. Now a wide range of writers have picked up the thread again, employing a dizzying array of stylistic and thematic approaches that have gone a long way toward refreshing the genre. Read more
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