Heroes

by David Shields

Book Overview

Albert Biederman, pushing forty, is a sportswriter in River City, Iowa, where college basketball carries the town through the cold winter months. The River State University team has been newly... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803293178
• ISBN13: 9780803293175
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Length: 335 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

A great novel about sports and life

This is a book about sports and a book about more than sports. The setting is Iowa City, the present, and the main character is a guy who writes sports stories for the local paper. He's married to highly intellectual woman, has a son with diabetes, and has a close comraderie with romantic undertones with a college girl who works as his sports stringer. Like any great novel, Heroes, explores the greater themes of humanity through the particulars of the story. The focus of this story is the main character's fascination with a star college basketball player whose incredible ability at the game imbues life with greater meaning. By watching this star athlete, Menkus, play, life becomes more than mere life, surpasses the compromises and losses that one must grapple with, and becomes transcendent. It's a compelling story and David Shields writes in such a manner that not only is the book an engaging read, but it also hints at the subtler points without losing momentum.