Sport

By Mick Cochrane

Book Overview

Mick Cochrane follows up his critically acclaimed debut novel, Flesh Wounds , with Sport , the story of a boy's search for order and belonging in a world where the rules keep changing. It is 1967. Harlan Hawkins is a wise and wily kid with a passion for baseball. He plays first base on his summer league team, obsessively collects baseball cards, and avidly follows the fortunes of his beloved hometown Minnesota Twins. And then his world is suddenly, inexplicably shaken when his mother is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and his hard-drinking, explosive father abandons them. The Hawkins family quickly descends into a kind of awkward struggle for survival, for love and safety, for belonging and self-knowledge, through a series of adventures that are sometimes terrifying, sometimes funny, often both. At the center of Sport is the boy's mother, shrewdly, crankily intelligent, full of defiant wisecracks and bitter wisdom, driven by her fierce love for her son. She introduces him to the pleasures of dangerous fun and implores him to swing from the heels and hit away, to make his mistakes loud and large. Harlan is cautiously befriended by George Walker, his baseball coach and neighbor, who does what he can to bring a measure of stability to the boy's life. And when Mr. Walker offers him what looks like a way out, the boy must take stock of what he's learned and make a decision regarding who he is and where he belongs. Sport is about the tension between two worlds: the world as we wish it to be and the world as it is-- frail and broken, dangerous and doomed, terrible and beautiful. Sport is about learning to love the broken world.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312269943
• ISBN13: 9780312269944
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.6" x 0.9" x 5.7"

Customer Reviews

No Joy in Mudville

In the premier story in "Hearts in Atlantis," Stephen King has a wise old character say that some books have a great story and some books have great writing: "read sometimes for the story, Bobby. Don't be like the book-snobs who won't do that. Read sometimes for the words - the language. Don't be like the play-it-safers that won't do that. But when you find a book that has both a good story and good words, treasure that book."Mick Cochrane's book, Sport, does not knock it out of the park. It has good writing and a story that I wanted to like. The writing was taut and initially moved right along, but ended up "all dressed up with no place to go." This is not really a book about St. Paul - but rather St. Paul is a backdrop for this mostly tragic with only a glimmer of comic story. The older brother reminds me of the older brother on the television series "The Wonder Years." Other than St. Paul street names, the major local tie-in is the Minnesota Twins, which, in a bizarre quirk of fate subsequent to the publication of this bleak novel, are probably doomed as well (if Bud Seilig has his way and his "contraction" is allowed to erase the Twins from existence.)Mr. Walker, the most "adult" member of this cast, proposes a toast to "Joy in Mudville" with his empty Coke can in hand. That's as good as this book gets. Better bet: "Until They Bring the Streetcars Back" by Stanley Gordon West.

Strength from the Heart

In the character Sport, Mick Cochrane gives us a boy who not only endures but learns to celebrate his endurance. While others might fret over misfortune and dysfunction, Harlan Hawkins, Jr., aka Sport, accepts the hand that life has dealt him -- an abusive, obese brother; a tough, bitter but scattershot mother suffering from MS; a brilliant, abusive drunken attorney father; a broken home impoverished by his father's refusal to pay support; and a kind teacher who sees his potential. No matter what befalls him, Sport moves ahead with his life. He is most alive when thinking about baseball or likening events in his life to baseball. In that sense he is like all children, learning to make sense of the world as he grows into it. In this age of the abuse excuse and the twisted psychopathy that passes for characterization, it's nice to encounter a normal character who, like most of us, deals with life as effectively as possible because there is no alternative. By loving his family despite their painfully apparent weaknesses, Sport proves himself the strongest of them all. Quiet strength is the stuff of which true heroes are made. Bravo!

Funny and poignant

As good as Cochrane's first book was, Sport is even better. Like Frank McCourt, he adds a unique blend of humour to a tragic life. You instantly feel for the well-developed characters he creates and want to know more about their lives. It is definately a must read.