Customer Reviews

Barney Polan's Game: A Novel of the 1951 College Basketball Scandals

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Barney Polan's Game is about college basketball scandals where people would pay off refs and other people so the team that they picked to win would win. Players even sometimes got involved with this and didn't usually get caught. The setting of this book is in the 1950's in Brooklyn. Barney Polan is the main character and at the start of the book Barney tells stories about his life, and how much of a sports fan he is. He says that he is a writer for the Brooklyn Sentinel.

This wasn't the best book that I have ever read but it was alright. The thing that I liked about it was all the history that was behind it, and how accurate it was. I knew exactly what they were talking about and why they said it. One of the things that Barney talks about a lot is McCarthyism, which is a word used to describe the anti-communist suspicion in the U.S. McCarthy was actually a leader and he was so anti-communist that he blamed just about everyone for being too communist. So that is how the word came up.

The author of this book has two books in the New York Times Notable Books of the year. His name is Charley Rosen and he has written eight popular books, and Barney Polan's Game is one of them. He has written many basketball novels and even another one that took place in the 1950's; it is called Scandals of '51. He has also co-authored Maverick with Phil Jackson, who is a famous NBA head basketball coach for the L.A. Lakers. He used to coach the women's basketball team at the State University of New York, and he also use to play basketball in the 1950's and 60's. So that's how he got inspired to write this novel.

Rosen's very good--and this is a fine and readable book of the early 50's scandals...it's nowhere near, however, the book that Rob Roberge's "Drive" is--by far the best basketball book of recent years. But this was agood read.

I was given this book to read for a literature class at the University of Kansas. (Basketball is literature out here where it was born). The book starts out slow, instead of a begining that has some kind of hook, it muddles around with Barney Polan talking about his gut (Yawn) and the ancient barnacles that once roamed the sport's world. If you like reading the sports section, you'll like this book. Once you get through the first quarter of the book, it picks up speed and complications. By the end I stayed up to finish because I had to know who got caught in the tightening net,and I couldn't concentrate on my homework. The book has a really unique style; it is all first person, but it switches from person to person, so you get inside everyone's mind, sometimes even as they're having a conversation and you get to see their rationalizations, arrogance, fears, and thoughts on how to play basketball. It's also fascinating to see how they all try to outsmart each other, even when they're being outsmarted. Hoop it up Charley!!

A subject of eternal fascination especially for basketball "nuts" who grew up in New York. We idolized the terribly tarnished CCNY "Wonder Five" who set an unbreakable record by winning both the NIT and NCAA titles in 1950 (it can never be repeated because of the way the tournaments are now scheduled). This book is a fictional addendum to Rosen's non-fiction treatment of the original basketball "scandals", as he outlines in his NPR interview. Unfortunately there are glaring albeit minor errors -- Broadway and 43rd Street cannot be on the east side of Manhattan; Madison Square Garden has been on 23rd Street, and is now above Penn Station; in between it occupied the block bounded by 49th and 50th Streets and Eighth and Ninth Avenues. These errors are particularly galling in a book by a New Yorker who played at Hunter College, and they undermine the author's credibility and care in writing. Since this is a fictionalized account of a real occurrence, the game of who is this really is inescapable. Hence it is most unfortunate that Rosen in his interview avers that some players who were not prosecuted went on to pro careers, and "a couple are in the Hall of Fame." This tarnishes by inclusiveness such stalwarts as Bob Cousy (Holy Cross, '49), Dick McGuire (St. Johns, '48), Bobby Wanzer (Seton Hall, '46), and Frank McGuire, the legendary coach at St. John's, North Carolina and South Carolina.

This book will keep your interest because the subject matteris fascinating. Rosen's writing style is direct -which is anotherplus. His portrayals of people and their intrwoven stories are well done.

The flaws in the book are such dramatic events such as these could be described in greater detail-detail that could have been gripping. He kind of glosses over some of the actual events opting for recounts. Also, it seems some of the basketbal vernacular sounds like 1998 instead of 1951. This is a minor criticism- and for all I know may be off base as I wasn't around in 1951.

In short, I recommend this as a nice, light read. It could have been a little better, but any basketball fan should enjoy reading Barney Polan's Game

i must tip my proverbial hat to rosen for his comical attempt to personify some of these characters. the dialog spits out in the most vile of all stereotypes. had hip-hop existed in the time frame, i'm sure rosen would've had a few laughable rhymes. all in all though the read is worthy of your time. it rolls out so fast that one is finished before one approaches "waste of time" status. had this pile of words lingered on for much longer, it would qualify as fertilizer. the scene with the pathetic father eating crackers and tomato soup was gut-bustingly good. the descriptions of jerking off are priceless, perhaps suggesting that rosen is indeed himself a chronic wanker. solid, heady material....no doubt.