The Necessary Hunger: A Novel [Paperback]

Nina Revoyr (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 1998

As a star basketball player in her last year of high school, Nancy Takahiro's life is about to change forever. Faced with the college recruitment process and unsure of where her skill will take her, Nancy is not prepared for meeting Raina Webber, an All-State shooting guard whose passion for basketball is matched only by her talent.

When Nancy's father and Raina's mother move in together, the girls are faced with the challenge of negotiating their already intense friendship and rivalry. As Nancy's love for Raina grows and both prepare to leave inner city neighborhood that has nurtured them, they find themselves looking toward a future that is no longer easily defined.

Set against a backdrop of racial tension between the Asian American and African American communities of Los Angeles and infused with tenderness and passion. The Necessary Hunger explores not only the intricacies of the game of basketball, but also the very nature of the relationships young women create in the face of the odds that are stacked against them.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Nancy Takahiro is a star high school basketball player who is smitten by a new player, Raina Webber. When Nancy's father falls in love with Raina's mother and the families move in together, Nancy's love for Raina becomes positively excruciating. This novel grapples not only with the awkwardness of adolescent love, but also with race: Nancy is Asian American, Raina is African American. And if that's not enough, it's full of information on college sport recruiting techniques. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Two young women grapple with the stress of competitive high school basketball, college recruiters, their sexual identities, racism, and the interracial love story of their parents. Enough here to appease appetites for drama.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (March 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312181426
• ISBN-13: 978-0312181420
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #385,982 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nina Revoyr is the author of four novels--The Necessary Hunger (1997), Southland (2003), The Age of Dreaming (2008), and Wingshooters (2011). Southland was a BookSense 76 pick, Edgar Award finalist, winner of the Lambda Literary Award, and a Los Angeles Times "Best Book" of 2003. The Age of Dreaming was a finalist for the 2008 Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Wingshooters, Nina's new novel, is an IndieBound Indie Next selection and a Midwest Connections Pick for March, 2011. It is also one of Oprah: The O Magazine's "10 Titles to Pick Up Now" for March, 2011.

Nina was born in Tokyo and raised in Japan, Wisconsin, and Los Angeles, where she currently lives. She is an avid hiker, Green Bay Packers fan, Lakers fan, and lover of baseball (especially the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Really, that's their name.) She also loves dogs. A lot. When not writing or working, she is usually busy chasing around her English Springer Spaniel, Russell, or her Border Collie, Ariat.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Many themes receive insightful comment in an emotional novel, August 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Necessary Hunger: A Novel (Paperback)

One of many virtues in Nina Revoyr's "The Necessary Hunger", a novel about (among other things) women's high school basketball, is the juxtaposition of a portrayal of adolescents' intelligence and interpersonal sensitivity with their failures of imagination amidst the bitterness of their treatment in the surrounding culture. Their chief mistake is often a failure to conceptualize an identity outside the poignant context of the intensity, camaraderie and nurturance they find with their teammates on the basketball court. These relationships are portrayed with an authenticity evoked through remarkable attention to the details of characters' speech and athletic rituals. It is beautiful to sense the players' trust and warmth behind their banter.

Revoyr's attention to detail also gives her numerous insights into human character a value that would be lacking in a more grandiose, less grounded work of fiction. One of the things that haunts me about "The Necessary Hunger" is how it juggled a detailed story of sports and emotional intimacy with the existential and cultural conflicts that lie hidden for these characters, subtly drawing closer as the novel progressed.

I haven't been close to comprehensive in evoking the novel's range. Suffice it to say that this is the finest novel I have read in memory, and that I can't wait to hear more from Revoyr.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real, gritty, inspiring., August 28, 2006

By 

wing_a "Novel Connoisseur" (Planet Earth) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Necessary Hunger: A Novel (Paperback)

I started this book because it looked like it'd be a fun read: a gay sports story. Not that many going around. But by the time I 'd finished it I realized it was so much more than that.

The Necessary Hunger touched me on so many levels that it's hard to lay them all out in any sort of order. Nina Revoyr uses sports as a metaphor for life, for growing up and finding yourself. That in itself is nothing that special, because that's the meat of all sports stories. But Revoyr does it in a way that makes you feel. She gets into the mind of soul of an athlete who's just going through her growing pains, trying to figure out who she is. And as if that weren't enough Revoyr throws in a whole spectrum of other issues: class, race, sexuality, privilege.

This is more than just a love story. It's a story about passion and determination, of life and loss, and of daring yourself to take that one terrifying step into the unknown. Nancy and Raina are absolutely believable characters, so three-dimensional that they are bound to resonate with everyone on some level.

The greatest strength of this novel is that Revoyr takes everyday situations, the stuff that everyone has been through at one point or another, and puts her craft into them so that the resulting masterpiece is an intricate story based purely on emotion. She pulls you in with vivid descriptions of emotion, and does it in a gritty, realistic way that connects you with the character.

This novel is so much more than your average sports story. And it's worth every penny.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful lesbian novel!, October 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The NECESSARY HUNGER: A Novel (Hardcover)

This is the best lesbian novel I've read in a long time. Revoyr takes on many issues: racism, sexism, teenage issues, and of course, homosexuality. She manages to give adequate attention to all of the issues and write an engaging novel at the same time.