Whole Other Ball Game: Women's Literature on Women's Sport

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In recent decades the number of American girls and women committed to competitive sports has grown dramatically. A Whole Other Ball Game shows that women's literature devoted to sports has followed suit.

This wonderful collection of short stories, poems, and novel excerpts deals with all aspects of women's competitive sports, from the interpersonal dynamics on a basketball team, to the pain of losing or the thrill of winning before hometown fans, to the resistance girls and women can face when trying to find a place in what has traditionally been men's territory. With very different voices, Toni Cade Bambara's self-confident ten-year-old makes peace with her chief competitor after a close race, while Carol Anshaw's Olympic swimmer loses her chance of gold after a split second's inattention, and Pat Griffin gives a hilarious account of a very nonaggressive softball match between the Amazon Vision and I Am Womon. From the work of such wellknown writers as Adrienne Rich, Marge Piercy, and Ellen Gilchrist to that of undiscovered younger and historical authors, this engaging collection will appeal equally to athletes, sports enthusiasts, and general readers.

FROM THE CRITICS

Kirkus Reviews

American women, editor Sandoz observes, have long had a "fierce love of sport": In 1866, Vassar College already fielded two women's baseball teams. That love, based on the evidence of these mostly contemporary stories, poems, and novel excerpts, has produced some energetic, thoughtful explorations of the liberating possibilities of sport for women. Many of the pieces here deal with the struggles of women—especially adolescents—trying to accept that competition is good, that winning is even better, and that it's possible to be both a woman and an athlete without slighting either. Stephanie Grant's story "Posting-Up" offers a tough- minded description of the manner in which her adolescent narrator discovers the exhilaration of playing basketball well and aggressively. "Scotti Scores," by Jane Gilliland, carries the idea a step further, exploring how the members of a high-school hockey team astonish themselves and their coach by cooperating to outplay a far more experienced team. Stories by Laurie Colwin, Ellen Gilchrist, Sara Maitland, and Jennifer Levin are particularly strong, as are the excerpts from novels by Carol Anshaw and Sara Vogan. Some tales suffer from seeming too programmatic, too thin and message-laden. But, overall, a useful introduction to an overlooked area in contemporary fiction and poetry.