My Losing Season: A Memoir

Pat Conroy, the author of THE LORDS OF DISCIPLINE, reaches back once more to his storehouse of experiences at The Citadel, the famous military college in South Carolina. Moving seamlessly between his Citadel athletic life and his childhood, Conroy gathers around him his college basketball team to relive its few triumphs and numerous humiliating defeats. Though a self-professed "mediocre" athlete, Conroy shapes himself into a point guard whose spirit drives the team. He rallies the team to play its best, even while its undermining, destructive coach cries "Don't shoot, Conroy!" from the sidelines. Pat Conroy has here written an American classic about young men and the bonds they form, about losing and the lessons it imparts, and about finding one's voice and self in the midst of defeat.