Recommended readings in Sportsology:
Numbnuts
by Sinclair Rankin
In this wonderful
collection of stories, Sinclair Rankin plunges headlong into the world
of sports, prodding the plump underbelly of sports culture with an alert
cast of mind. Rankin's
narrative is hilarious, free-wheeling and bristling with life.
Whether celebrating the shabby gentility of greyhound racing, the delirious
spectacle of men's figure skating, or lambasting football as an "artless
ritual", Rankin's odes to the life of sport are infused with reckless
joy and a wicked sense of humor.
Here's what people are saying about Numbnuts:
" The stance, the deep psychology, the humanism, and the sentences themselves
are of a supremely high and handsome order; the likes of which I am not accustomed
to finding in my perusal of the sports pages. Sinclair Rankin is an underdog,
a contender, a fan of something impossible."
-Will Eno
Former champion cyclist
" A truly dangerous sportswriter like Sinclair Rankin is rarer than a good
screwball pitcher. Better muzzle this genial smartass before he scares the owners
and makes sensate fans laugh out loud. "
-Robert Lipsyte
THE NEW YORK TIMES
" Rankin uses profanity, irreverent allusions, free associations and insight
into the human condition in order to explain his subjects. He supports the lost,
the ruined and the humiliated; the ones who go quietly out the back door after
their defeat. By celebrating these losers, he champions the opposite of what
America worships. "
-Rosa Irizarry,
Fellow Juror
Kings County, 1997
" Dude, what the hell is with that yo-yo article. What do you do, give stupid
remarks to everyone and have it printed? I truly think you are a disgrace of
a human being and I hope you realize how much you suck! Now go and write some
more garbage. "
- Jon Kilp
Yo-Yo Enthusiast
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