True Fans
A Basketball Odyssey
Austin, Dan
Hardcover
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BOOK SYNOPSIS
"The road holds all the answers."
Based on the nationally touring film of the same name, Dan Austin's hilarious and thoughtful True Fans details the journey Dan, his brother Jared, and best friend Clint Ewell started when they hopped aboard their bicycles and headed east from the pickup court at Venice Beach, handlebars pointed toward the NBA Hall of Fame. It was a basketball pilgrimage, shooting hoops on sandlots across the country, looking for enlightenment under a net. In their bicycle trailer, which they called "The Ark of the Covenant," they carried a few gallons of peanut butter and an unused basketball, on which they collected the signatures of those who helped them on their journey, from the Reverend Kevin Smith, who let them sleep behind his church, to Dick Simmons, a coal miner who offered them five dollars he could scarcely afford to part with. They would bring this ball to the Hall of Fame, and ask that it be included in the permanent collection.
What would America do, the book also asks, if three guys on bikes with a basketball in tow
showed up and begged for a handout? Not everyone was friendly- the strange "owner" of
Amboy, Nevada, makes for a fairly spooky villain- but most of the country, they found, would
do just about anything for them. Doors were opened from California to Springfield, Massachusetts, hamburgers comped, hot tubs proffered. Austin and his crew knocked, and for
one hundred days, America answered. The result was a classic odyssey.
BOOK REVIEWS
AUSTIN, DAN. True Fans: A Basketball Odyssey. Lyons: Globe Pequot. Oct.
2005. c.240p. illus. ISBN 1-59228-779-4. $19.95. SPORTS
As a storyteller, Austin may not rival Jack Kerouac, yet his tale of a
trio's 100-day bicycle trip in 1997 from California to the Basketball Hall
of Fame in Springfield, MA, is a modern-day classic. From the public
basketball courts in Venice Beach, CA, to their ultimate destination, this
story is not about the game that Austin, his brother, and his close friend
love as much as the people who cared for and shared with these three
vagabonds on a limited budget. Occasionally, Austin's troupe confronts
danger such as in an isolated Nevada town where they feel compelled to move
on with haste, but free meals, offers of lodging, and acts of unselfish
kindness are far more the norm. Following the "whatever happens is best"
mantra, the three encounter humorous situations, well related by Austin, yet
one cannot help but wonder if their reception would have been different in a
post-9/11 world. Based on Austin's own documentary film of the same
name-which won the People's Choice Award at the 1999 Banff Mountain Film
Festival-True Fans is recommended for all collections, from YA to academic
libraries.-Boyd Childress, Auburn Univ. Lib., AL
Submit a book reviewFOR RELATED BOOKS
Sports & Recreation Books :: Basketball Books
MORE BOOK INFO
ISBN: 1592287794
Dewey Decimal: 796.323
Library of Congress: 2005044401
Book Publisher: Globe Pequot Pr
Language: ENG
No. of Pages: 214
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