Hanif Abdurraqib
There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib, the 2021 recipient of the MacArthur “genius grant”, is an innovative memoir that encompasses Abdurraqib’s childhood in Columbus, Ohio; his love for the city; his passion for basketball; and his analysis of the game and its players. The memoir is structured like a basketball game in four sections with intermissions and timeouts. The four sections are time-stamped to reflect the twelve minutes of each quarter of a game, replicating the seconds and minutes ticking away as a game is being played or a section is being read.
Abdurraqib’s passion for basketball soars in every page. But this is more than just a celebration of basketball. The game of basketball comes to represent something much larger than itself. It is the lens through which Abdurraqib views the culture at large. Its towering figures, like LeBron James, come to symbolize the hope and aspirations of a generation of young people trapped in the quagmire of poverty and discrimination.
Abdurraqib ricochets from basketball to music; to growing up in his beloved Columbus; to the deaths of African American males at the hands of police; to his experience with being unhoused and incarcerated; to a consideration of the hustle; to his father’s bald head; to the act of witnessing; to the betrayal felt by LeBron James’ departure from Ohio and the celebration of his return; to songs about leaving and songs about longing; to his complex feelings about his home state. He leaps from one topic to another forging connections, and peppering the narrative with astute observations and insights, all the while weaving the disparate elements together with prose that borders on poetry.
This highly unconventional biography and cultural critique is packaged in language that is lyrically stunning. The words leap off the page with energy and passion, swerving and spinning in an exhilarating fashion. Abdurraqib is particularly adept at describing the movement of players across a basketball court. The resulting leap at the goal post and the ensuing slam dunk is described in slow motion as if suspended in space and frozen in time. It is akin to witnessing the miracle of a man floating on air.
In the hands of this gifted writer, basketball is seen as more than just a game. With its challenges, triumphs, failures, and leaps into the seemingly impossible, it is a metaphor for life.
Highly recommended.