Barney Polan's Game

Like the 1919 Black Sox scandal in baseball, the college basketball point-shaving scandal of 1951 represented a fall from grace. Players, coaches, bookies, and gangsters conspired to fix the outcomes of games, and their exposure showed that basketball was irrevocably corrupted by power and big money. Charley Rosen, whose acclaimed previous novel, The House of Moses All-Stars, confirmed him as "bard of the backboard" (Toronto Star), has written an astonishing and poignant tale about the events that still cast a shadow over basketball. Told from the points of view of the different protagonists-Jewish, Catholic, and black players, the gangsters themselves, the bystanders-the game's descent into corruption and chaos is penetratingly described. Set against the background of the Korean War, McCarthyism, and racial tension, Barney Polan's Game is a masterful morality tale, a tragedy filled with thrilling moments of sport and stunning moments of personal failure. It is a story no one will forget.