My Losing Season
Written by Pat Conroy
Narrated by Chuck Montgomery
3.5/5
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Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A deeply affecting coming-of-age memoir about family, love, loss, basketball-and life itself-by the beloved author of The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini
During one unforgettable season as a Citadel cadet, Pat Conroy becomes part of a basketball team that is ultimately destined to fail. And yet for a military kid who grew up on the move, the Bulldogs provide a sanctuary from the cold, abrasive father who dominates his life-and a crucible for becoming his own man.
With all the drama and incandescence of his bestselling fiction, Conroy re-creates his pivotal senior year as captain of the Citadel Bulldogs. He chronicles the highs and lows of that fateful 1966-67 season, his tough disciplinarian coach, the joys of winning, and the hard-won lessons of losing. Most of all, he recounts how a group of boys came together as a team, playing a sport that would become a metaphor for a man whose spirit could never be defeated.
Pat Conroy
Pat Conroy (1945–2016) was the author of The Boo, The Water Is Wide, The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline, The Prince of Tides, Beach Music, The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes of My Life, My Losing Season, South of Broad, My Reading Life, and The Death of Santini.
More audiobooks from Pat Conroy
The Water Is Wide Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Great Santini Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lords of Discipline Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
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Reviews for My Losing Season
239 ratings12 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5There are few books that affect me when they are over. Ones that make me sad and depressed because I will no longer be with the characters. Ones that can break my heart so much that when I turn the last page, I end up crying or even sobbing because I have grown to love the characters and/or I wish the book wasn’t done.
This is one of those books. My Losing Season is about Pat’s last year as point guard and captain of The 1966-67 Citadel Bulldogs and about his childhood with a strict and abusive father which defined him as a man.
When I say “Pat Conroy” in my head or out loud, I hear the voice of Jay O. Sanders who read the book. Jay has a slightly southern accent that fits perfectly with the book. While listening, I wondered how many times Jay read the book to know when to put feeling and passion into the dialog because he does a fantastic job.
Now granted, some people don’t like sports or some people can take it or leave it. I work in sports and I love sports. I’m not obsessed, but I enjoy a good game of basketball where the players play their hearts out and leave all of it on the court. During the Bulldogs’ losing season, you felt the passion and love of the game; you felt just how hard they fought. I found myself cheering for them even though the games were played back in 1966 and 1967. I cried after Pat had the best game of his life and his Dad still called him a loser and shoved him up against a wall.
I cried and laughed while driving to and from work. I sat in my car in the parking garage before work as I finished listening to the book, surprised by the afterward by the author himself (I should have read the cover closer).
His short speech left me sobbing in the car, tears streaming down my face as I walked into work and got on the elevator.
I’m glad I decided to take a chance on this book. I’m glad I listened to it during March Madness as the Big 12 Men’s Basketball Championship roared into town and I will listen to it every March Madness as Pat reminds me each time that you have to believe in yourself. Not everyone will be affected by Pat’s story as I was, but that’s okay. I’m just glad I got to experience the 1966-67 Citadel basketball team’s losing season and the young man of Pat Conroy. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I love Conroy but I just couldn't get into this one right now. I'll try it again some other time.
Took me almost 8 years to finish this one. I love Conroy but am not a basketball fan. Listening to the audiobook helped, though. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm not a basketball fan, but adore Pat Conroy and so far I'll read whatever he wants to write about. I would have liked to hear more about his thoughts on writing and some of his experiences as a young man other than those revolving around basketball, but I realize that's not the book he wrote.
Two quotes that I like:
"You do not learn how to write novels in a writing program. You learn how by leading an interesting life. Open yourself up to all experiences. Let life pour through you the way light pours through leaves" (348) Colonel Doyle to Conroy on going to graduate school/The Iowa Writer's Workshop.
"I learned that I had to turn the writer's eye inward to find the gargoyles and stunted trolls that ate me alive. Then, I didn't know that I would build my house of art on my demonic, yet powerless, hatred of my father and my wrecked, guilty love of my fabulous and treacherous mother" (344). - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Conroy's true-life story of the hard life he led both at home and at the Citadel. Basketball is the thread that runs through the book, but it is far more than a sports story.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reminds me of my high school season. Great read for anyone who has played a sport.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5an autobio of Conroy's years at the Citadel as a mediocre basketball player who made up for his lack of natural athletic ability with drive and desire. Interesting as it actually provides quite a bit of background on his family and growing up and how he used them as basis for his fictional characters in his novels.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5MY LOSING SEASON. Pat Conroy. 2002. I never thought I’d read a basketball memoir, but when I saw this for a dollar at the Habitat for Humanity Store I couldn’t resist. I have never regretted reading anything by Pat Conroy. I was lost reading the descriptions of basketball games, but in addition to being an account of the Citadel basketball season 1966-1067; this was also an account of Conroy’s teen and college years which is always interesting. The best part of the book is Conroy’s recollections of what happened to the individual players and coaches after they finished the season and what happened to Conroy. The most moving part of the book was at the end when Conroy talks about his classmates who went to Vietnam while he was protesting the war: “Now I understand I should have protested the war after my return from Vietnam, after I had done my duty. I have come to a conclusion about my country that I knew in my bones, but lacked the courage to act on: America is a good enough country to die for even when she is wrong.”
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eight hard-fought wins, seventeen disheartening losses. This describes the losing season of 1966-67 experienced by the basketball team at The Citadel. Told through the pain and grit of mediocre point guard Pat Conroy, it also describes a time in his life that unleashed the courage and sensitivity that molded him into a great writer.Pat Conroy's books are a form of self therapy. By writing about the hurt and humiliation he suffered during his formative years, he meets his demons head on. I met the father from hell in The Great Santini, and, now, the coach who rules this team with sarcasm, screaming, and pure disdain, enters his life. By resurrecting the festering memories of 30 years ago, Pat was able to make sense of this period that was his ultimate testing ground for life and emerge as a victor.Pat Conroy is a favorite author of mine. It's to his credit that I can read a 400-page book about basketball and enjoy it. If you are a Conroy fan or love basketball or any team sport, then I heartily recommend this book to you.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My first Pat Conroy. Hope to read The Great Santini that was spoken of in this book. Recommended.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5For those that enjoy Pat Conroys ficiton, this book helped me understand his themes. Father son relationships are always hard and this one is no exception. I don't know that I would have the courage to write so honestly about my family.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pat Conroy’s My Losing Season is the autobiography of his life as an athlete focusing on his senior year playing basketball at the Citadel during the 1966-67 season. These were the days when the college courts were still dominated by white players and someone who was 6’4” was considered to be tall. Having met the genial and slightly portly Mr. Conroy, who was only 5’10”, it was initially hard to visualize the point guard he once was zipping up and down the court. However, his prose captures the drive and passion for the game that possesses ex-players of basketball. Those of us who have never played or been even able to comprehend the sport will be granted the Aha! moment when their eyes will be opened and you will find yourself muttering, “Now I understand”. Conroy has been able to mine the brutality of his upbringing to create a series of bestsellers. My Losing Season shows how those experiences created the man that he is and is an inspiration to those athletes whose love of their game pushes them to exceed their natural abilities.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I got hooked on Pat Conroy way back when and now feel obligated to read anything he writes. This book was a disapointment. His fiction is better.