mgreber's Full Review: John Feinstein - A March to Madness: The View from...
John Feinstein's accounts of golf in "A Good Walk Spoiled" and "The Majors" was so vivid that I picked this one up as well. It's a walk through a year in the Atlantic Coast Conference, one of the most competitive conferences in college hoops. As someone who is only somewhat aware of college hoops (I follow it, but not avidly), I had to keep glancing back a few pages to remember who was the Wake Forest coach, the freshman forward at Maryland, etc. Of course, with Duke and UNC in the mix, any casual NCAA fan will know a few of the characters.
The pace of the novel gets a bit tired -- one coach has a crushing blow or a great win; the next coach has one of the same. For someone not passionate about ACC hoops, it was hard to care that much about it.
I've mentioned this book to some friends who went to UNC, and they all said that Feinstein is quite Duke biased (he went there). I might agree somewhat, but it's not so obvious as to stick out for a non-fan. More importantly, the books subject matter is just a bit too specific to appeal to the casual fan.
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