The Return of the Native (Modern Library Classics)

Book Description

One of Thomas Hardy's most powerful works, The Return of the Native centers famously on Egdon Heath, the wild, haunted Wessex moor that D. H. Lawrence called "the real stuff of tragedy." The heath's changing face mirrors the fortunes of the farmers, inn-keepers, sons, mothers, and lovers who populate the novel. The "native" is Clym Yeobright, who comes home from a cosmopolitan life in Paris. He; his cousin Thomasin; her fiancé, Damon Wildeve; and the willful Eustacia Vye are the protagonists in a tale of doomed love, passion, alienation, and melancholy as Hardy brilliantly explores that theme so familiar throughout his fiction: the diabolical role of chance in determining the course of a life.

As Alexander Theroux asserts in his Introduction, Hardy was "committed to the deep expression of [nature's] ironic chaos and strange apathy, even hostility, toward man."

Customer Reviews:

The Return of the Native is a reader's return to the joys found in Hardy's Wessex.......2007-07-18

The Return of the Native is a great Victorian novel. It's author is Thomas Hardy who published the book serially in 1878 prior to book publication. The main characters whose live are interwoved into a tragedy of Greek proportions are:
1. Clyde Yeobright-He is the Wessex native who returns from his career as a jeweler in Paris. Clym returns to the bleak landscape of Egdon Heath to be plummeted into a maelstrom of passion, sex, suffering and deceit.
2. Eustace Vye-The sexy daughter of a bandsmaster in Budmouth (real name-Weymouth) she is a seductress who dreams of a life of luxury. Eustace will marry Clym; run away with Wildeve and die in a tragic manner. Whether her death is a suicide or accident is not stated. Eustace joins Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Bathsheba Everdene and other memorable femme fatales creates by Hardy's agile pen.
3. Thomasin Yeobright-She is the young cousin of Clym. She falls in love with Wildeve, marries him and bears the former engineer/present innkeeper a baby. As the novel ends she weds the reddleman Gregory Venn. She is a an uncomplicated woman who is a pale version of Eustace Vye.
4. Wildeve-A failed engineer he operates an inn. Though Wildeve loves Eustace he marries Thomasin. He will later leave Thomasin to run away with his true love Eustace. He will drown alongside his paramour.
5. Mrs. Yeobright-The bright, strong and virtuous mother of Clym who hates his marriage to Eustace Vye. She dies when Eustace refuses to open the door to let her into the Yeobright's home. Mrs. Yeobright is, probably, modeled on Hardy's own mother.
6. Gregory Venn-He is a reddleman (one who provides paint to shepherds who mark the sheep in their flocks) who is in love with Thomasin. He enjoys spying on the main characters. As the novel ends he is a respectable dairy farmer.
The characters are often compared to insects or animals who must exist in a godless world controlled by the uncaring fates. Coincidence and irony are used in the complicated plot. Hardy's vision is dark and forbidding.
This Hardy classic includes his usual close attention to the lives of the common people; descriptive pages on nature and criticisms of animal cruelty.
Perhaps the greatest character in the novel is Egdon Heath. Human characters love, suffer and die but it lasts forever.
Thomas Hardy is one of the best English novels along with such luminaries as Dickens, Eliot, Austen and Trollope. It is always a pleasure to read and reread his words.

Return of the Native.......2007-05-19

The book has been reviewed extensively. It is a modern classic and should be read. You will enjoy it. More important, the buying experience through Amazon was as expected. The books arrived earlier than I expected, in pristine, brand new, condition. What more could you ask for?

An opera of a book.......2006-10-24

I read this novel when I was living in Japan. There were no English books avaliable where I was living but a motley collection of classics in the local library.

I found the book somewhat long and slow but loved the language and character desciptions, for example Hardy decribes the main female character Eustacia Vye as "Queen of the night whose passions and instincts would make a model goddess but not quite a model woman" with "pagan eyes, full of noctural mysteries. It is a opera of a book, long and slow but with moments of great beauty

Eustacia and the Heath: Two Sides of the Same Coin.......2006-03-25

Yes, the Heath is the centerpiece, but no more than Eustacia, for they are mirrors of one another, by turns cold and aloof, brooding, mysterious, somewhat wild, tempestuous, and a place where at times man must tread carefully. Some are inexorably drawn to the contours, shades and subtleties of Egdon Heath (Mother Earth) while others seek shelter from its periodic wrath. So, too, the people of the Heath seem divided about their Earth Mother, Eustacia - reading the worst into her or - in the case of many of its men - hoping against hope that the vagaries of nature will look favorably upon them.

This is the most descriptive portrayal of both woman and nature that I have ever read.

absorbing atmosphere.......2005-08-31

This is the 1st Thomas Hardy novel I picked up and one of his most visually striking; in that, you can see and feel the environment in which the characters live. The landscape here both traps and releases the people inside it. Eustacia is one of Hardy's best heroines, vulnerable and cunning within minutes. And part of the Hardy pattern where tragedy invades before the end of the story; tragedy, as he writes it, that is often accidental rather than forced. (the forced tragedy usually follows the accidental one.) Clym and Damon may be the 2 main sources of Eustacia's downfall, but she brings on her own fate, so to speak, by remaining disillusioned with where she is. Key other players bissect the main characters in equally helpful and not so helpful ways. The main "character" still remains Edgon Heath, the harsh, often beautiful setting, where everyone is almost destined to be doomed...

The Return of the Native (Everyman's Library (Cloth))

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A Suberb Recording
Get the CD Version January 2007
Good but nothing spectacular.
The return of the native
Egdon Heath: Land & Time As Protagonist

The Return of the Native (Everyman's Library (Cloth))
Thomas Hardy
Manufacturer: Everyman's Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0679417303
Release Date: 1992-11-03

Book Description

(Book Jacket Status: Not Jacketed)

The Return of the Native is dominated by the brooding presence of Egdon Heath, located in Thomas Hardy’s imaginary Wessex, and in no other book did Hardy’s extraordinary feeling for landscape blend so perfectly with his austere, stoic vision of human fate. Once more he treats his favorite theme of the mismatched couple with masterly pathos and understatement. Eustacia Vye longs to escape from Egdon Heath, but the man she chooses to save her longs to stay. Out of their struggle, the unfulfilled passion of his heroine, and the daily rhythms of late-nineteenth-century rural life, Hardy builds a drama fully worthy of the magnificent stage on which he places it.

Download Description

One of Hardy's classic statements about modern love, courtship, and marriage, The Return of the Native is set in the pastoral village of Egdon Heath. The fiery Eustacia Vye, wishing only for passionate love, believes that her escape from Egdon lies in her marriage to Clym Yeobright, the returning "native, " home from Paris and discontented with his work there. Clym wishes to remain in Egdon, however -- a desire that sets him in opposition to his wife and brings them both to despair. Behind the narrative of The Return of the Native lie the tragic fates of Flaubert's Madame Bovary and Oedipus, and in writing the novel Hardy endowed his ordinary characters with the status of tragic heroes, seen especially in the ill-fated lovers and Damon Wildeve, who spoil their chances to master their own destinies.

Customer Reviews:

A Suberb Recording.......2007-08-06

First, let me confess that I bought this because I am a fan of Alan Rickman's wonderfully rich, mellifluous baritone and the idea of spending hours listening to him read one of the classics of English literature is was absolute heaven to me. And, I can honestly say, I was not disappointed; the recording is absolutely brilliant.

Using ever nuance and range of his distinctive Rickmans each character that poulates Egdon Heath his or her own distinctive voice and cosistantly applies it throughout from the beginning to the end of the story. When he reads the description of the wild and desolate heath, Rickman's voice turns Hardy' prose into sublime poetry.

Get the CD Version January 2007.......2007-01-27

Get the CD version just out .
When I had to read this book in High School I found it excruciatingly BORING. But Alan Rickman did such a good job, now I think this story is BETTER than Wuthering Heights.

From AudioFile
" The suffering that follows is mitigated somewhat by the ending, but more by the mastery of Alan Rickman's reading. At the start, Rickman senses the voice for each character in Hardy's fictional world, and he maintains each character's personality throughout. He even manages to project Hardy's subtle shadings of tone with the rhythm and tempo of his narration, throwing in a song here and there because, in spite of his gloom, there is a festive strain to Hardy, as well. If you have a hard time reading this classic English writer, this is how to do it. "P.E.F. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine.
Yes and he can even do the womens voices without doing falsetto ! Rickman won the Best Talking Book or Talkie thing for this and deservedly so.
I enjoy talking books and often use them as I drive long distances and this is the best one I have heard so far. I hope Alan Rickman , or another English actor, reads some more Thomas Hardy books for us in future.

Good but nothing spectacular........2007-01-10

Hardy is very good at descriptions. The language he uses makes the people and scenery come alive. While this is true I personally feel that I would have preferred to read other books over this one. A good book but nothing special.

The return of the native.......2007-01-04

This book has been taught in lit classes for years excellent but sad book.
Michael B Vye

Egdon Heath: Land & Time As Protagonist.......2006-08-24

Readers of Thomas Hardy's novels call him the literary prophet of gloom and doom, and there is some justification for that tag. But while that may be so, it is an oversimplification that obscures, rather than clarifies, man's relation to nature. In the first chapter of THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE, Hardy suggests a primal relation that harkens back to antiquity: "It was at present a place perfectly accordant with man's nature--neither ghastly, hateful, nor ugly; neither commonplace, unmeaning, nor tame; but like man, slighted and enduring." The key word here is "enduring." Throughout this novel, as well as the others in the Wessex saga, Hardy depicts a nature that at one time, very long ago, was in harmony with man. In man's ability to regenerate himself, each succeeding generation retained that harmony. But as man began to wean himself from the fructifying earth with machines and technology, he began to impose an artificial set of rules, laws, and institutions that not only separated man from his harmony with nature but conspired to separate man from himself, with each man warring against the other. Nature, in THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE is symbolized by Egdon Heath, and is populated by two kinds of people: those who remain, or try to remain, in harmony with nature, and those who do not. The former includes the "native" of the title, Clym Yeobright, his cousin Thomasin, and Diggory Venn, the reddleman who loves Thomasin. The latter is collectively symbolized by Eustachia Vye, an unhappy girl who hates what she sees as the dullness of life that Egdon Heath provides.

Egdon Heath is a colossal, forbidden stretch of land that requires its inhabitants to both understand and respect its power to kill or to maim. Only the wise and the strong may survive. Those who are neither will fall victim to its unremitting ferocity, as Mrs. Yeobright does to a serpent, or Eustachia and Wildeve do to drowning. The Heath is brutal, but not explicitly so. It is rather a testing ground that reflects the inner capacity of human beings to grasp that they are being tested in a way that has a definite passing or failing grade. Life then on the Heath is a forced pass-fail exam that is rigged from the start. In her unhappy marriage to Clym, Eustachia becomes a victim not only because of the fierceness of life on the Heath, but mostly because of her personality, which sets up a conflict with that heath. Her desire to rise above her station cut her off from both the Heath and its residents. Clym suffers tragedy too, but in his case, it is not so much the mindless nature of Egdon Heath that renders his life miserable, but the unfortunate tendency of Hardy himself to make a bad situation worse with his insistent insertion of coincidence as the driving force in much of the heath's tragic power. When Hardy delays the delivery of a letter that might have avoided tragedy, he refrains from doing so. When he does this, he cheapens the power of the Heath to act on its own, by substituting his own authorial intent. Still, what emerges from a reading of THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE is a peek into the complexity of an unfriendly universe that dares its inhabitants to offer respect or pay some pretty severe consequences.

CROSS COUNTRY CRIME (HARDY BOYS 134): CROSS COUNTRY CRIME (Hardy Boys)

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CROSS COUNTRY CRIME (HARDY BOYS 134): CROSS COUNTRY CRIME (Hardy Boys)
Dixon
Manufacturer: Aladdin
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0671505173

The Return of the Native With Connections: With Connections (Hrw Library)

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The Return of the Native With Connections: With Connections (Hrw Library)
Thomas Hardy
Manufacturer: Holt Rinehart and Winston
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Return of the Native (Dover Thrift Editions)

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The Return of the Native (Dover Thrift Editions)
Thomas Hardy
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0486431657

Book Description

Passionate Eustacia Vye detests her life amid the dreary environs of Egdon Heath and spies her escape when Clym Yeobright returns from Paris. Hardy's timeless tale of a romantic misalliance embodies his view of character as fate and underscores the tragic nature of ordinary human lives. The Return of the Native ranks among the author's greatest works.

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100 Favourite Animal Poems

Manufacturer: Piatkus Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Animal Care & Pets | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0749910844

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Altered land
A worthwhile read
Interesting and Captivating
Fabulous new debut author

Altered Land: A Novel
Jules Hardy
Manufacturer: Arcade Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1559706422

Book Description

Joan is a single motheróbeautiful, talented, and desired. John is her adored son. They live a peaceful life in the West Country of England. On Johnís 13th birthday, Joan treats him to a trip to London. Unused to city driving, Joan takes a wrong turn. The repercussions of that decision are devastating, both to her and especially to her son.

This is a story of a motherís heartbreaking love for her son and the different ways people survive seemingly irreparable damage.

With sensitivity and compassion, Jules Hardyís contained but immensely lyrical prose explores the strengths and flaws of this relationship between a brave mother and her wounded son, and vividly describes the altered world in which they must now live.

Customer Reviews:

Altered land.......2004-03-03

I've read this book about a year ago, and it still haunts me. It's one of the most moving and gripping books I've read, and as someone has written above, I can't recommend it highly enough. All of my friends who've read it loved it. Be sure to read it too!

A worthwhile read.......2003-05-20

Once I started this book I could not put it down! A great writer for a first time novel. I laughed and cried. When it ended I was lost without it. Please read this book and I am sure you will thoroughly enjoy it so please buy it now!

Interesting and Captivating.......2003-03-18

I picked the book out of instinct, and then read it without any expectation. Indeed it's a very interesting book. Actually it has fascinating surprise elements, even more so if you hadn't read the reviews here!

This is a story of a mother's love for her son, and how the pair cope with an unexpected twist of life. Captivating, for getting us to take a peek at how someone like John deals with his new life, someone like Sonja perceives things, and someone like Joan handles it all.

The alternating narrative reminds me of the book "Mendel's Dwarf". Such a style of narration risks being confusing, but at the same time triggers our curiosity.

Fabulous new debut author.......2002-10-21

If you only read one new author this year, give Jules Hardy a try. I just loved this book and cannot
recommend it highly enough. I have bought it for severeal friends and they all loved it too. I know that everyone
is raving about Lovely Bones (which I have also read) but this is even better.) Give it a go, you won't be
disappointed.

BURROW'S GUIDE TO WESSEX THE HARDY COUNTRY

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BURROW'S GUIDE TO WESSEX THE HARDY COUNTRY
ALISON D. MURRAY
Manufacturer: BURROW
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000S5R2KS

Campaigning for Town and Country Planning 1899-1990 (Studies in History, Planning and the Environment)

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Campaigning for Town and Country Planning 1899-1990 (Studies in History, Planning and the Environment)
D. Hardy , and D. Hardy
Manufacturer: Routledge
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 041917270X

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From Garden Cities to New Towns and From New Towns to Green Politics can be purchased as a set for this special price.

Celebrating Thomas Hardy: Insights and Appreciations

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Celebrating Thomas Hardy: Insights and Appreciations

Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
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the story of greed and loathing in the ghetto

Interesting for curious fans, but..

very revealing and a great read.

A Jump Above the Rest

Ian O'Connor's prescient story about Sebastian Telfair

The Jump: Sebastian Telfair and the High-Stakes Business of High School Ball
Ian O'Connor
Manufacturer: Rodale Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Sole Influence: Basketball, Corporate Greed, and the Corruption of America's Youth

ASIN: 1594861072
Release Date: 2005-01-13

Book Description

On NBA draft night, June 24, 2004, high school senior Sebastian Telfair awaited his future inside a suite at the Trump International Hotel. One of the most hyped high school players of all time, with a $20 million Adidas deal in hand, Sebastian found himself in the same position as NBA superstars like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, both of whom shot to stardom without playing a day of college ball. THE JUMP offers an inside view of Sebastian's journey-a rags-to-riches story of a kid from the Coney Island projects who succeeds in leaving behind the chaos, violence and economic hardship at home for a multi-million dollar life of professional ball and product endorsement. Drawing on exclusive interviews with friends, family, coaches, recruiters, agents and players, USA Today columnist Ian O'Connor offers an intimate portrait of the promising young player's senior year at Lincoln High School and explores the changing nature of basketball in America today.Sebastian Telfair exemplifies a new dynamic emerging in basketball-young, talented teenagers who skip college on the way to NBA fortune and fame. But what is this trend doing to the sport? And do the adults who have hitched their hopes on Sebastian's rising star have the young player's best interests in mind? THE JUMP dives head first into today's high-stakes, anything-goes basketball culture, examining the sneaker companies intent on securing charismatic and mediagenic players to hawk their wares; college boosters willing to break NCAA rules by offering cash incentives to lure promising players to their schools; high school administrators securing big appearance fees from promoters; agents wooing players and their families-and walking the thin line dictating amateur status rules for high school and college ball. O'Connor also delves into the dream that the NBA holds for so many families-a child drafted into the pros offers a first class ticket out of the projects. A colorful cast of characters featured in THE JUMP includes the faces shaping the sport today: Rick Pitino, head coach of the University of Louisville, who recruits Sebastian with the hope of delivering his team to an NCAA championship only to see his dreams dashed by Sebastian's decision to enter the NBA draft; Andy Miller, the agent who vies to sign up Sebastian despite Erica and Otis Telfair's reservations; Stephon Marbury, star of the New York Knicks, who sees Sebastian more as a rival than a cousin (THE JUMP delivers exclusive details on the fracture in the Marbury and Telfair relationship, including interviews with the point guards and relatives on the subject of the family feud); Sonny Vacaro, at different times the face of Nike, Adidas, and Reebok, who uses sneaker company cash to entice coaches and young players; Jay-Z, rapper and owner of Telfair's summer-league team. Under O'Connor's penetrating scrutiny, Sebastian Telfair becomes the prism through which the circus of modern basketball is explored. Can he succeed, or will he flame out-too young, too small, too unprepared? And what is this new trend in basketball doing to the athletes, to college basketball programs, to the quality of play in the NBA and to society at large? As Dave Kindred of The Sporting News states, "THE JUMP is a 21st-century thrill ride into the shadows and bright lights of a basketball culture that breaks hearts and makes superstars."

Customer Reviews:

the story of greed and loathing in the ghetto.......2007-01-13

well written and oftentimes riveting account of an undersized punk trying to get his...and does. very illuminating spotlight on the sneaker companies, their camps and the exploitation of talented black youths. If you like basketball, this is a must read.

Interesting for curious fans, but.........2006-01-25

I read this book in one day so that should tell you something. It read quickly and wasn't too boring. Unfortunately it wasn't too exciting either. As a college and professional basketball fan, I enjoyed learning more about what goes on behind the scenes. I learned a lot about how competitive high school basketball is and how crazy recruiting works. I found Sebastian to be a fairly likable guy, but found his family somewhat greedy and money-hungry. I borrowed this book from my local library and wouldn't recommend anyone to pay money for it unless they are related to the author or a member of Sebastian's family. If I owned this book, I likely would NEVER pick it up again, much less read it.

very revealing and a great read........2005-12-16

The book puts you behind the scenes in Bassy Telfair's last year in high school. Great writing! The author keeps it moving, gets out of the way of the story (unlike Adrian Wojnarowski's St Anthony's book), and makes you feel like you're there. I understood more about this scene from this book that any other. A couple of minor frustrations: 1. He jumps around a little in time without explcitly saying what year he's talking about; and 2. After mentioning that Telfair repeated 4th grade, he doesn't remind us that he's a year older than his grade would suggest even though that's probably important for some stories.

At some points it seems like the author wants us to see the folly of making a big deal out of kids' basketball, but here he is writing a book and making money off of it. All in all, though, O'Connor doesn't preach, he just tells the story and lets us decide what to think about it. One of the best-written basketball books I've read.

A Jump Above the Rest.......2005-10-31

Sebastian Telfair was born into a poor family that lived in a bad neighborhood filled with violence and drugs in Brooklyn, New York. His dad was in and out of jail throughout his life and his mother struggled to work. The only provider he truly had was his older brother, an athlete who failed to make it to the next level, who failed to bring in the wealth like his now famous cousin Stephon Marbury did just a few years before. With Sebastian being one of the last children growing up in the Telfair family he was made into the last hope at a luxurious lifestyle.
Sebastian Telfair had always avoided the dangers of his neighborhood. Instead of being up to no good like some of his peers, he just played basketball all day long. Eventually Telfair became skilled in the sport like no other his age. In fact, as a 10-year-old he was actually ranked the best 4th grader in America Throughout his teen years he continued to persevere in his basketball dreams by winning numerous basketball tournaments and then excelling at Lincoln High School. After his four year run there, he came to an important decision in his life. Should he go to college or straight to the NBA? At first he said he would attend Louisville but the money was just too tempting and Telfair went straight to the NBA as the 13th pick by the Portland Trailblazers. As a rookie Telfair struggled; many of his critics claimed he should have gone to college to become more polished. Now he's getting prepared for his sophomore season hoping to make more of an impact.
The Jump was very descriptively written. Almost everything talked about in the book had some kind of background information included with it so that the reader would never be unaware of something. The story of Sebastian Telfair's life has its share of drama, so naturally his biography will too. From his past coaches trying to follow him to glory, to people trying to pressure him into life changing decisions, just about every page was filled with dramatic situations. Another factor that made me enjoy this book was all of the detailed basketball action that made it seem as though I was actually watching the game. For readers of all kinds, especially sports fans, this book will be a very appealing.

O'Connor did a great job of implementing detail into this biography. Not only did he elaborate extensively on Sebastian Telfair's background, but he did the same for almost every other person Telfair knew or encountered. For example, when writing about Sebastian as a junior high student playing for the Juice All-Stars of Brooklyn he described the coach, Ziggy Scaginano, and his past fully. A reader can really tell that O'Connor has done his research by all the information provided.
Probably the most interesting part of the book was all of the drama. The story of Sebastian Telfair's life written in The Jump seems perfect for a day- time soap opera. His dad and his brother were constantly having run-ins with the law while his mother had to stay home to care for all of the children. Telfair's cousin Stephon Marbury, who lived almost next door in their Coney Island apartment complex, made it to the NBA, taking his family with him, while leaving the Telfair's to remain in the projects. Sebastian's brother, Sylvester, had a great college basketball career, but when draft day came he and the rest of the Telfair's were left severely disappointed as not one team felt they needed him. Then when it comes time for Sebastian to make the most important decision in his life, everyone, including people he's not familiar with, tries to tell him what to do. There are so many different storylines involved that the reader can't possibly put the book down without hesitation.
Another part of the book, which will be mostly appreciated by basketball fanatics, is the amount of description during parts where basketball is played. In fact, O'Connor uses this to draw the reader's attention at the very beginning of the book when writing about Sebastian Telfair playing a championship tournament game at Rucker Park. The reason why these parts of the book succeed so much in catching the reader's attention is because of the elaboration put into them. The author describes the actions of the players and emotions of the crowd so well it makes you feel as if you were actually watching the game instead of reading about it.

The drama and basketball action complemented each other well in providing an entertaining book; while the detail made sure that the reader could fully understand and indulge in it. To a sports fan The Jump is a must-read book because of all the basketball action and related storylines. To the casual reader The Jump is an interesting book to pick up because of its descriptive and detailed writing, along with its addicting drama.

-C. Duncan

Ian O'Connor's prescient story about Sebastian Telfair.......2005-08-15

"The Jump" is Ian O'Connor's excellent behind-the-scenes account of Sebastian Telfair's leap from New York City high school ball to the NBA. I recall that when Telfair arrived on the cover of Sports Illustrated as a generously-listed 6-foot guard from Lincoln High in Coney Island, he (as opposed to media phenom LeBron James the year before) seemed to explode into national prominence out of nowhere. O'Connor's book shows you that the author and other savvy talent spotters had tabbed Telfair as a potential NBA lottery pick 12 months or more in advance (indeed, O'Connor shows that people were annointing "Bassy" as NBA-grade as far back as fourth grade).

You've really got to hand it to O'Connor for having the prescience as a journalist to start following the kid, then watch his subject lead his team to third straight NYC title, land on the SI cover, sign a mega-deal with Adidas and become the first small high-school guard to be tabbed in the draft a lottery pick (Portland Trailblazers at #13).

All in all, a great read about the hidden (and rather seamy) side of the many, many hands in the circle trying to position and push an 18-year-old kid into the NBA. Through it all, Telfair comes out looking and sounding like a pretty good kid. From the tone of the book, it sounds like O'Connor would attest to that conclusion. It's amazing that with a veritable maelstrom around him all year, Telfair basically blocked out most of it and played some really fine ball in all-star settings, thereby sealing the lottery deal.

One can't help read this book and wonder how two recent events are going to forever change the the type of scenes O'Connor describes in 'The Jump'": David Stern's decision to increase the minimum draft age to 19; and Adidas' decision to buy Reebok (O'Connor demonstrates that the escalating "sneaker wars" are in large part driven by the fierce three-headed competition between Reebok, Adidas and Nike.).

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