MVP: A Novel [Paperback]

The author of MVP is surely one of the finest writers around -- for instance, who else could describe two hefty female white airline employees as "women who know how to properly train big dogs and keep sliced deli meat in the fridge." His writing about the lead-up to 9-11 is haunting. Overall this is a very fine piece of fiction, one of the best I have read in years. It is a shame that so far the main stream book reviewers have all but ignored it. This book ranks leagues ahead of our "best sellers" today.

The main character of the novel is Gilbert Marcus who is a very thinly disguised Kobe Bryant with Tiger Wood's ethnicity, childhood and white wife woven into a basketball story. Far too much of the novel is regurgitation of real life events with window dressing details changed. There are some wonderful passages and some well crafted prose but it is buried under tons of drivel. Through much of the novel, I felt that Boice's voice was false and that his writing demonstrated a lack of life experiences.

Boice made very little effort to be original in his characters or plot, and I suspect he was forced by the legal department at Scribner to change some details and names prior to publication. Key characters are really Shaquille O'Neal, Phil Jackson, Michael Jordan, etc. Many of the events and details are verbatim while almost all of the rest suffer just enough minor changes to create plausible deniability. I feel this approach to a novel is very lazy and does not bode well for future efforts.

I did find the psychological thread in the novel to be engaging but again Boice used stereotypical frameworks to explain his characters flaws. The novel struck me as a rehabilitative effort for the Kobe franchise (and other degenerate athletes) by creating a physiological justification for his "crime" rooted in a flawed childhood. But the author undermines even that foundation by creating a religious-like zeal in Gilbert's father, Mervin. By the time of the crime, Mervin has cut ties with Gilbert because Gilbert is not living his life in a manner consistent with Mervin's values. Clearly, Mervin is not responsible for Gilbert's failings. What is more obvious and only half-heartedly addressed in the novel is that money and power are the real corrupting influences.

I've tried very hard, to try to come to a single definition, of the writing style of this author. But I cannot narrow it down, past the following three: 1) Like playing jazz with no rehearsal. 2) A poetry reading by a 1950's beatnik. 3) He's on speed. This novel is obviously based on Kobe Bryant's life, which obviously entails including SHAQ in the story midway through. The second irritant, in the telling of this story, is the fact, that sometimes he uses real names, and sometimes he doesn't. The main character (Kobe) is Gilbert Marcus. The SHAQ character is called, Papa Bear Ben Jermaine. Now, being that this is a novel, this would normally not be a problem, but the author, then uses the real names of people such as Larry Bird, Julius Erving, and Magic Johnson. And there are some very nasty and negative things said about Magic. So, if the author can use their names, why can't he use the other names? If that isn't confusing enough. Then, instead of using real team names, such as the Boston Celtics (Larry Bird's team of course!) he uses the Boston Colonials. Instead of the San Antonio Spurs, he uses the San Antonio Ramblers. The author describes, in almost exact detail what Ron Artest had done, but gives him the name Ron Harrington. Again, this would be fine, if he didn't also use Bird's, Magic's, and Erving's real names. It's a contradiction in the story, and makes the reader, a little leery, to buy into the story fully. At one point, the author states: "The team was running slick greased with diesel fuel." "DIESEL" of course, as any knowledgeable basketball fan would know, is one of Shaq's nicknames! Why not make a commitment to using all real names, or using all fake names? Another, less than concealed real name reference, are all the reference's to Darren Dickinson, who it's even more obvious, is Michael Jordan, than even the fact that, Gilbert Marcus is Kobe. Another habit of the author, that may not make this an enjoyable read for potential readers, is the fact, that the author describes things in 20 sentences, that can be described in 3. He makes every 100 yard dash into a marathon. It should be noted for potential readers, that this entire story, has a backdrop of deviant sexuality. There is as much written about this type of sex, as there is written about basketball. Lost, in the middle, of all the previously described habits, are some pretty interesting scenes, but their power, is diminished, due to the style of writing.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 5 reviews  4.0 out of 5 stars