I first became aware of John Grisham’s newest novel Sooley one day as perused the Barnes and Noble website and read that the protagonist is a basketball player for North Carolina Central University. NCCU is kind of dear to my heart; I’m not a Central alum but five members of my family are a part of Eagle Nation so the idea of Grisham choosing Central’s men’s basketball program – fresh off of the heels of their docuseries ‘Why Not Us’ – made Sooley an instant must read.
Sooley is the nickname given to Samuel Sooleymon, a South Sudanese teenager whose basketball prowess – and a coach’s favor – landed him in Durham with a scholarship. Samuel turned what began as a redshirt season into legend as he led the Eagles to historic heights all while his family have their own tribulations back home in the “bush.”
As a career sportswriter, I know more than anybody that what makes a great sports story is what occurs off the field, the development of the characters that become our idols on it. Especially in a novel where you have more words to present readers with the intricacies of why we transform these figures into sports superstars. Grisham missed the shot with Sooley.
Grisham used a rather bland sport cliché of using an athlete from an African nation to be our protagonist. Cliché is a bit harsh of a term but there have been numerous of athletes from Africa who have found their way out of their precarious plights of their country through America’s sports pipeline. (Manute Bol himself is a Sudanese; Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon is a native of Nigeria.) Samuel’s path to Central, which was detailed in Part 1 of the novel, gives off a bit of ‘seen this plenty of times before’ vibe making it as boring as the Spurs offense. The story becomes good towards the end of Part 1 when Grisham meshed Samuel’s ascension as an American college athlete and the descension of Samuel’s family (his mother Beatrice and brothers James and Chol) back in Lotta, South Sudan which became the heart of the story from Part 2 on (the novel is broken into three parts).
Sooley wasn’t able to maintain the momentum, however, despite there being some comical college athlete moments, such as when Samuel’s roommate and best friend Murray (Sooley is also Murray’s story) was dumped by his girlfriend Robin.
Sooley suspected that the truth was that Robin had slept with several athletes, and he was secretly thrilled that she was out of the picture. … Sooley’s phone buzzed quietly. He looked at the screen and was horrified to see a text from Robin: I still wanna c u naked.
He put the phone under his pillow and stretched out on his bed.
Women!
page 188 from “Sooley”
And although Grisham’s commentary highlighting the impact of civil wars on the lives of citizens, how it splinters families and the hardships of refugees and immigration painted a vivid picture of a much larger weight that Samuel, and others from war torn nations carry on their shoulders as they focus to use athletics in America to make the lives better for everyone, the payoff failed when Grisham decided to not allow Samuel to see the seeds of his determination bear fruit.
Sooley is the third sports themed novel from Grisham that I’ve read – Bleachers being one of my favorite novels of all time – but unfortunately, it is more of a layup than a slam dunk.
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CDreamz 