A few thoughts on criteria for the Great American Sports Novel

Dear Readers—

Now that I’ve read more than a dozen or so books as part of my Great American Sports Novel (GASN) search, it’s probably worth thinking about a few parameters for the books to be eligible to claim the crown of the GASN. Otherwise, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stop reading.

Before beginning, however, I’d like to give a special shoutout to everyone who has contributed to the list of books I’m tracking. Not every one listed there will be eligible, but it’s nice to maintain a master list.

• SPORTS: It goes without saying that the GASN should be about sports. But to what extent? Some books considered “great”—Infinite Jest1 & Underworld2—involve sports or have incredible sports scenes, but I don’t think anyone would say that they’d be considered “sports” novels. Would anyone really call Infinite Jest a tennis book? The GASN needs to be about a sport, about an athlete, and not just happen to include a sport.

• SAY MORE: But I also think that the GASN can’t feel like just a beat writer recap. It needs to situate the sport within some theme about America. It’s a fine line. I think Infinite Jest & Underworld, for example, use sports as conduits to touch on their bigger themes. The GASN needs to touch on bigger themes through the sports—if that makes sense. It’s a personal judgment call, I know, and I welcome all the disagreement.

• WHICH SPORTS: This next point may result in the most controversy. Are there particular sports that should be the focus? I wanted to say no at the outset, and my list includes 10+ sports so far. However, it’s hard to ignore the pull that baseball has on the literary community. I’ve written before that I think this is because it’s been the most professionalized sport for the longest. Does that mean a diving book can’t be the GASN? No. But I think it needs a compelling reason and may need some bigger themes to carry it along. That said, I think it’ll probably feel less forced if the GASN involves a sport that was significant at the time it was written or when it historically takes place, e.g., Sport of Kings (horse racing) or Fat City (boxing). So if there’s a new book that takes place contemporaneously, it probably needs to be about baseball, basketball, or football.

• SPORT SCENE: I guess this could be a subcategory of one of the earlier ones, but it’s worth separating. To be a sports book, does the book need a critical sports scene? A race? A game? A match? I think there’s a world where the answer is NO, it’s not a requirement, but it’s a nice bonus. And I think that having a pivotal sports scene likely clears up some earlier confusion about whether it’s a “sports book” or a book that happens to have sports.

• AMERICAN AUTHOR: I don’t want to make it an absolute requirement that the author be American in the event that there’s a compelling reason, or a book is clearly about the American experience. I actually thought reading Netherland that there might be a case for its inclusion, since it touches on immigration and the post-9/11 experience in NYC—even though it’s about a group of mostly immigrants playing cricket by an Irish writer. It’s probably just a correlation as opposed to causation issue where, generally speaking, an American author is more likely to write the GASN. Also note that if this were a requirement, W.P. Kinsella (a Canadian), who wrote some of the most beloved baseball books, wouldn’t qualify.3

I’ll continue to refine these criteria as I go. And I’ll still try to read the books on the current list that don’t fit. But I will be more selective about adding anything new outside these guardrails.

As always, if you have any ideas or thoughts, I’d love to hear them. Nothing in this adventure is set in stone. My only goal is to find (if it exists) the best “American” sports novel, and I need your help to do it.

—Matt