The Legend of Jesse Smoke
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
When Skip Granger, the assistant coach for the Washington Redskins, first sees Jesse Smoke, she is on the beach in Belize. And she has just thrown a regulation football a mile.
Granger knows that Smoke's talent is unprecedented for a woman, and nearly unparalleled among men. As Granger observes her throughout a season as quarterback for the Washington Divas of the Independent Women's Football League, he decides to sign her to the Redskins, even as he faces losing his job and credibility. As the first woman on a major NFL team, Jesse Smoke's astounding success places her in the tradition of athletes like Jackie Robinson and Joe Louis. Yet Smoke is quickly faced with her own battles, including the clamors of the press, the violence of her teammates, and the institutional resistance that seeks to keep football in the hands of men.
While a female quarterback in the NFL is a fantasy at the moment, Robert Bausch's genius as a writer makes it a highly engaging reality on the page. Fans of football--and readers who were just waiting for a player worth getting excited about--will relish Jesse Smoke's journey to the big leagues.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
When the Washington Redskins name Jesse Smoke their starting quarterback, they become the first NFL team to sign a woman. Skip Granger, the team's longtime assistant coach, narrates this epic tale set in an unspecified future. Granger discovers Jesse on a beach in Belize, throwing a regulation-size football 60 yards across the water with an arm stronger than John Elway or Tom Brady. He recounts how he convinced Jesse to try out for the team despite being under contract with the Washington Divas of the Independent Women's Football League, and the story takes flight from there. In a likable and occasionally vulnerable voice, Bausch (Far As the Eye Can See) writes as if Granger were adding to the legend of Jesse Smoke, whom he states was already the subject of movies and other books. The author's vision of the future reveals the present-day ugliness pervading American culture in matters of gender and sexual orientation. Bausch also provides vivid play-by-play game-day descriptions, a narrative tactic that might turn off some readers were the plot not so riveting. Despite an anticlimactic conclusion, the novel is an entertaining sports narrative bolstered by weightier issues for readers to contemplate.
