The Second Season
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4.3 • 3 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Ruth Devon starred for Georgetown Basketball back in college—until she injured her knee, married her coach, and found a new career calling games on the radio. Twenty years later, Ruth and her now-ex-husband, Lester, are two of the most famous faces in sports media. When Lester decides to retire from the announcers’ booth, Ruth goes after his job. If she gets it, she will be the first woman to call NBA games on national television.
For now, Ruth is reporting from the sideline of the NBA finals, immersed in the high-pressure spectacle of the post-season. But in a deserted locker room at halftime, Ruth makes a discovery that shatters her vision of her future. Instantly, she is torn between the two things she has always wanted most: the game and motherhood.
With warmth and incisive observation, Adrian brings to life the obsessions, emotions, and drama of fandom. The Second Season asks why, how, and whom we watch, while offering a rich and complicated account of motherhood, marriage, and ambition. Adrian’s character study of Ruth Devon illuminates a beautiful basketball mind—and the struggle of a woman who claims authority in a male-dominated world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The spare, bold latest from Adrian (Everything Here Is Under Control) follows a sportswriter as she reckons with middle age. Ruth Devon, 42, covers NBA games and longs for a television analyst position now held by her ex-husband, Lester, who is about to retire. Meanwhile, Ruth and Lester's daughter, Ariana, a high school senior, aspires to be a model, and Ruth has a boyfriend, Joel, who is six years her junior. When Ruth learns she is unexpectedly pregnant, she struggles with deciding whether to tell Joel and weighs her career ambition as well as her devotion to Ariana. Adrian cleverly structures the novel around Ruth's experiences during the NBA finals, as she covers a conflict between two best friends who play play for the opposing teams ("For the next four games he's my enemy," one says). As the games unfold in sharp detail, with attention paid to the action on the court and on the sidelines, Adrian raises the stakes on Ruth's attempt to keep a handle on things. Even the sports-averse will be caught up in the drama.
