{"product_id":"if-i-dont-six-9780385491204","title":"If I Don't Six","description":"Elwood Reid first appeared on the literary stage with a powerful and bruising story called \"What Salmon Know,\" which appeared in the March 1997 issue of \u003ci\u003eGQ.\u003c\/i\u003e Here was a writer not afraid to examine the soulful underside of the American male, or the violence that accompanies disappointed dreams. Now, in his first, extraordinary novel, Reid tells the story of Elwood Riley, a six-foot-six, 275-pound blue-collar kid whose ticket out of Cleveland is a \"full ride\" football scholarship to the University of Michigan. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBut Riley is cursed with intelligence and an awareness of the vicious inhumanity of the college football system. If Riley doesn't want to \"six\"--lose his scholarship or get maimed--he has to become a \"fella,\" a pain-loving freak too nihilistic to care what he does to himself or others. And after Riley encounters the alluring, mysteriously damaged Kate, his dilemma becomes ever more painful. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eElwood Reid's portrait of this world is at once blackly humorous, starkly tragic, and perfectly detailed. With deft strokes, he portrays emotionally stunted coaches who have mastered the art of humiliating and manipulating young men, groupies attracted to the fame but undone by the shocking cruelty of the players, and the athletes themselves, who grow addicted to violence, alcohol, and steroids, too caught up in the glory of playing for Big Blue to notice they are mere meat to the coaches and the university. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn tough, spare, beautiful prose that should invite comparisons to the works of Thom Jones and Denis Johnson, Reid describes a place where young men damage their souls and their bodies in pursuit of a worthless glamor. This is a profound, unsettling book about a familiar yet hidden world--a Greek tragedy in cleats.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/17\/1999\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780385491204\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 272\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.52lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.02h x 5.23w x 0.80d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e 10\/17\/1999 pg. 36\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Elwood Reid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45038240956597,"sku":"9780385491204","price":16.15,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_be1240c1-5a22-4138-822b-e4544551169d.jpg?v=1737475234","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/if-i-dont-six-9780385491204","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}