Heaven Is a Playground

Heaven Is a Playground is a 1976 book by Rick Telander. It describes Telander's observations of the streetball culture in Brooklyn during the summer of 1974. Among the players featured in the book are Fly Williams and Albert King.[1] The book was ranked #15 in a 2002 Sports Illustrated list of the Top 100 Sports Books of All Time.[2]

Cover of the book

Critical reception

The New York Times wrote: "It is funny, sad, superblywritten and intensely involving without ever being sentimental. In Telander's gifted hands, the lives of a dozen park rats become suddenly important to us, and their fights, drunks, bad trips, their dreams of college stardom and their generally losing battles to escape the suffocation of the ghetto become compelling dramas."[3] Kirkus Reviews called it "a fine projection of how a playground can be heaven to some but hell to those not able to make the leap out."[4]

Film

The 1991 film Heaven Is a Playground is loosely based on the book.[5]

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References
  1. Stephen Cannella. "A Slice of Heaven". Sports Illustrated. December 7, 2009. Retrieved on September 27, 2011.
  2. "Top 100 Sports Books of All Time". CNNSI. December 16, 2002. Retrieved on September 27, 2011.
  3. Lipsyte, Robert (December 5, 1976). "Sports" – via NYTimes.com.
  4. "Book Reviews, Sites, Romance, Fantasy, Fiction". Kirkus Reviews.
  5. Dave Kehr. "'Playground' tries for two baskets and misses both". Chicago Tribune. October 4, 1991. Friday, H.
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