Make It, Take It
"Ex-coach Rus Bradburd crafts a spare and intriguing story that illuminates the complex machinations required to stay afloat in the unforgiving world of this high-stakes "amateur" sport. Ironic, acerbic and often distressing,Make It, Take Itis fiction, but it feels more authentic than any ESPN documentary … With an ear for the music of leather on hardwood, Bradburd is a fan, no question — butMake It, Take Itis both a crisply sardonic tale of frustration and a blistering indictment of the sickness inherent in the business of college basketball." —Shelf Awareness, starred review"[A]n appealing novel … it’s engaging and imaginative, and includes one of the most unforgettable characters in (the admittedly lean genre of) basketball literature." —Bloomberg News"Make It, Take Itreveals the truth — not just of college basketball, but the inner lives of men — with its wise, sharp, surgical dissection of a backwater program. It's a fearsomely tough book, reminiscent of Sherwood Anderson'sWinesburg, Ohio— all these people with oddities galore in a sealed-off world they're sure is perfectly normal. You can watch thousands of hours of ESPN and still be waiting for real insight into the how and why of hoops. Do yourself a favor. Read this instead." —S.L. Price, senior writer,Sports Illustrated, and author ofHeart of the GameandPitching Around Fidel."Make It, Take ItBlissfully light on the dramatic-finish game details that so often derail sports novels. Set against a backdrop of college basketball, it is a compelling story of people and the ways in which they can rise and sink to various levels." —Chicago Tribune"[A] cool new piece of fiction … fun." Seth Davis,Sports Illustrated"If compelling fiction is about finding ordinary characters in extraordinary situations, then Bradburd has given us just that. The stakes are high from page one, and the change in pace throughout this novel-in-stories makes each extraordinary situation an easy one to digest." —Bookslut"The literary equivalent of a basket at the buzzer — a real nail-biter … Bradburd's vision is…refreshing. [His] confident, savvy debut is more in the vein ofNorth Dallas Forty, a letter from the locker room with no contrived winners or losers. The clear victor here is the reader. —San Antonio Express-News"Coach Pytel's pivots to keep his job, his marriage, and his troubled players afloat are so much fun to watch that you may not even notice Bradburd’s hard-won wisdom until it socks you. For all the hilarity in these pages,Make It, Take Itis a soul-wrenching indictment of how the game behind the game is played." —Alex Shakar, author ofLuminarium, winner of the 2011 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction"Rus Bradburd has given us an original novel about college basketball that is compelling, unsettling, yet downright funny and sad at the same time.Make It, Take Itis even better than his incisive non-fiction — and, frankly, that’s just not fair." —Dave Zirin, contributor toNation Magazineand author ofGame Over: How Politics are Turning the Sportsworld Upside Down"Rus Bradburd, like other tough visionaries, has selected a universe unique unto itself — college basketball. In it, he reveals quintessential American issues: race, power, corruption, and, sometimes, excellence.Make It, Take Itcasts light and shadow on both the coaches and the players. It also quietly invites the reader to consider the ways in which basketball reflects a country's virtues as well as its lamentable flaws. This is a very savvy book." —Antonya Nelson, author ofNothing RightandBound, A Novel"Rus Bradburd's compelling novel confirms just about all my worst fears concerning a sport that is very near and dear to my heart. College basketball is a messy business. I would be afraid to ask him how much ofMake It, Take Itis made up." —Bob Ryan, commentator forThe Boston Globeand ESPN"One of our favorite writers." —Slam Magazine"Here's a superbly accurate "fiction" novel that details the lengths to which coaches, student-athletes and those around them will go to advance, survive and/or bury themselves." —College Athletics Clips"The themes here are compelling." — Bill Littlefield,The Boston Globe"An intriguing novel. It’s not a true story, but there’s so much that is real aboutMake It Take It." — SportingNews.com