Review A droll and utterly charming Gen X tale of a man and a country rediscovering themselves through sport. I couldn't put it down.Have you ever had a dream that was so crazy and seemingly unrealistic you never even tried to follow it? This book is about a guy who followed that dream all the way to Prague and discovered that, sometimes, the journey is more important than the dream itself. Read it and you might find yourself willing to take a few more chances.For anybody who reads this delightful memoir, the result is as perfect as a 360-degree, buzzer-beating dunk to win a playoff game. Part travelogue into the secret side of Prague, part game-by-game drama, Expatriate Games demonstrates how the game reflects the culture, and vice versa. Told in nimble prose, this is a book not to be missed by even the most casual basketball fan.if he were a slow-footed, non-jumping, pump-faking point guard from Massachusetts who took his game to Prague on a dare to himself. Of hmmm, hard, but writes like a comic genius. --Will Blythe, author of To Hate Like This is To Be Happy ForeverIn his first book, lawyer and pro basketballer wannabe Fromm offers an entertaining and often hilarious account of his year in Prague playing point guard in a semipro league and attending political science courses at Central European University. Fromm was 23 years old and admits that he was unready for law school or the demands of full-time employment. So instead, in the fall of 1994, he embarked on a thoroughly unplanned trip to a country he barely knew, with somehow stumbled upon a league and a team, and while struggling to learn Czech and Czech customs, get along with his teammates, and earn a degree, Fromm found love, or what he first thought was love. Fromm recounts his adventures with candor and self-deprecating humor, crafting a modest, worthwhile book about discovering yourself and following your passions. The lengthy and numerous basketball game recaps can grow tiresome, but this is an otherwise brisk and breezy read. Recommended for public libraries.In his first book, lawyer and pro basketballer wannabe Fromm offers an entertaining and often hilarious account of his year in Prague playing point guard in a semipro league and attending political science courses at Central European University. Fromm was 23 years old and admits that he was unready for law school or the demands of full-time employment. So instead, in the fall of 1994, he embarked on a thoroughly unplanned trip to a country he barely knew, with somehow stumbled upon a league and a team, and while struggling to learn Czech and Czech customs, get along with his teammates, and earn a degree, Fromm found love, or what he first thought was love. Fromm recounts his adventures with candor and self-deprecating humor, crafting a modest, worthwhile book about discovering yourself and following your passions. The lengthy and numerous basketball game recaps can grow tiresome, but this is an otherwise brisk and breezy read. Recommended for public libraries.
C**R
An entertaining, though flawed, book
When I saw the subtitle of David Fromm's EXPATRIATE GAMES, "My Season of Misadventures in Czech Semi-Pro Basketball," I had to read the book. I was a refugee--and still a Czech citizen--when I began playing Division-I college basketball in the United States. I looked forward to reading about someone who was my mirror image: an American playing roundball in my native country. I came away both entertained and somewhat disappointed.On the plus side, I found it interesting to discover what life must be like for a young, English-speaking ex-pat who is thrust into the strange culture of my home town, Prague. I appreciated the fact that the author took an interest in Czech history and that he weaves bits and pieces of it into his narrative. I certainly enjoyed his descriptions of the basketball action, including his self-deprecating images of his own failures on the court.My main objection--one which I'm sure is not shared by non-Czech-speaking readers--pertains to the hundreds of spelling and grammatical errors in the italicized Czech words which are sprinkled throughout the book. Fromm apologizes for this up-front in the Author's Note. However, that does not excuse "murdering" the language. The author and his publisher could have avoided this easily by running the manuscript by an editor with knowledge of the language. I am sure that this editor would have also corrected such inaccuracies as Jaromir Jagr being from Brno (rather than Kladno) and the placement of the Kladno hockey team in the capital of Moravia (not "southern" Moravia).My other criticism pertains to his descriptions of the majority of his basketball opponents. While he inserts admiring observations of NBA players throughout the book, he shows a great deal of disdain for Czech players he faces. With occasional exceptions, they are: fat, slow, rough, ugly, and crass. I have Czech friends who play, or have played, basketball--and none of these adjectives apply to them. I doubt that Fromm's semi-pro league was full of such characters.Despite the foregoing, I enjoyed the book and found it quite entertaining.
M**A
A great sports book in the same vein as Nick Hornsby's
A great sports book in the same vein as Nick Hornsby's, "Fever Pitch", David Fromm delivers a funny, insightful account into life for expats in eastern Europe in the 90's. What really sets this book apart is that while telling his unique entertaining story, he brilliantly captures the excitement and angst felt by the hundreds or thousands of us that were there putting off entry into the real world.(One little quibble. Jaromir Jagr is not from Brno but Kladno. Kladno is a city of maybe 100,000 about 20 miles northwest of Prague in Bohemia. Brno has nearly a million people and is 200 miles to the east in Moravia).
M**A
One Star
Don't remember this one.
J**R
Much More than Basketball
Picture American Dave Fromm, a recent college graduate, with barely a place to stay and few concrete plans, wandering the mysterious nighttime streets of Prague, listening intently for the sound of a bouncing basketball. That's the central image of Expatriate Games, Fromm's terrific memoir about a year spent playing semi-professional basketball in the Czech Republic in the early 1990s.Fromm's basketball odyssey is a major part of the book, but he gives readers so much more. The fish-out-of-water explorations of a foreign country, the transition to delayed "real-life" adulthood, the awkward love stories, the half-hearted attempt at a questionable graduate degree--all of these are rendered in gifted prose and a vulnerable voice that earns readers' affection for his quirky choices.As good as anything from George Plimpton's classic sports fantasies, Fromm takes his place with Pat Conroy's My Losing Season, Jay Atkinson's Ice Time, Melissa King's She's Got Next, and Mark St.Amant's Just Kick It as the best of a recent crop of memoirs that are partly about sports, but mostly about life.
J**K
Fromm is in a Zone
Are you a former high school basketball player? Pretty solid game, but not good enough to actually play ball at the college level? Maybe spent your college years and/or grad school years as a gym rat? Probably realized when you were 24 or 25, playing pick-up games at the campus field house that you were actually a better player -- a smarter player and stronger player -- than you were at 17. Maybe that got you wondering whether you could try to make something of the 4 years of NCAA elibility you had left? If so, then this book is for you.Fromm is on fire in what appears to be his first book! There are a few places in the book when he's off his game, "losing the handle," "forcing up shots." But, for most of this book, he's in the zone! His witty, self-deprecating style makes for a gut-splitting romp through a season of semi-pro basketball in Eastern Europe -- this is before the explosion of basketball talent from that region. But, Fromm's tale is also about drinking in bars, hanging out at discos, and trying to find that unique form of casual romance that, by the time your 27, is forever out of your reach.And, Fromm's adeptness at weaving into his story memories of NBA and college basketball lore from his youth (and my youth and, likely, your youth) is icing on the cake. At the same time you're revisiting Fromm's overseas exploits, your revisiting some of your own memories of the game.This guy should be writing for Page 2 of [...]. He would be an instant hit.And, even if you're not that former high school basketball player -- or former gym rat -- if you're just a regular old sports guy who's wife or girlfriend keeps asking him to read "Eat, Pray, Love," this is the book for you, too. This is "Eat, Pray, Love" for guys!
Trustpilot
2 weeks ago
1 month ago
