The Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Dreams

How it reads

The Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Dreams is narrative nonfiction (sports reportage, specifically), and its dominant mood is hopeful. Whatever it puts its people through, it believes things can get better. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.

It's set in a big city setting, in the recent past, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are coming of age, class and society and friendship. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is bittersweet: it resolves, but at a price. At 233 pages it's a quick read. It's moderately known: read by plenty of people, but not a household name.