Sportsman's Paradise

by Nancy Lemann

Populating this comic novel of manners is a circle of displaced southerners, summering at a Long Island enclave. Frequently alcohol soaked, falling apart with cultivated charm, they are obsessively observed by their compatriot.

• ISBN10: 0807124176
• ISBN13: 9780807124178
• Publish Date: 1 October 1999 (first published 12 May 1992)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 2 June 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Louisiana State University Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 240
• Language: English

Reviews

[jamiereadthis]

I was reviewing The Art of Fielding, and came here to look up what Lemann wrote in this book re: the human condition, and realized I read Sportsman’s Paradise over two years ago and never reviewed it. This is an egregious oversight.

It’s Gatsby-era Fitzgerald meets bourbon and baseball, but a little more sweet and a little more screwy, and I loved it. Two years later it’s stuck with me. I think of lines that Lemann wrote all the time. Like, “He has angels in his brain.” Or, “When you take the sin out, the humanity goes with it.” Or, “Of two hearts one is always the stronger.”

I owe my friend Karen a lot for tracking down this book (a longtime favorite of hers) and putting it in my hands. Here’s that one part about the human condition:

“It was like a small dinner party, the announcer said. It was the diehards. They were like feisty old-timers who just wouldn’t quit. They were a metaphor for the h. condition. They were in it for the long haul, not only in perseverance, but enjoying it. You have to love the attempt, even if the attempt is failure. Anyway they were sitting there with umbrellas in the stands at two in the morning like maniacs.”