Review: Brothers on Three

 

Disclaimer: ARC via published in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

               I am not a basketball fan.  I really am not.  It’s not anything about  the players; it’s the game itself.  I find it al little boring.  I’m sorry, I just do.  So why did I read this book?  Well, books that are about sports are not always about sports.

               Brothers on Three details a season of the Arlee Warriors as they go on a quest to repeat as champions.  The focus is mainly on Will Mesteth Jr and Phil Malatare and their families,  though other players and the coaches as well as larger issues.  However, the focus is largely on the team and the transitions that the two stars are making upon leaving high school.

               It is to Streep’s credit as a writing that he writes about the games in such a way that even someone like me who has no interest in the actual game of basketball and knows the outcome of the season, could get caught up in the action.  The book, however, is not just solely about a basketball season.

               Streep is an outsider both in a geographical sense and a cultural sense.  To his credit, he is aware of this.  He is careful and clear in why he uses certain names and terms.  He does not anglicize terms that have no clear English equivalent.  He also aptly illustrates the conflicts of cultural politeness and job morality in one section of the book.

               More importantly, Streep keeps his presence in the book to a minimum.  It is a reporter’s account.  On the whole, balanced and engrossing.  His focus also shifts to the world that does not support the young man on the team.  This world is not the reservation but the policies, racism, community expectations and generational issues that are a result of colonialism – all this effects the boys, who as one father points out to Streep, carry too much on their shoulders.          

               There are places where I wanted a little more – like a more detailed comparison between the girls’ team and the boys – but in terms of the book’s focus and length, this might have been difficult to work in. 

What Streep does focus on is the team’s response to the suicides and health issues in their community, including when it directly effects those on the team.  His reporting on the player Greg, in particular, highlight these various issues and the responses to them.  He also directly addresses the lack of opportunity due to racism and cultural differences.  Are the players less avidly recruited than other non-Indigenous players because of  lack of skill, racism, or lack of understanding about the culture that the players come from – all are questions that Streep addresses with a deft hand.  He also addresses educational issues that also hinder the players in sometime unexcepted ways.  It is an in depth look at a serious of issues that go, largely ignored about the majority of the American population.