Play Audiobook Sample
Rules for Becoming a Legend: A Novel Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
(0.00) - 0 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
A spirited debut of a rising basketball star wrestling with his town’s outsized expectations and his family’s complicated legacy Everyone seems to know Jimmy “Kamikaze” Kirkus, the half-white, half-Asian basketball sensation from small town Oregon. College coaches flood his mailbox with recruiting letters, Sports Illustrated has already profiled him, and everyone in town hangs on his every shot. But nobody can possibly fathom the weight of all this upon Jimmy’s shoulders, or the looming legacy that casts a wide shadow. Todd “Freight Train” Kirkus seemed destined for the NBA until he impregnates Genny Mori, the tough yet fragile daughter of the only Japanese family in town. Dreams of stardom and riches are traded in for a hasty marriage and parenthood until tragedy slams the Kirkus family. Jimmy and his wisecracking little brother Dex are born into a broken family, one haunted by wasted talent, alcoholism, and death. Like Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding and Friday Night Lights (the book and cult television show), Timothy Lane’s debut novel uses sports as a lens to understand family, community, catastrophe, passion, and hope. Populated with complex characters, Rules for Becoming a Legend is deftly written by an author who understands basketball as well as he understands the human condition.
Download and start listening now!
“Bryan Langlitz’s narration relieson emotion, which is so appropriate for Timothy Lane’s compelling drama about atroubled kid who is trying to find his way on and off the court in the Northwest.Langlitz sets the tone in the opening scene, then spends the rest of the bookshaping the plot with a determined, animated narration. The story evokesalternating empathy and laughter as the nonlinear plot bounces to points beforeand after the incident described in the opening scene. Langlitz’s energeticnarration helps listeners keep it all straight. He shines more with tone thanwith voices—a nutty grandfather is done well—in a story that is equal partscoming-of-age, family dysfunction, and sports.”
— AudioFile
Quotes
-
“It’s a purposely shaggy book, gradually dealing in side characters to take part in the storytelling, often using a between-you-and-me tone: “So can we blame the kid?” Sports is not the point, but Lane is awfully good at tweaking every game detail into the kind of epicness that soon becomes lore. There’s tragedy aplenty, and humor, too, but mostly a wistfulness that life can’t remain how it looks beneath stadium lights.”
— Booklist -
“A slam dunk of a debut. Rules for Becoming a Legend speaks to heartland America with all the authenticity and pathos of great Springsteen song—it’ll hit you like a brick wall.”
— Jonathan Evison, New York Times bestselling author of West of Here -
“Rules for Becoming a Legend is inventive, stylish, and moves straight to the heart. The story of would-be legend Jimmy ‘Kamikaze’ Kirkus is about so much more than high school basketball; it is a book about fathers and sons, expectations and disappointments, fame and infamy. Like Kamikaze Kirkus, Timothy S. Lane drives his superb debut novel straight at the wall, without flinching.”
— Kristopher Jansma, author of The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards -
“With Rules for Becoming a Legend basketball has its Friday Night Lights, Timothy S. Lane has a game-winner, and you get something to read ’til you’ll miss your subway stop. What makes for a squandered life? Can a man turn around who he is like he can turn around a jumpshot? This is a great basketball novel and more than just that. Lane writes about the universal by way of the bouncing, orange particular, and his book’s a triumph.”
— Darin Strauss, author of More Than It Hurts You
Rules for Becoming a Legend Listener Reviews
Be the first to write a review about this audiobook!
About Timothy S. Lane
Timothy S. Lane graduated from the University of Oregon with a journalism degree and worked as a sports reporter for the Molalla Pioneer before pursuing a career in publishing in New York City. His writing has appeared in the Good Men Project and Pology. He lives with his wife in Portland, Oregon.
About Bryan Langlitz
Bryan Langlitz is an actor and voice artist. His film roles include Incoming, and his television roles include House of Cards, Smash, and Orange Is the New Black. He was also part of the cast for the Broadway play Memphis.