Skip to main content

All the Colors Came Out. Kate Fagan.

 



All the Colors came out.   Kate Fagan.

 

A father, a daughter, and a lifetime of lessons. 

This book is about basketball, it’s about family, it’s about memories, it’s about life and it’s about death, too.   Kate Fagan delivers a snapshot of what it is like to prosper, grow, suffer and lose a loved all in the space of 186 pages.   

Kate Fagan, who is maybe best known for her ESPN days serving on the panel for Around the Horn among many other important duties and appearances, was a basketball player growing up in her native New York.   So was her father.    She followed in his footsteps to excel at the prep level and travel circuits and ultimately complete at the division one college level.    Basketball was one of the bonds that connected Fagan to her father.

We learn that Fagan was also influenced by both parents in many ways beyond sport.   This is where the story begins to resonate with the average reader.    In it, we become acquainted with lessons such as approaching the “free throw line”, modesty and even sense of adventure.   

Along the way, the author moves on with her life and is consumed by work and career ambitions.   She reveals a cognitive dissonance between career, family and even her spouse.   This stage in life evokes tension among family members.    This quagmire clouds the best decision for her and all involved. 

Everything changes when Fagan’s father is diagnosed with ALS.  The author provides an up close and personal account of what it is like to care for a loved one stricken with this disease.      What is more, the book letting the reader in how much the loved one sacrifices, and suffers, through the process.    During the latter stages, her father was reduced to communicate through blinking his eyes.  

The experience and process changes Kate Fagan’s life or forces her to make changes that she did not necessarily want to make at first.   The lessons are many, though.   While sports may rally families to early cohesion, the relationships formed and roles within forged are what keep the family connected long after the hobbies and playing days are a thing of the past.  

At first glance this might feel like a chick flick in a book.    However, the author skillfully touches on areas that any sports fan or simply any family member can connect and ponder.    These might be the “colors” we experience through life as emotions, bonds and life experiences.  Alas a sad ending but an interesting if not fascinating journey along the way.  

You might like to read this book if you are a fan of basketball.

You might like to read this book if you are a daughter.

You might like to read this book if you are a father.

You might like to read this book if you enjoy family dynamics.

You might like to read this book if you reading about daughter – father bonding.   

 

Read more from the author on Twitter:   https://twitter.com/katefagan3

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 1976 National Champion Pitt Panthers. David Finoli.

  The 1976 National Champion Pitt Panthers.     David Finoli. Miracle on Cardiac Hill.      It is not often that fans get to see their favorite college football team win a championship.    It is even more extraordinary when that happens during the first year of ever attending games for your favorite college football team.     Well, that was exactly my experience in the fall of 1976, as a 9-year-old, when I was afforded the great luxury and opportunity with my family to attend University of Pittsburgh football games that season for the first time.      It was a historical season for many reasons but also an exciting time for sports in western Pennsylvania as the Pittsburgh Steelers were winning super bowls and the Pittsburgh Pirates were regular contenders for the National League pennant.     Author David Finoli explains how the local University captured some of that Esprit De corps in hi...
1 comment
Read more

Uninvited: The 1963 Pitt Panthers. David Finoli & Gary Kinn.

It seems hard to believe that a team with only one loss could be left out of a post season in any sport.     However, that is exactly what happened to the University of Pittsburgh’s football team upon the completion of the 1963 season.      Pittsburgh writer and sports authority David Finoli and his co-author Gary Kinn wrote about this underrated team and their surprising success through what was not only challenge in western PA but also took place during a turbulent time throughout the nation.     Finoli and Kinn go through each game of the season explaining the important details of each contest, even including the box score and statistics.     We like that they provided key plays but did not overwork the explanation in each chapter.     The authors mostly kept to the facts at hand without offering personal opinions about the quality of play and performance.    Instead, they let the quotes from ...
1 comment
Read more

Iron in the Blood. Jay Busbee.

   Iron in the Blood.    Jay Busbee. How the Alabama vs. Auburn Rivalry Shaped the Soul of the South.    As far as college football rivalries go the annual game between the two biggest schools in the state of Alabama ranks among the best in the nation.     The game, played at the end of the regular season, is known as the Iron Bowl because it traditionally took place in Birmingham, the state’s largest city.    However, the Pittsburgh in the south, happened to be fertile region blessed with iron-ore resources at one point during the 20th century, hence the moniker that sticks to this day.    Veteran author Jay Busbee decided to add another literary resource, for which there is seemingly no shortage of documentation, describing this rivalry and fascinating topic by publishing his book Iron in the Blood .    This is a book that gives equal quarters to both of the prominent state schools and fervently discusses...
1 comment
Read more