To Hate Like This Is To Be Happy Forever by Will Blythe

Also read by Hunter.

While Hunter was waxing poetic on Will Blythe, I think I’m just gonna wax on him. This was the worst single piece of sportswriting I have ever encountered. Which is a real shame because there are some good sportswriters out there and with this serious a subject matter, I kindly wish it was written by one of them. Since Hunter has already reviewed the book and described what it’s about, I’m gonna make this blog cathartic by screaming questions at the author.

My questions for Will Blythe:

1.) First and foremost, what was your scope?
Throughout the entire book, I could not really pinpoint whether he wanted it to be his memoir of Duke-Carolina related stuff, a meditation on the rivalry, a research paper on Christianity and basketball (I’m not kidding!), an (semi-) in-depth look at the 2005 Carolina season, or a journal on Melvin Scott (probably the 5th player that I would choose on that team to learn more about). He talks about his family outside of basketball without developing any of their personalities and thus makes them inconsequential. Over and over, he brings up God and his existence as well as Christianity’s effects on basketball. He recounts multiple games during the 2005 season and just kinda writes some of his own thoughts on them. Lastly, he shadows Melvin Scott on and off the court while not doing the same with any other player. This may be the most befuddling and he doesn't even qualify why he does that. If you're gonna write about a basketball rivalry in NC, why are you going to go all biographical on a non-starting player from Baltimore?

2.) Did you really think you could write this book without doing any homework?
He interviews only one player, Art Heyman, who was involved in the rivalry before 2000. This is one of the top rivalries in sports with a rich history and he only talks with one player. Furthermore, he doesn't even get much into the story and the fights and the progressions of the rivalry. Again, scope.

3.) Did you realize you were going on tangents that weren't even basketball related?
He puts in little snippets of information that boring. In other parts, he questions the existence of God. In the last few paragraphs of the book he talks about how his dad died and came back as a bird. Need I say more?

4.) Do you realize how unclear your writing is?
I'm just gonna put in a quote here:

Driving to the Dean Dome, I found myself stuck behind a jogger who was running down the middle of the road at the bend near Forest Theater. He never turned back to look at the long line of cars forming behind him. He never detoured over to the sidewalk. This struck me as suggestive of an overly idealistic worldview that deserved to be complicated by a good tap on that professorial ass with two or so tons of Subaru.

Are you kidding me? Now imagine a whole book littered with sentences like the last one in the quote. This was easily the most frustrating writing style I've seen lately.

5.) Did you recognize that you nearly became Duke-neutral and that your sister sounds like a bigger Carolina fan than you?
Blythe transforms from hating Duke (self-proclaimed) to doing high-5s with a Duke fan during a Duke game. It isn't till the end of the book that he seems like a true Carolina fan. However, I think his sister, who seems cool, is more die-hard, though.


6.) Here's a list of other annoying things:

Name-dropping without introductions for people
Typos, about 5 occurring in the last half of the book
Bad grammar

I'll include a few things I did like about the book:

I liked reading insights from a Duke Law professor about the mentality of Duke students. This was a good interview subject. This is a excerpt where the professor talking about his students:

'[My wife] just hates them. And it's interesting; when at the end of each semester I have all my clinic students over for a party, she can tell right off who went to Duke undergrad . . . They're different,' he said. 'Almost without fail, they'll talk about money. They'd want to make sure you knew they went to Duke undergrad. They'll talk about the firm they're going to next. Students who went to other colleges as undergraduates will come in, they'll ask my wife about herself, they'll ask about the kids. This last semester, I didn't have any double Dukes in my class, and my wife said it was by far and away the best group of students I'd ever had.'

I also really liked his interview with a Wharton-grad mega-fan who goes by the alias ManhattenHeel on Inside Carolina, a message board website for fans. She had some really fascinating stuff to say. Sadly, my two favorite parts had nothing to do with Blythe and more to do with bigger fans.

Needless to say, I cannot recommend this book to anybody. The only reason why I was able to choke it down was the subject matter, which I care deeply for, and thus why I might be so critical of this book. Frustrating is the most accurate word I can use to describe it.