Former long-time New York Times sports columnist and award-winning author Robert Lipsyte may be one of those rare writers who aim for a YA crowd but also attract readers beyond. YA, of course, stands for Young Adult, a category that typically includes late teens and those in their early 20’s. Lipsyte’s reputation for covering football is such, however, that when I mentioned to a friend I was reading a YA novel on sports by Lipsyte, he said immediately – “Ah, YA -- Y.A. Tittle,” referencing the professional quarterback who played for the NFL. By the way, Tittle was known as Y.A. because his first two names were Yelburton Abraham. Anyway, Lipsyte may also be unusual for another reason: Rhino’s Run, his latest book will likely appeal to older boys, reportedly the most difficult demographic to get to read fiction. But the book is well conceived and executed so as to engage anyone interested in good writing.
A timely tale, Rhino’s Run hits all the buttons: school pressure, town/gown divisions, sports competition, family relationships, romantic crushes, gun control, mass shootings, political correctness, occasional drugs – all set against a wider canvas of liberal and conservative politics.
Lipsyte’s ear effectively captures adolescent exchanges and inner moods, and he’s savvy enough not to make the outcome obvious.
Ron “Rhino” Rhinehart, a big guy, an admired junior at his suburban high school in upstate New York, narrates the tale by way of keeping a journal. He’s talented enough in football to have become captain, which earns him the enmity of those a grade above. No great academic, he tends to his grades in order to stay on and lead the team. Being captain is important, but as the cover subtitle has it: “You can’t play it safe when you’re the captain. “ Ron’s name “Rhino” alludes to his fantasy ideal run in a game, forceful, focused, full of surprise. What the tale cleverly shows is how the phrase will eventually apply to Ron’s off-the-field activities, working in concert with classmates, some of whom are outright hostile, to Do The Right Thing when a disturbed, sensitive fellow student is shot by local police, who got it all wrong.
Ron’s keeping a journal because he’s been involved in a fracus with another student – “a mindless reaction,” which he regrets. Both are assigned to a counseling program – ILOD -- In Lieu of Detention. Lipsyte’s realistic treatment of the beleaguered group counselor, sympathetic to the boys but targeted by parents with connections to the police and politicos, is admirable, as is his nuanced characterization of Ron’s father, an ex-cop and Trump supporter. In fact, all the characters in Rhino’s Run are carefully drawn, well-intentioned but short-sighted, flawed, among them Ron’s rebellious older sister, who’s left home. She’s smart, but obese and trying to find herself, but she’s also intuitively aware of how others are lost. It turns out that Ron likes keeping a journal. He’s honest, faithful to the commitment, and testing his self-awareness. He comes to know that though football is his great passion, it may not be his life.
Ambiguity rules. Changes of heart are hard-won and not necessarily permanent, new alliances are welcome but likely to erode on graduation when kids pursue different paths.
