Reviews of Squash

"Squash is a rather obscure sport, particularly in the US, and hardball's demise went largely unnoticed by the mainstream sports media. Hoping to correct belatedly this oversight and perhaps reopen the hardball-versus-softball debate, an American writer (and squash player) named James Zug has just published a book titled Squash: A History of the Game (Scribner). Actually, it is really just a history of squash in the US, but slightly misleading title aside, it is a terrific read (a fact announced, as it were, by the foreword, contributed by the late, distinguished writer George Plimpton). Zug chronicles the life and death of the hardball game—from its New England prep-school roots to its long association with the Wasp establishment (hardball's epicentre was the Merion Cricket Club in Philadelphia, home to the bluest of the bluebloods) to its democratic heyday in the 1970s to its extinction in the 1990s. Hardball was a fast game that required a certain manic intensity, and it produced an inordinate share of eccentrics and neurotics."

— Michael Steinberger, Financial Times, 23 December 2003

 

"The squash world has been waiting for a book like this. Even the most dedicated and knowledgeable maestros of tight rails and feathery drop shots will learn lots of fascinating stuff they never knew before."

— Tom Wolfe, author of The Bonfire of the Vanities and A Man in Full

 

"Expert/hacker, hardball/softball, doubles/singles-all squash devotees should read James Zug's comprehensive and passionate account of the history of their game."

— Frank Deford, senior writer, Sports Illustrated

 

"The definitive book on the game."

— George Plimpton, author of Paper Lion and editor of the Paris Review, from the foreword to Squash: A History of the Game

 

"Squash is the first comprehensive history of the modern racquet game. And an interesting history it is....It doesn't take much reading to warm to the goofy, quixotic coaches, party animals, angry loners, footloose scions and racquet-wielding Holly Golightlys who traipse through the pages of Mr. Zug's book...It is sure to become a fixture in reading rooms featuring featuring lots of green leather and the scent of furniture polish...The next thing you know, they'll be pushing squash fusilli at Spago."

— Peter Bodo, The Wall Street Journal, 26 September 2003

 

"Something about squash—the white walls, the cloistered courts and the cruel ring of a tinned volley—inspires eccentricity. Zug, a former collegiate player, excels in describing the game's outsized personalities and how they won clubhouse fame and infamy...Squash fans will appreciate Zug's history of the game's complicated origins among English schoolboys at Harrow in the eighteen-forties, where it was a novice's version of the medieval game of racquets. The book also serves as an epitaph of sorts, the North American hardball squash on which Zug focuses having been rendered obselete by the softball version which now prevails in international competition."

— The New Yorker, 15 September 2003

 

"Zug has managed to unearth some wonderful facts about the beginnings of the game of squash...Wherever he has turned his attention, the author has obviously done a vast amount of reading: magazines, books, newspapers, newsletters and probably every train time-table that happened to fall in his omnivorus path. At least one dictionary was consumed whole....This is a treasure trove of historic fact, fable and fancy."

— Martin Bronstein, 6 September 2003, www.squashtalk.com

 

"James Zug has a wonderful time telling these stories of Henri Salaun and various other eccentrics—of whom there are quite a few—among squash's elite....James Zug is a good story teller and his game offers more good stories than most folks would have guess that it would. There are some intriguing photographs in his book, too."

— Bill Littlield, 13 September 2003, www.onlyagame.org

 

Listen to James Zug talk about the book, squash eccentrics, and how his father steals his checks, on the NPR show, It's Only a Game, on 13 September 2003.

"This sprightly social history of the game contains good descriptive material on playing styles....Zug is also adept with atmosphere, whether he is praising the composed prowess and humility of great players or recreating historic matches blow by blow. But he's perhaps best at tracing the game's evolution from India rubber balls, bamboo racquets and granite cages to today's titanium shafts and glass walls....With its narrative vivacity and wealth of historical settings, this classy piece of sports writing is not just for sports nuts."

— Kirkus Reviews, starred review, June 2003

 

"Zug makes squash relevant by capturing an interesting parallel between the game and American social movements as he details squash's evolution from the pastime of America's most exclusive universities and clubs to the emergence of women on the American squash scene in the 1920s and America's fitness obsession in the late 1970s and '80s, which made the game accessible to every neighborhood YMCA from coast to coast. Furthermore, realizing that a sport is only as compelling as its champions, Zug presents colorful bios of the game's best and most eccentric players."

— Publisher's Weekly, 2 June 2003

 

"Fantastic! This intertwines the beautiful art of the game we love with in-depth knowledge of its origins and wonderful quotes, memories and stories. An absolute must for all squash enthusiasts."

— Natalie Pohrer, world #1 softball player

 

"This is by far the most entertaining, informative squash book that I have ever seen."

— Mark Talbott, former world #1 hardball player