How fitting that today should be Halloween when I finished reading Stephen Graham Jones‘s novel The Only Good Indians. I learned about the existence of this book on the horrorlit subreddit. It has been praised for its atmospheric dread and criticized for its basketball content. For a book that is not self-identified as sports horror, there’s a lot of sports. Even more than the promise of scary bits and foreboding tone, I wanted to see for myself just how much basketball is in this book.
Sweet fancy Moses — there is a lot of basketball. How much exactly? I may have missed a few random utterances, but to the best of my annotations, here are the pages that include references to the sport and gameplay:
~ 25-26
~ 44-45, 47-49
~ 114-115, 118
~ 140-143
~ 153, 159, 163-166, 170-177, 186, 195
~ 201, 223, 238, 239, 241, 242, 250
~ 260-270, 283, 289-291, 294, 295
The story proper begins on page 1 and ends on 303. I don’t think it’s a stretch to posit that there’s more basketball in this book than not. Why this sport instead of another? Why a sport at all rather than any other activity to function as a means to leave the reservation, to represent one’s tribe with accolades? Ne sais pas. I didn’t mind reading all those passages of blocking and whipping around to reach for a ball in the last section of the book, so I’m not as invested in why it’s there. I’m also a little sleep-deprived as a I write these words and listen to Florence and the Machine‘s new album Everybody Scream, so I’d prefer not to think too much about it. I shall leave you with my assessment that The Only Good Indians passes the page 99 test (If you’ve read it, you’ll likely agree how this page evokes the unsettling mood and even foreshadows an aspect of the ending) and some screengrabs from Florence’s new music videos.
I started listening to Florence Welch’s music in 2020 and have loved the majority of her songs. Her new album is melodically everything that resonates with me even when I like certain songs more than others, I don’t dislike any of the tracks. It is a great album for the season here in the northern hemisphere.
Pic creds: Amazon, YouTube screengrabs, yours truly.
Sitting Pugs: Sports Movies 