The greatest cricket book ever written
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This is the greatest cricket book ever written. It's amazing. Because it's not about cricket. It's about life, about class, about politics, about colonialism, about racism. Because James realises you can't talk about cricket without talking about these things. As he says, "what do they know of cricket that only cricket know?"
Cricket books seem to work better than many other sport books because the game has only just started to change. There's been no new equipment to revolutionise the game, no huge influxes of obscene money (until this year); Bradman would have scored runs by the hatful today, and Warne would have taken wickets by the bucketload then. Which is lovely and means that this book feels almost as relevant now as when it was written.
If you know a cricket fan (or a sports fan, for that matter) who hasn't read this book, buy it for them. They will thank you
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Lives up to its reputation
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Beyond a Boundary reached number 3 in the Observer Sport Monthly’s poll of the best fifty sports books of all time. It is burdened with enormous praise; amongst the quotes included on the cover are: ‘To say “the best cricket book ever written” is pifflingly inadequate praise’ and ‘Great claims have been made for [Beyond a Boundary] since its first appearance in 1963: that it is the greatest sports book ever written; that it brings the outsider a privileged insight into West Indian culture; that it is a severe examination of the colonial condition. All are true.’ The praise is justified. The only way that this is not the best cricket book ever written is if you do not consider it as a cricket book. It is beautifully crafted, transcending the genre: an engaging combination of cricket book, personal memoir and political and cultural commentary. There are other very good books about cricket but this is something more than that. It is a cricket book, a history book, a sociology book and more. CLR James is a fascinating man: widely travelled, spending long periods in England and the USA as well as Trinidad, an important writer and journalist, a politically active Marxist, instrumental in getting Frank Worrell appointed captain of the West Indies team. The book covers a wide range of subjects including his childhood in Trinidad; great cricketers he has known and watched; Caribbean politics amongst others. For cricket lovers one of the beautiful things about the book is that James loves cricket, he appreciates it as an art form. He possesses the clarity of thought and the prose to convey this love and appreciation to the reader. In places the book shows its age (it was written in 1963); it is very much of its time: a product of the anti-colonial struggle, and the emergence of West Indies cricket as a serious challenge to the domination of England and Australia. In some places events have overtaken some of his observations and some of the language jars. It is still a fantastic book – amazingly insightful and interesting. This is a book that no genuine cricket lover should be without.
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Fascinating
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James challenges classification himself. A marxist with a fascination for the establishment game of cricket and other establishment features - the English public school and characters like WG Grace.
He writes in an engaging style, he has a keen eye for detail and he weaves politics into any theme in an effortless and skillful way.
Read this and the more recently published Letters from London.
Great stuff.
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Colonial Cricket
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Here’s a book I’ve been meaning to read for years but was disappointed when I did. For the cricket buff, there’s some ancient history which, via W G Grace and Don Bradshaw gets us as far as bodyline. Politically, James’s Marxism emerges from a classical education at the Queen’s Royal College in Trinidad and his subsequent arrival in Britain. In essence, this is James’s autobiography in which cricket laced with social aspiration drives him into journalism, presaging his later scholarly writing. It is perhaps not surprising that the book should have been so popular in the 1960s when the West Indies was emerging as the giant of first class cricket, thus providing a convenient metaphor for the emergence of the colonised masses from oppression. But while the book provides a useful glimpse into his own colonial history, there is little critical analysis, Marxist or otherwise, of the limits of post-colonial euphoria. Such is the danger of waiting too long to read what at the time was hailed as a classic.
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Beyond comparison - an extraordinary book
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This beautiful, rich, complex and deeply satisfying book still haunts me nearly a year after reading it for the first time. James takes you through his life, the history of West Indian society and the role of cricket in both with a vigour and erudition that lifts the book from the mere 'sports' category. Cricket, and the power it can have over an individual and a people, is central to his story. The development of cricket, people and politics in the West Indies was intertwined for most of the 20th century. And James does us all an immense favour by untangling these strands carefully, deliberately and intelligently and then for good measure shines a light on England and its' own cricketing heritage. It is a wonderful read. Read this book if you love cricket, if you're fascinated by political history, if you love writing that is so good it leaves you breathless. Whatever your reason, just read it; and then spread the word.
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