Sunday Money: A Novel

It's 1971, but for Claire Joyce and girls basketball, it might as well be 1871. Stilted rules (three-bounce dribbling, two roving players for full-court games, and uniforms that include bloomers) set their play unfairly apart from the boys basketball Claires older brother John has trained her in.

Basketball is the only constant in Claire life, and as she enters her teen years the skills shes cultivated on the courtpassing, shooting, and fakinghelp her guard against the chaos of an alcoholic mother, an increasingly violent younger brother, and the downward spiral her beloved John soon finds himself unable to climb out of. Deeply cut from the cloth of the Catholic Church, Brooklyns working class, and the limited expectations her world has for girls, Claire strives to find a mirror that might reflect a different, future self. Then Title IX bounces on the scene. Suddenly, girls basketball becomes explosive, musical, passionate, and drivenand if Claire plays it just right, it just might offer a full ride to a previously out-of-reach college.

Sunday Money follows Claire as she narrates her way through 1970s Brooklyn, hustling on and off the court and striving to break free of the turmoil in her home and the rulebook good girls are supposed to follow. See more