On the Devil's Court

“There are two things that I’m ashamed of. The first is that I agreed to sell my soul to the devil. But I’ll go into that later. The second is that I’ve always gone to a private school. My father makes me. He went to a private school. My mother went to a private school. They met at a private-school dance.” 

This is the opening paragraph of the book. Joe, who has not even introduced himself yet, starts by relating that he offered to sell his soul to the devil. Note that he does not indicate whether the devil accepted. Without further discussion, he goes into one of the central conflicts of the story: his father’s attempts to regiment his life, in this case by forcing him to attend a private school. Deuker is stirring curiosity from the first paragraph.

“I’ve always been able to shoot well. The ball just feels good in my hands. Actually, it’s not the hands but in the fingertips where the feel is. If I get the ball up in my fingertips, and if I follow through with my wrist, the ball is going in. There is absolutely nothing like the sound of a perfect swish.

Joe describes the intimacy and passion he feels for the basketball itself here. He relates the particular feeling and sound he associates with the ball. As the story progresses, he shows such familiarity and affection for his teammates and how the game is played. Throughout, Joe equates good experiences with the ball to good days, and bad days equate to poor experiences with shooting and playing.

“I’d never been with anyone who’d done anything like that before. I should have walked away. I had the car; Ross would have had to follow. But I didn’t move. I just watched him, and I kept thinking how astonished my father would be if he ever found out. I was scared, but it was exciting. And I felt strangely powerful, as if I were capable of things I hadn’t dreamed of.” 

Ross has talked Joe into driving him to a golf course where Ross spray paints graffiti on several buildings. Extremely sheltered, Joe is awakened for the first time to the possibility of doing things he realizes are wrong, something he finds alluring and frightening at the same time.