Desperation Passes (Malcolm Wade)

A sex scandal, a pair of shootings, and internal racism complicate an obscure college football team's quest for an epic bowl game victory. Black alumnus/entrepreneur Arthur Allenby and white counselor Malcolm Wade, introduced in Phil Hutcheon's NOBODY ROOTS FOR GOLIATH, rejoin forces to help the CSU team to face these and other obstacles while struggling to salvage their own embattled romantic relationships. DESPERATION PASSES celebrates interracial friendships and emerging leadership opportunities for African Americans but ridicules the hypocrisy of university administrators who overpay opportunistic head coaches while ignoring the academic deficiencies of student-athletes. Readers of Nick Hornby and Tom Perrotta will revel in this allusive, racy romp, tinged with tragedy but loaded with laughs, not just for football fans, but for anyone who has butted heads with brain-dead bureaucrats or survived a heartbreak and carried a torch.