Intangibles

'One of the best books I've read this year, or any other' David Grann'Just ridiculously good . . . I did not want it to end' William FinneganThe Intangibles is Paumgarten's memoir told through the odd but vivid lens of hockey. Not a book about hockey, really, but one in which a lifetime of obsessively hanging around the game provides a vivid and sneaky-exotic window into a cultish world that hides in plain sight. The Intangibles is also a timely, sharp, and witty exploration of masculinity, of boys and men, sons and fathers, of both the toxic and non-toxic kinds. And a deep, questioning look at, and finally a celebration of, a certain world of male friendship, in which sport - or the dreams of sport - becomes the lingua franca for a group of men with all their faults and hopes. Paumgarten's memoir both explores and undermines some of the mythologies of manhood and sport, while creating a fresh, rich, and honest portrait of men at play - the kind of male play of such outsized importance that it defies logic, age, orthopaedics, and the responsibilities of grown-up life. Though he rarely plays anymore, Paumgarten still cherishes the game of hockey. In many respects, The Intangibles is a love letter to the game, and a razor-sharp, original, and mordant anthropology of its participants and their earnest strivings by one of our finest writers.

Nick Paumgarten has been a staff writer at the New Yorker since 2005. Prior to that, he spent five years as an editor and writer at the magazine. He has covered a wide range of subjects, including politics, finance, art, music, food, technology, mountaineering, sports-talk radio, elevators, boxer-bartenders, commuters, and canoes. His work has also appeared in Outside, GQ, Bon Appetit, Men's Vogue, Powder, the Adventure Journal, and The Sewanee Review. He was an editor and reporter at the New York Observer from 1995-2000. He lives with his wife Siv in Manhattan