Harshly real and thought-provoking, The Sport of the Gods is an important story about displacement, vice and injustice. Definitely don't pick it up for light reading, but don't expect some philosophical beauty-for-ashes Great American Novel. The Sport of the Gods is a simple story with a not-as-simple message, and the weight it carries is as significant today as ever it was. As can be said of any groundbreaking story, this novel - one of the first to depict the gritty struggles of ghetto life - takes on a rather pedagogical air at times. But anyone who discredits it for this has clearly not understood the significance of what they have just read.