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Invisible No More: A Historical Novel
Wilmeth Sidat-Singh is the greatest athlete you've never heard of--and so much more. A rocket-armed passer on the football field, an ankle-breaking playmaker on the basketball court, he was also a scholar, civil rights pioneer, patriot, and one other thing--forgotten.
In this historical novel based on Sidat-Singh's life, sportswriter Breanna Shelton stumbles upon the riveting story of the former Syracuse University star who was forced to hide his identity in order to take the field, leading to climactic moments when race and sports collided. As a young Black woman making her way in a profession not ready to fully accept her, Shelton immerses herself in the research, determined to resurrect an inspirational man who time left behind. Along the way, she finds courage and perseverance to transform herself and her career.
Post-civil rights era society still grapples with dispiriting obstacles that Sidat-Singh faced more than a half century earlier, when he was "passing" to play; serving as a Tuskegee Airman in World War II; and interacting with luminaries such as Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Grantland Rice, Sam Lacy, and Joe Louis.
This fictionalized account, as timely now as ever, honors an American hero whose life was cut short while serving a country that didn't recognize him as a full-fledged citizen because of the color of his skin. After you read it, Sidat-Singh will be invisible no more.
In this historical novel based on Sidat-Singh's life, sportswriter Breanna Shelton stumbles upon the riveting story of the former Syracuse University star who was forced to hide his identity in order to take the field, leading to climactic moments when race and sports collided. As a young Black woman making her way in a profession not ready to fully accept her, Shelton immerses herself in the research, determined to resurrect an inspirational man who time left behind. Along the way, she finds courage and perseverance to transform herself and her career.
Post-civil rights era society still grapples with dispiriting obstacles that Sidat-Singh faced more than a half century earlier, when he was "passing" to play; serving as a Tuskegee Airman in World War II; and interacting with luminaries such as Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Grantland Rice, Sam Lacy, and Joe Louis.
This fictionalized account, as timely now as ever, honors an American hero whose life was cut short while serving a country that didn't recognize him as a full-fledged citizen because of the color of his skin. After you read it, Sidat-Singh will be invisible no more.
336 pages, Paperback
Published December 5, 2023
1770 people want to read
About the author
Scott Pitoniak
35 books16 followersScott Pitoniak is considered the most decorated sports writer in Rochester media history. He has received over 100 national and regional journalism honors and has been inducted into the Frontier Field Walk of Fame (1999), the Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications Hall of Fame (200), and the Rome Sports Hall of Fame (2009). He served as a torchbearer for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.
Pitoniak graduated from Syracuse University in 1977. He currently has a column in the Rochester Business Journal and does blogging and occasional on-air work for WROC-TV 8. He previously wrote for the Democrat and Chronicle.
Pitoniak graduated from Syracuse University in 1977. He currently has a column in the Rochester Business Journal and does blogging and occasional on-air work for WROC-TV 8. He previously wrote for the Democrat and Chronicle.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 19, 2023
Read his full review on Rosepoint Publishing.
Wilmeth Sidat-Singh grew up in Upper Manhattan where he was introduced to many of the great African American minds of his generation.
He was gifted in many sports and given a full scholarship to the school of his choice. He was the star football player at the University of Syracuse but was not allowed to suit up to play against the University of Maryland. Syracuse lost its’ game that year because of the prejudicial benching of their star athlete. U of M had discovered he was black rather than Indian which his name implied.
After excelling in sports and just about everything he attempted, Sidat-Singh signed up for training as a black aviator with the Tuskegee all-black training squadron. His ability in the air and seemingly impossible maneuvers with an aircraft helped to mold the Tuskegee Airmen into one of the best fighter pilot squadrons in America.
Sidat-Singh was tragically killed in a training accident. 5 stars – CE Williams
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.
Wilmeth Sidat-Singh grew up in Upper Manhattan where he was introduced to many of the great African American minds of his generation.
He was gifted in many sports and given a full scholarship to the school of his choice. He was the star football player at the University of Syracuse but was not allowed to suit up to play against the University of Maryland. Syracuse lost its’ game that year because of the prejudicial benching of their star athlete. U of M had discovered he was black rather than Indian which his name implied.
After excelling in sports and just about everything he attempted, Sidat-Singh signed up for training as a black aviator with the Tuskegee all-black training squadron. His ability in the air and seemingly impossible maneuvers with an aircraft helped to mold the Tuskegee Airmen into one of the best fighter pilot squadrons in America.
Sidat-Singh was tragically killed in a training accident. 5 stars – CE Williams
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.
May 27, 2024
Rating: 3 generous stars of five
The Publisher Says: Wilmeth Sidat-Singh is the greatest athlete you've never heard of--and so much more. A rocket-armed passer on the football field, an ankle-breaking playmaker on the basketball court, he was also a scholar, civil rights pioneer, patriot, and one other thing—forgotten.
In this historical novel based on Sidat-Singh's life, sportswriter Breanna Shelton stumbles upon the riveting story of the former Syracuse University star who was forced to hide his identity in order to take the field, leading to climactic moments when race and sports collided. As a young Black woman making her way in a profession not ready to fully accept her, Shelton immerses herself in the research, determined to resurrect an inspirational man who time left behind. Along the way, she finds courage and perseverance to transform herself and her career.
Post-civil rights era society still grapples with dispiriting obstacles that Sidat-Singh faced more than a half century earlier, when he was "passing" to play; serving as a Tuskegee Airman in World War II; and interacting with luminaries such as Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Grantland Rice, Sam Lacy, and Joe Louis.
This fictionalized account, as timely now as ever, honors an American hero whose life was cut short while serving a country that didn't recognize him as a full-fledged citizen because of the color of his skin. After you read it, Sidat-Singh will be invisible no more.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: Well, it's #PrideMonth adjacent because Wilmeth Sadat-Singh was in the "race" closet that the US of the 1930s enforced. He was Black, not the less-reviled South Asian ancestry his stepfather's surname allowed him to present to a horrifyingly prejudiced society...a dilemma of passing that queer people face to this day.
The man, and his bitter story, deserve our respect and attention. The recrudescence of the uglier expressions of racism make this tale urgent. This execution of it, to my disappointment, doesn't do the material justice because it's the research notes lightly stitched together with a framing device of modern discovery of historical materials...a lot like what Elizabeth Kostova did in her bestsellers (that I didn't like much either), the entire momentum resides in the past. The problem I have with that is that it never allows me a place to hook into the action because it's all in records of things done and dusted, and people who are largely just names to my 21st-century eyes.
It's self-published, so the $9.99 might be more than you want to spend on a Kindlebook. Get a sample, then decide.
The Publisher Says: Wilmeth Sidat-Singh is the greatest athlete you've never heard of--and so much more. A rocket-armed passer on the football field, an ankle-breaking playmaker on the basketball court, he was also a scholar, civil rights pioneer, patriot, and one other thing—forgotten.
In this historical novel based on Sidat-Singh's life, sportswriter Breanna Shelton stumbles upon the riveting story of the former Syracuse University star who was forced to hide his identity in order to take the field, leading to climactic moments when race and sports collided. As a young Black woman making her way in a profession not ready to fully accept her, Shelton immerses herself in the research, determined to resurrect an inspirational man who time left behind. Along the way, she finds courage and perseverance to transform herself and her career.
Post-civil rights era society still grapples with dispiriting obstacles that Sidat-Singh faced more than a half century earlier, when he was "passing" to play; serving as a Tuskegee Airman in World War II; and interacting with luminaries such as Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Grantland Rice, Sam Lacy, and Joe Louis.
This fictionalized account, as timely now as ever, honors an American hero whose life was cut short while serving a country that didn't recognize him as a full-fledged citizen because of the color of his skin. After you read it, Sidat-Singh will be invisible no more.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: Well, it's #PrideMonth adjacent because Wilmeth Sadat-Singh was in the "race" closet that the US of the 1930s enforced. He was Black, not the less-reviled South Asian ancestry his stepfather's surname allowed him to present to a horrifyingly prejudiced society...a dilemma of passing that queer people face to this day.
The man, and his bitter story, deserve our respect and attention. The recrudescence of the uglier expressions of racism make this tale urgent. This execution of it, to my disappointment, doesn't do the material justice because it's the research notes lightly stitched together with a framing device of modern discovery of historical materials...a lot like what Elizabeth Kostova did in her bestsellers (that I didn't like much either), the entire momentum resides in the past. The problem I have with that is that it never allows me a place to hook into the action because it's all in records of things done and dusted, and people who are largely just names to my 21st-century eyes.
It's self-published, so the $9.99 might be more than you want to spend on a Kindlebook. Get a sample, then decide.
December 24, 2023
This was a historic novel about the extraordinary, yet brief, life of black athlete turned Tuskegee airman Wilmeth Sidat-Singh.
Like many, I had never heard of Sidat-Singh, but I truly enjoyed the authors’ piecing together of his impressive life in this novel. Born in Washington, DC, following the death of his father and his mother’s remarriage to a man originally from India, Sidat-Singh took on his adoptive father’s name and moved to Harlem where he experienced the Harlem Renaissance, meeting and befriending Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and the boxer Joe Louis.
In addition to being a bright student, Sidat-Singh was a gifted athlete, and he was recruited to play basketball for Syracuse University, eventually playing both basketball and becoming quarterback for football – in addition to studying medicine. But, even if not in the Jim Crow south, northern campuses like Syracuse were not at all welcoming to black students in the 1930s – even those who put their sports teams on the map and handed them victories over national sports powerhouses.
The novel does an excellent job of following Sidat-Singh’s life and allowing us to view the enormous strength of character and perseverance it took for Sidat-Singh to achieve all he did in the face of racism aimed at him both as a student-athlete and as a military pilot. The authors invent an investigative journalist who digs into the life of this long-forgotten, trailblazing athlete and military pilot, and the novel is fascinating and easy to read.
My one complaint is that the dialogue frequently feels more like “info dump” than natural speech, and I felt those facts could have been better worked into the narrative for better flow.
That said, however, this is still a compelling sports story that will interest even a non-sports audience interested in first-hand accounts of the vibrancy of the black community in the 1920s and 1930s and the insurmountable challenges they often faced in a racist society – and how those circumstances made Sidat-Singh’s achievements even more impressive. A highly enjoyable read that deserves an audience far beyond just readers of sports literature.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy - all thoughts are my own.
Like many, I had never heard of Sidat-Singh, but I truly enjoyed the authors’ piecing together of his impressive life in this novel. Born in Washington, DC, following the death of his father and his mother’s remarriage to a man originally from India, Sidat-Singh took on his adoptive father’s name and moved to Harlem where he experienced the Harlem Renaissance, meeting and befriending Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and the boxer Joe Louis.
In addition to being a bright student, Sidat-Singh was a gifted athlete, and he was recruited to play basketball for Syracuse University, eventually playing both basketball and becoming quarterback for football – in addition to studying medicine. But, even if not in the Jim Crow south, northern campuses like Syracuse were not at all welcoming to black students in the 1930s – even those who put their sports teams on the map and handed them victories over national sports powerhouses.
The novel does an excellent job of following Sidat-Singh’s life and allowing us to view the enormous strength of character and perseverance it took for Sidat-Singh to achieve all he did in the face of racism aimed at him both as a student-athlete and as a military pilot. The authors invent an investigative journalist who digs into the life of this long-forgotten, trailblazing athlete and military pilot, and the novel is fascinating and easy to read.
My one complaint is that the dialogue frequently feels more like “info dump” than natural speech, and I felt those facts could have been better worked into the narrative for better flow.
That said, however, this is still a compelling sports story that will interest even a non-sports audience interested in first-hand accounts of the vibrancy of the black community in the 1920s and 1930s and the insurmountable challenges they often faced in a racist society – and how those circumstances made Sidat-Singh’s achievements even more impressive. A highly enjoyable read that deserves an audience far beyond just readers of sports literature.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy - all thoughts are my own.
January 5, 2024
Excellent historical fiction novel about an unsung hero. Wilmeth Sidat-Singh was a black two sport athlete at Syracuse in the 1930s who had an uphill battle to a make for himself. Excellent research and read like a biography.
January 8, 2025
well-written and informative story of black sports star at Syracuse University. He is misttaken for an Asian Indian becuase of his name. This causes many complications in his life.Story told by young journalist .
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March 27, 2024I'm grateful to being introduced to Wilmet Sidat-Singh's name, but I'm just going to check his Wikipedia entry at this point.
I won't rate this, since I could not get through it. I will say a few things. Firstly, that I didn't really enjoy the frequent shifting of character pov, sometimes even within a chapter and with little warning. Secondly, that it did feel obvious to me this was written by white men. As I don't follow sports - actually I picked this up with the hopes of getting into them - I didn't recognize the authors' names. I'm sure that Sidat-Singh's story is worth discussing, and again, I am glad to have been introduced to him.
I won't rate this, since I could not get through it. I will say a few things. Firstly, that I didn't really enjoy the frequent shifting of character pov, sometimes even within a chapter and with little warning. Secondly, that it did feel obvious to me this was written by white men. As I don't follow sports - actually I picked this up with the hopes of getting into them - I didn't recognize the authors' names. I'm sure that Sidat-Singh's story is worth discussing, and again, I am glad to have been introduced to him.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews