When I Was the Greatest begins with an epigraph that quotes lyrics from a song by Mos Def, more recently known as Yasiin Bey. How do these lyrics foreshadow one of the story’s central themes?

Where is the story set? How does Ali, in his role as narrator, construct this setting? How does the story’s physical setting influence its emotional tenor?

How is Tourette’s syndrome represented, and in what ways does Reynolds’s execution stay true to the realities of a person living with Tourette’s syndrome? In addition to the individual experience of Tourette’s, Reynolds also incorporates social perceptions of the disorder. How does he do this?