Reviewed by TheMole(Gerry)
I decided to read this because my wife enjoyed it otherwise I wouldn't have considered it. I don't HATE football - I just dislike it. We have all heard it's 22 men chasing a ball etc. We have all heard the jokes:- "They were training with dustbins and the dustbins won.", "I phoned to find out what time the kickoff was and they asked what time I could get there!", "You watch them? They never came to see me when I was bad.", "They announce the crowd changes to the teams.". It's all been said and there isn't anything new. But this book isn't about football. Yes it goes on and on about it, but there is hardly a fact about it in the book.
Nick Hornby tells us of his relationship with football. How it was a way of getting quality time with his dad. How they would go every other week to see home games. How he felt on the terraces and he started to go with friends and later as a student how he changed his allegiance (temporarily) to a local team he could travel to see. How events were arranged, cancelled, attended or not attended around the home games
But more importantly it talks about his obsession with the game, an obsession he identifies as an obsession but not as a fault. He talks in a way that I found I could understand and I understood how people could become obsessed with any sporting event - events that they only spectate, either by attending or by watching on TV. It helped me to understand my own obsession with motor sports.
This book is serious but not so serious that lectures but it is not so funny that it had me rolling around laughing. It's greatest appeal is not to football fans but to those people who do not understand other people's obsessions with watching sport.
I would rate this book as a four star (****) read.
Publisher: Penguin
Genre: YA and Adult
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