 |
Fever PitchComments Let me begin by noting that I find soccer/football incredibly dull. Dull, dull, dull! But Hornby's book is a great read. <br /> <br />He gives excellent insights as to sports obsession, one with which many men can identify. He is never sentimental or glorifying of the game or of his own actions, which are sometimes far from noble. He admits to placing his love of Arsenal above his relationships. But he also never comes across as a jerk. <br /> <br />I would love to sit down and have a few pints and watch a game with him. <br /> <br />The one thing I can't understand is how this could be made into a movie about the Red Sox. It just couldn't work, in my opinion. I'll admit, its probably just me. Maybe its just that I dont understand British culture all that much, nor the culture of football or the mind of the obsessive sports fan...but aside from a few amusing passages (between LONG spells of really dull ones) I really wasnt all that impressed with this book. It had a few moments that made me chuckle, but it certainly wasnt as drop-dead funny to me as all the reviews led me to believe. It was long, drawn-out, and filled with names and places of people I've neither heard of nor cared about. But again, its just a clash of culture; this would be like someone from England reading a book about the Dawg Pound in Cleveland or the fans with terrible towels in Pittsburgh. Basically, if you're not a sports fan or if you dont know anything about soccer or its culture, I'd pass on this one. While it did give some interesting insight into the mind of the obsessive sports fan and a glimpse of a true English soccer fan I just wasnt entertained. Then again, I'm probably not the type of person to whom this book was intended...I really should have read High Fidelity! Hornby takes the reader into the mind and obsessions of the hardcore sports fan in "Fever Pitch", a tale of the author's obsessive relationship with Arsenal, one of London's main football (soccer) clubs. <br /> <br />Many of the reviewers here note that the book is filled with detail about English soccer, and that therefore it was dull and boring for them. The reality is that this is precisely what Hornby intended to convey: how the diehard fanatical fan is obsessed with numerous details and trivia surrounding the team they support, well beyond a level that is comprehensible to any non-hardcore fan. Americans who read the book assume that they can't relate because of a lack of familiarity with English football, but in reality what Hornby is portraying is the most obsessive sort of football fan you could ever come across, something the "typical" English sports fan cannot relate to either. And he portrays it by allowing you inside his mind, giving you a guided tour of just how obsessive and extreme he was (and is) about football and about Arsenal in particular ... giving the reader an insight into the mind of an obsessive sports fan, rather than providing a detached analysis of what makes such a person tick. <br /> <br />For those who are interested in understanding how the mind of a hardcore sports fan works, "Fever Pitch" is without equal. Even if American readers find the football references unfamilliar, the more telling aspect is the obsessiveness with which Hornby recalls numerous minutae, the lengths to which he has gone in his life to support his Arsenal obsession ... these are commonalities of mindset that apply to obsessive fans of all sports, including those familiar to Americans, and the mindset that Hornby portrays in this book will help all readers better understand just what is going on inside the minds of their own local sports fanatics. |
|
Soccer Squared Network: | Soccer Pictures | Soccer Drills | Soccer Rules | Soccer Store