"Fever Pitch" by Nick Hornby

I was a little aprehensive about reading this book, for several reasons: I know very little about organised professional sports, I know nothing about British football in particular, and I don't especially like the sport. Luckily for me, "Fever Pitch" turned out to a book more about coming of age and irrational obsession, then it was about sport specifics. I would like that I am a mature adult (even if some don't agree) and I definitely understand obsession.

[Aside: Normally I would use "soccer" to reference the sport - even though I agreee that the word "football" more aptly describes the British sport of said name then it does the American sport - merely to avoid ambiguity. Because of the nature of the book, and my living in England, I will follow the author's convention and use football.]

So as it turned out, I loved this book. I could draw infinite parallels with the protagonist (in this case Hornby himself, as this is a piece of autobiography) on most every subject. And while Hornby had a significantly more rocky childhood (specifically with his parents divorce when he was twelve), I still felt many of the same adolescent confusions that he did, and I was also able to find solace in an escapist medium. As pathetic as it may sound, in many ways his obsession with football mirrored by own obsession with comic books.

Nick Hornby is fast becoming one of my favorite authors, and some of my favorite lines of Honrby prose can now be found in this book. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed other woks of his, or anyone who has ever felt lost in the rush to grow up and found a personal way to escape from it all. Or, I'm sure, anyone who just likes football. I did learn a load of interesting facts about the British past time, and I must admit I have now watched an Arsenal game (the club Hornby loves in the book) on television - merely because of this book.

Incidently, I had seen the American movie "Fever Pitch" (with Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore) before reading the book. Regardless of what the opening credits of the movie might claim, that movie is in no discernable way inspired by this book. Both are enjoyable in their own rights (although the book is far superior), but in no way should they be thought of as being connected.