I had this book for years, read bits and
pieces of it, and know the movie by heart, but I wanted to read it cover to
cover at a time in which I was watching some hard-nosed yet inspirational
football, and that’s exactly what’s happening with Italy at the Euros right now
(that is, until Germany just totally destroys us on Saturday).
The book is undoubtedly well-written and
humorous, and so many of the points that Hornby makes clearly echo with most
football fans (even people who, like me, have been to the stadium only a few
times). I loved reading of his mom leaving him post-it notes with the results
of late games when he was a kid (my dad did the same with me, and I still
remember his Juventus-Torino 5-0 with a Vialli hat-trick and goals by Ferrara
and Ravanelli) and finding out that Attilio Lombardo was indeed also famous in
England for his hairline (or lack thereof) more than for his – absolutely
unquestionable – skills.
If only there was an actual plot (like there
is in the movie) to join the anecdotes together, this would be an excellent novel
(well, maybe that’s a stretch), but instead it just remains, erm, anecdotal –
and I don’t really love this sort of books as more often than not they’re just
way too easy to read and relate to (which is slightly counterintuitive, I do
realize). And as a Juve supporter, I suffered every time Hornby described a
hooligan charge in the 70’s and early 80’s, because I knew that at some point it would end up with the
Heysel disaster…
