|
Volume 1 (1999/2000)
Issue
1 (March 1999)
Issue
2 (Nov. 1999)
Issue 3 (Dec. 1999)
Issue 4 (Feb. 2000)
Issue 5 (March 2000)
Issue 6 (April 2000)
Issue
7 (May 2000)
Volume 2 (2000/2001)
Issue 1 (Sept. 2000)
Issue 2 (Oct. 2000)
Issue 3 (Jan. 2001)
Issue 4 (March 2001)
Issue 5 (April 2001)
Issue 6 (May 2001)
Volume 3 (2001)
Issue 1 (Sept. 2001)
Issue 2 (Nov. 2001)
Categories
Sport: 1
2 3
Lifestyles: 1 2
3
Commentary: 1 2
3
Review: 1 2
3
Writing: 1 2
3
Event: 1 2
3
|
Fever
Pitch
Chris O' Neill
Ballincollig CS, Cork
Many would associate Fever
Pitch with the rest of those horrible football novels but Fever Pitch
deals with a lot more. It deals with a lot of social and economic issues
such as social status, relationships, families, hooliganism and, perhaps
most importantly, a need for some kind of constant in our lives which
we can rely on in times of need. Hornby uses a 'football-as-a-metaphor-for-life'
theme as the main vertebrae of Fever Pitch. The Arsenal football team
and their surroundings are compared with his own life in an effort to
find meaning. He feels that when Arsenal are performing on the pitch it
reflects on his own life, which would seem to be a tragic comparison.
Chronicled from the perspective
of a besotted ten-year-old Arsenal fan, through disillusioned adolescence,
to an adult "who should know better", this book examines the absurdities
and traumas of everyday life and football. Interweaving his personal and
familial upheavals with the varied fortunes of Arsenal over two decades,
Nick Hornby has produced an insight into what it is like to be a fan.
Combining anecdote with a wider commentary on the state of the game this
work touches on many issues, from pre-match entertainment to the availability
of FA Cup tickets, hooliganism, the tragedies at Heysel and Hillsborough,
non-League and school football, and Arsenal's reputation as a boring team.
It won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award. Overall, this book
is a powerful read. Not only is it suitable for every true fan of football,
this book would entertain all types of readers.
Back to the top
|