This is a new section where I will review on novels/books that I read. In fact I read quite a number of them in 2007 averaging about 2 /month and that was also before this blog started. And when the blog started, I was in the midst of coming to Melbourne and no more books till last week. One of my favorite author, John Grisham with his quite latest book entitled, Playing for Pizza. For sneak preview to this book, you can go to the official website of John Grisham for 2 chapters of sneak preview.
When I first saw the title, I translated the title literally. Playing for pizza, which towards the end of the book does talk about playing for pizza literally. I would say this book is about having a second chance and be passionate about the things you like. This book is about an NFL player, Rick made a mess in the American league. With the league being so unforgiving, he was out of contract to play anymore. His manager though managed to find him a team that would want him and that is an American Football team in Italy. Yup, in ITALY. That’s when the title comes in, playing for pizza. Rick will be playing for the pizza famous country, Italy.
I don’t want to reveal much of the details But what I can say is that throughout the whole adaptation process, Rick learn a lot about himself, the game, the people around him and how he was given a second chance to make it big again. It’s a very touching process and more importantly for me, I can feel the excitement of American Football (though till now I still don’t understand the game and will not try to understand the game).
If you know Mr. Grisham’s writing style in his past 19 books (I read all the 19 and the 20th which is this one), his ending is normally very abrupt and cliffhanging, which prompt the readers to imagine the best possible scenarios. Hence, I was quite nervous towards the end of the book expecting similar trend. To my surprise, the ending this time was quite reasonable and I like it. But what caught my attention which prompted me to blog on this book review is the author’s note at the end of the book, which I have extracted and highlighted in BOLD ITALIC.
“………….The Panthers are a bunch of tough Italians who play for the love of the game, and for the pizza afterward.………..” (John Grisham)
For the love of the game, the Italians get together and play and enjoy the pizza afterward. It makes me ponder and reflect upon the bonding and friendship one can forge over the love of sports and/or games. In Malaysian context I think it would sound more like “Playing for Mamak’s Maggi Goreng” after a game of futsal, which is quite true where after a futsal game most of Malaysian will turn to Mamak for a time of relaxation and bonding of friendship.
