- Hardcover
- Publisher: BBC Audiobooks Ltd (2 Aug 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0754076199
- ISBN-13: 978-0754076193
- Product Dimensions: 14.1 x 12.6 x 1.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
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Fever Pitch
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Product Description
From Amazon.co.uk
Fever Pitch is both an autobiography and a footballing bible rolled into one. Nick Hornby pinpoints 1968 as his formative year--the year he turned 11, the year his parents separated, and the year his father first took him to watch Arsenal play. The author quickly moved "way beyond fandom" into an extreme obsession that has dominated his life, loves, and relationships. His father had initially hoped that Saturday afternoon matches would draw the two closer together, but instead Hornby became completely besotted with the game at the expense of any conversation: "Football may have provided us with a new medium through which we could communicate, but that was not to say that we used it, or what we chose to say was necessarily positive." Girlfriends also played second fiddle to one ball and 11 men. He fantasises that even if a girlfriend "went into labour at an impossible moment" he would not be able to help out until after the final whistle. Fever Pitch is not a typical memoir--there are no chapters, just a series of match reports falling into three time frames (childhood, young adulthood, manhood). While watching the May 2, 1972, Reading v Arsenal match, it became embarrassingly obvious to the then 15-year-old that his white, suburban, middle-class roots made him a wimp with no sense of identity: "Yorkshire men, Lancastrians, Scots, the Irish, blacks, the rich, the poor, even Americans and Australians have something they can sit in pubs and bars and weep about." But a boy from Maidenhead could only dream of coming from a place with "its own tube station and West Indian community and terrible, insoluble social problems." Fever Pitch reveals the very special intricacies of British football, which readers new to the game will find astonishing, and which Hornby presents with remarkable humour and honesty--the "unique" chants sung at matches, the cold rain- soaked terraces, giant cans of warm beer, the trains known as football specials carrying fans to and from matches in prison-like conditions, bottles smashing on the tracks, thousands of police officers waiting in anticipation for the cargo of hooligans. The sport and one team in particular have crept into every aspect of Hornby's life--making him see the world through Arsenal-tinted spectacles. --Naomi Gesinger
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Amazon.co.uk Review
Fever Pitch is both an autobiography and a footballing bible rolled into one. Nick Hornby pinpoints 1968 as his formative year--the year he turned 11, the year his parents separated, and the year his father first took him to watch Arsenal play. The author quickly moved "way beyond fandom" into an extreme obsession that has dominated his life, loves, and relationships. His father had initially hoped that Saturday afternoon matches would draw the two closer together, but instead Hornby became completely besotted with the game at the expense of any conversation: "Football may have provided us with a new medium through which we could communicate, but that was not to say that we used it, or what we chose to say was necessarily positive." Girlfriends also played second fiddle to one ball and 11 men. He fantasises that even if a girlfriend "went into labour at an impossible moment" he would not be able to help out until after the final whistle. Fever Pitch is not a typical memoir--there are no chapters, just a series of match reports falling into three time frames (childhood, young adulthood, manhood). While watching the May 2, 1972, Reading v Arsenal match, it became embarrassingly obvious to the then 15-year-old that his white, suburban, middle-class roots made him a wimp with no sense of identity: "Yorkshire men, Lancastrians, Scots, the Irish, blacks, the rich, the poor, even Americans and Australians have something they can sit in pubs and bars and weep about." But a boy from Maidenhead could only dream of coming from a place with "its own tube station and West Indian community and terrible, insoluble social problems." Fever Pitch reveals the very special intricacies of British football, which readers new to the game will find astonishing, and which Hornby presents with remarkable humour and honesty--the "unique" chants sung at matches, the cold rain- soaked terraces, giant cans of warm beer, the trains known as football specials carrying fans to and from matches in prison-like conditions, bottles smashing on the tracks, thousands of police officers waiting in anticipation for the cargo of hooligans. The sport and one team in particular have crept into every aspect of Hornby's life--making him see the world through Arsenal-tinted spectacles. --Naomi Gesinger
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I received this book from a friend as a birthday present, who chose it because of its subject knowing I was a big football fan. Perhaps this was a rather misguided choice, though, as although Fever Pitch is based around Hornby's childhood (and early manhood) experiences of football, it is so much more than a run-of-the-mill football book. Its beautifully crafted life experience stories are, admittedly, set around key Arsenal matches in the 1980s, but if this were to put of non-football fans it would truly be a shame. Unlike many authors, especially in this genre, Hornby has a gift of true communication - throughout the book one gets the feeling of being with him as he searches for the purpose of his life, and the position of his hobby-come-obsession within that.
Although for non-football fans the match descriptions may seem dull and unappealing, they make up only a small percentage of the book and are included in such a way as to be intrinsic to the storyline rather than as an added extra to appeal to the terraces. It is in crafting this into his personal life that Hornby achieves his real success, and creates what many believe to be the best football book ever.
But don't forget, this book isn't just about Arsenal, or even football, but about how a young Londoner grows up, and learns to live his own life. A heart-warming tale, not to be overlooked.
Although for non-football fans the match descriptions may seem dull and unappealing, they make up only a small percentage of the book and are included in such a way as to be intrinsic to the storyline rather than as an added extra to appeal to the terraces. It is in crafting this into his personal life that Hornby achieves his real success, and creates what many believe to be the best football book ever.
But don't forget, this book isn't just about Arsenal, or even football, but about how a young Londoner grows up, and learns to live his own life. A heart-warming tale, not to be overlooked.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Nick Hornby's warm autobiographical book deals with his life as a football fan from 1968 (when he was a teenager) until 1992, especifically as he supported his beloved Arsenal during that time. There's some good insights about football culture (for a true football fan, football is not really an entertainment, a concept that is probably hard to understand in the US, where sports are just a part of the entertainment business) as well as football tactics (there are few good passers in the sports, he says, as hard as this might be to believe to outsiders; Liam Brady, one of his favorite players, was that rare player, a great passer). Each of the chapters (so to call them) deals with a particular football match that he remembers during that period. And along football, he also makes comments on his relationships, be it with his family or with girlfriends. What Hornby tells is the story of English football in his last throes, a time when hooliganism ruled, but when it also was a genuine, integral pastime of the English people. When the Premiere League was established (in 1992, the year this book ends), and the megamoney and the huge tv contracts came along, and some clubs (like, say, Arsenal) did not put in the field a single English player, it became more of a commercial business and less of a cultural phenomenon. And while I like football, it's hard not to come out from reading this book with the impression that being a football fan at the level Hornby was is not a colossal waste of time.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is amazingly intuitive. Nick Hornby has been there and done that so far as genuine football supporting goes. He assesses in a surprisingly rational way (for one so irrational at times) both the benefits and the destructive nature of obsession. Although this book is based around the games of Arsenal (and a brief flirtation with Cambridge United) it says a lot more about human nature (and Charlie George's haircuts) than the tactics of George Graham! This book could save thousands of people from heartache if it was handed out to people entering relationships where only one partner is football obsessed! If you have a partner who baffles you with their shouts and screams and moods every Saturday afternoon between August and May - this book will help you to understand that they are the ones who need help - you will learn to pity and support them in their affliction. If you are one of those people who shout and scream and have moods every Saturday afternoon between August and May - you will learn that you are not alone. Read this book!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Incomprehensible to a Non-Fanatic
First, I enjoyed this book. Well written and easy to read.
Enough has been said about its content so I'll skip that. Read more
Enough has been said about its content so I'll skip that. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Probus888
A bit all football fans
A few people had mentioned this as a must read , i can understand why. As you read through the various section you can't help identifying yourself in the text ( although thankfully... Read more
Published 9 months ago by lart phauson
from a footy hater
I pretty much hate all forms of football. The fact that I read a book about football (to the British, that is: the rest of the world calls it soccer) from cover to cover, smirking,... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Cloggie Downunder
A gift
After reading this myself - a non football fanatic - actually no real interest at all, I just had to buy it for my football mad son in law. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Mrs. Ce Pollard
i tried
i tried to enjoy this book, forcing myself to turn every page, but i'm sorry it was tedious, i'm a football fan but could not relate to almost anything he wrote about. Read more
Published 18 months ago by astubliffhacked
Superb
This is a well-known and brilliant book about being a football supporter, in which Nick Hornby recalls his experiences of growing up watching Arsenal. Read more
Published 19 months ago by M. V. Clarke
Fever pitch
Fever pitch is a football novel by long time Arsenal fan , Nick hornby. Maybe just to show off but my copy is slightly different to the one above , as I have the Arsenal membership... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Luke Thrower
great read
Nick Hornby books are great when you want to read something that will entertain you, won't require you to keep a dictionary nearby to find out what numerous long words mean, but... Read more
Published on 8 Mar 2010 by Charlie Mouse
Surprisingly fun
I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would. I had agreed in advance that I would read it with a friend but when it came to actually starting the book I wasn't... Read more
Published on 20 July 2009 by Blatant Biblioholic
Landmark novel for 'new wave' footie fans
Football was going through something of a renaissance in the mid-90's. The improvements forced on clubs by the Taylor report were beginning to take shape, making stadiums more... Read more
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