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Amazon.co.uk Review
In some ways the book is a standard travelogue. In following his lowly Series A team in their seasonal slog around Italy, Parks gets to visit all the famous sights and cities. What makes this journey so different and so interesting is that Parks is accompanied by vividly ordinary, honestly working-class, determinedly urban Italians and gets to share their Nick Hornbyish highs and lows. This in turn provides a credible, fresh and revealing insight into the Italian character. These fans do all the normal soccer-supporter things like fight, drink, despair, exult, rant and put each other in comas; but they also do more surprising things, like sing songs in praise of the murderous Liverpool fans of Heysel and give voice to racist feelings about their southern compatriots.
This may not sound like most people's image of southern loveliness. Indeed it isn't. But it is a much needed antidote to all that saccharine-sweet Under The Tuscan Sun stuff; and it also makes this book a splendid bedside companion to the Italian campaign in the next, or indeed any, World Cup. --Sean Thomas --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
amazing book not only for football fans,
By A Customer
This review is from: A Season With Verona: Travels Around Italy in Search of Illusions, National Character and Goals (Paperback)
As a long term Sheffield Wednesday fan I was most pleased to find this book on the shelf of my favourite bookshop a couple of weeks ago. I've always loved stories about football, but especially about mad football ites, people like myself who follow their beloved team week in and week out. Although I've never been to Verona and I don't know anyone in Italy, I felt like I have an awful lot in common with the people Mr Parks amazingly describes. The excellent thing about this book however, is that even people who are not particularly keen on football, can easily read it. It clearly emerges from the pages of this manuscript that Mr Parks is not only a passionate supporter of Hellas Verona, but also a clever academic. At some stages of the book i envied the author for his incredibly huge ability to describe the emotions us football fans go through during a whole season.Needless to say that although it is quite a thick book (about 450 pages) I read it in less than two days. Thanks Mr Parks for sharing your passion with us readers, I wish you all the best for your professional life and your team.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Season to Remember!,
By
This review is from: A Season with Verona (Hardcover)
A great book loosely based upon Verona's epic 2000-2001 Season in Serie A. The book is in diary form, so the author, like the reader, doesn't know the eventual outcome when he writes each chapter. This somehow adds to the excitement whilst reading it.As well as Verona the book covers many asides in all sorts of areas such as Italian politics, hooliganism, life in Italy, the Italian language, racism, the difference between the north and the south, the bias towards the big clubs and the Italian police's awful treatment of away fans. My favourite part was the description of the regular supporters of Verona, and their travels to away games (the first chapter is an absolute classic). Parks clearly adores Italy and his enthusiasm for the country is infectious (I challenge anyone not to want to stand on Verona's Curva Sud after reading this book). Parks also gets to interview some of the players, management and club owners which adds to the pure adventure of the unfolding tale. At the end of the day - despite all the differences between Italy and England - the comforting fact to know is that being a fan of any football team, especially a small, unfashionable one, is essentially the same.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
not what I expected, but the better for it.,
By stevebassnet907@hotmail.com (Londoner temporarily in Italy) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Season with Verona (Hardcover)
This is one strange book. It starts with about fifty pages introducing you to these hard core fans on a long long away game. It's fun and you think. Right, it's going to be one of those books. And instead then it changes, and it changes again and again, with all the weirdest ways of thinking about football or describing games. At first some of it's a bit off-putting and you think maybe it's going to get pseud, but as it goes on, talking about the players, and girl fans, and the football calendar and Italy, you realise what he's really talking about is all the ways football invades you head and what it means that you let it do that and that you experience emotions that maybe have nothing to do with the 'important' things in your life. Anyway, a great book, I really really enjoyed it and read some of the sections twice. Can't understand ..being predictable. Don't think I've ever read a book that turned out to be more different than I first thought.
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