A friend sent me this book a while back, knowing that I like American Football. Two things, however, have meant that it’s been lumped on my bookcase in “the stack”. Firstly, it’s by John Grisham. Whilst I enjoyed some of his earlier stuff, his work is mainly the litary equivilant to a bowl of Doritos: it’s fine when you’re eating it, but has no nourishment value whatsoever. And secondly, it describes itself as “a heart-warming tale”. Yeuch.

Anyway, I was actually in the mood for something pretty light, so this got picked up the other day. Needless to say, it does exactly what it says on the tin.

Rick Dockery is a perennial third string quarterback who doesn’t really have “it” but is good enough to be a backup. However, after single-handedly losing the AFC Championship game for Cleveland (as unlikely as part of that sounds) he’s got nowhere to go, and his agent gets him a spot in the Italian AF League as the starting QB. Fancying some time out of the country, he accepts.

The plot is pretty predictable, but Rick is a fairly sympathetic character (certainly for one of Grisham’s) and the descriptions of the food and wine are well done. The passion of the local amatuer players is great, and something we can relate to here in the UK. JG is not afraid to poke a little fun of Americans in old parts of Europe, and whilst it’s not anything new (manual gears, small roads, etc.) it’s not offensive and handled pretty well.

Needless to say, Rick learns some valuable lessons in his “life-affirming” journey. Everything you’d expect from a book that describes itself as heart-warming really. Yeuch.

The amazon review system has it rated at 2 of 5 stars, and that’s a little harsh. But only a little. I’d say 3 stars, but I was in the mood for it.