Fever Pitch – Book Review

Fever Pitch – by Nick Hornby

I had originally heard about this book from a movie by the same name (renamed A Perfect Catch in Australia for some reason).

The movie features a Boston Red Sox fan in America’s Major League Baseball. The book is autobiographical, written about the author’s lifelong obsession with UK football club Arsenal. The movie, though, takes liberties with the amount of romance involved.

I related to the author as a fan of a football code. Even though Hornby focuses on the round ball game.

He uses particular Arsenal matches to highlight important stages in his life. It was amazing that he could even remember enough matches over a lifetime of club support. That was until I thought of my own life and immediately wrote down at least twenty Swans matches worthy of mention, and a new writing project was born.

It doesn’t matter what the sport is, the same emotions are transferable to any child discovering the roller coaster ride that only a sporting club can give.

Hornby found that his obsessive fanaticism affected his relationships quite acutely even into his adulthood. This is why I’m glad that I have mellowed in my post teen years. Not that I was ever as full on as he was in my pre teen years. Although the amount of merchandise I have does still surprise people.

Any bloke who has been affected by fanaticism of a sport would enjoy this book.

And isn’t it great that it is also a cheap read due to the Penguin ‘Popular Classics’ range.