Book Review: "Fever Pitch" by Nick Hornby

I've never read anything by Nick Hornby before and the reason for that is because I didn't think his books were written for people like me. This is the same thing I was talking about in my review of Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey. I said that I didn't think I was the intended audience of the book and so, when it came to reading it - that was probably why I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. When it comes to Nick Hornby's books I definitely didn't think I was the intended audience. I despise football but I had to give it a chance. Let's have a look at how it went.

Well, it's a semiautobiographical novel about the author's love of the Arsenal football team, but then again it is much more than that as well. There are random vignettes inserted that circle around football games but tell us of important memories associated sometimes with football, sometimes not - and they let the reader piece together the narrative rather than it following something more conventional and linear. But, we do begin at the beginning in which the 1960s is underway and the author is introduced to the football club by his father. It is quite interesting because the narrative itself does not actually revolve around football, but is merely enhanced by the love of the game and the emotional support that loving the game provides for the young future-author in his most trying times.

As a child, Hornby struggles with his parents’ separation and feelings of isolation. Football becomes a surrogate family and emotional anchor - as it is for I am sure, plenty of people and there's nothing wrong with that. But there is something that really surprised me. You know I am a person who loves detail and atmosphere - the small things definitely matter to me. Hornby writes about the atmosphere of a football game: the smell of burgers, the roar of the crowd and the cold terraces. It adds so many dimensions to the story, you actually come to see why he loves it so much even though you yourself may not enjoy football like he does. So, apart from this being a book I was proceeding cautiously with, I was honestly pleasantly surprised from time to time.

The football thing then gets stronger and I don't know how I feel about that. Through the teen years of the narrator, we see the football games dictate how he feels about things that are going on in his life. As we all were once as teenagers, our narrator is volatile and unpredictable at times - but his love for football is unwavering. During this stage, he starts to see football as both salvation and trap: it provides intense emotional highs but also long, painful stretches of despair. It's well written although I wasn't all that excited about reading so much to do with football.

At Cambridge, Hornby finds himself among people who are indifferent to football, which makes him feel alienated and self-conscious about his obsession. His intellectual life and his emotional life exist in conflict: academia prizes rationality, while football demands blind faith. This is often quite a strange aspect of life - when you realise other people aren't as excited about things as you are. I experienced this too and it made me pretty self-conscious. I was really into literature and film to the point it consumed (and still does) every aspect of my existence. Nobody else felt that way and I was on a literature degree - (even happened on my postgraduate degrees). I'm not going to lie - I felt this part quite a lot; you can feel alienated but it can also make you feel apart from others, as if nothing you can do can connect you to other people. Well, that's why I made this blog!

In adulthood, Hornby’s obsession becomes a mirror for his emotional instability. He admits that Arsenal’s results affect his mood, work, and relationships. The team’s defeats leave him despondent; their victories bring fleeting elation. Of course, this can be see in plenty of people who love football, it becomes their identity even if it is draining upon them after a time. But it also impacts the way they interact with others. If a football team loses for example, domestic violence and the amount of men who murder their partners seems to sky rocket. Which is why I cannot support the practice of adoring football - it brings out the worst in so many people.

There's plenty more here but I don't think this book was written for an audience like myself. I did like bits and pieces of it and I appreciate that it is well written, but the football notions became more and more intentional and overwhelming of the storyline as the book continues and it's not something I'm interested in. At the beginning it's adorable because the narrator is small and trying to create themselves an emotional anchor and coping mechanism, but as an adult it only feels a bit embarrassing to admit to suffering relations caused by football.