I just finished my second reading of this wonderful book. Short and deceptively simple, it has a claim to the greatest of all American novels. I read it in the Penguin edition with an amazingly perceptive Introduction by Tony Tanner (1990). I have to say that this is one of the best critical introductions I have ever read. He shows just how fine a craftsman Fitzgerald is in this novel. But make sure you read the book first, before the introduction.
I got so much more out of the second reading, it was like reading a new book (my first reading was about two years ago). Forget the movie, read the book! The prose is indescribably good in places.

A serious attempt to make sense of the universal impulse to play and watch sport. The book definitely makes good points but I found it lacking in scope and a bit simplistic. The topic is much bigger than this treatment will allow. It also tries to to reach both specialist theologian and lay reader; an impossible task and sometimes the theologizing gets away from him, especially in the last half. There were a few passages that were so dense I had to read then three times. Not really for the lay reader. I also agreed with another magazine reviewer who noted that Harvey seems to paint himself into a theological corner by an overly rigid approach. The treatment is not sufficiently nuanced or broad to make the conclusions he reaches. It was still well worth a read.