Playing for Pizza

If you've only read Grisham's lawyer-thrillers then this book will come as pleasant surprise. It is a crisp well-written comedy about falling in love with life. At least, life as it is sometime lived in Italy.

Our hero is not a lawyer but a washed out NFL Quarterback who escapes to a season in Italy after a disasterous high profile game. He plays for the Parma Panthers, a team made up mostly of working men who play American Football because it brings them joy and because of the after game Pizza.

This young American opens himself to the possiblilties offered by great food, wonderful wine, small care and even trips to the opera. He discovers that food is more than just fuel, meals are as much about talking as they are about eating and that show more football can be about the playing and not about the money. He also falls in love with a beautiful woman - twice.

I love spending time in Italy - I bought this book while I was on vacation in there - so the descriptions of the food, the people and their passions rang true for me. They are carefully observed and described with infectious affection.

I know nothing of American Football but this book gave me the flavour of a game that has become so much about the money in America but is still about guts and glory in italy.

What appealled to me most about this book was the discovery by the young American that when you follow your passions your life becomes richer and passion starts to follow you.

This is the perfect pool-side read for your next Italian vacation. show less

Rick Dockery was the third-string quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. In the AFC Championship game against Denver, to the surprise and dismay of virtually everyone, Rick actually got into the game. With a 17-point lead and just minutes to go, Rick provided what was arguably the worst single performance in the history of the NFL. Overnight, he became a national laughingstock and, of course, was immediately cut by the Browns and shunned by all other teams.
But all Rick knows is football, and he insists that his agent, Arnie, find a team that needs him. Against enormous odds Arnie finally locates just such a team and informs Rick that, miraculously, he can in fact now be a starting quarterback–for the mighty Panthers of Parma, show more Italy.
Yes, Italians do play American football, to one degree or another, and the Parma Panthers desperately want a former NFL player–any former NFL player–at their helm. So Rick reluctantly agrees to play for the Panthers–at least until a better offer comes along–and heads off to Italy. He knows nothing about Parma, has never been to Europe, and doesn’t speak or understand a word of Italian. To say that Italy holds a few surprises for Rick Dockery would be something of an understatement. show less

It wasn't until I lived in a college town that I really got interested in football, and even then, it was a slow process. Had I come across this book earlier, I might just have found my way to being a fan a bit faster. I also might have really attempted that Italian study abroad...

Following the story of a disgraced NFL player on his journey to play football, this is far from Grisham's usual tale. And yet, it is also a wonderful read.

Grisham strikes a perfect balance of writing about the life of a professional athlete against writing about culture in Italy. For football fans, there are just enough play-by-plays to make relevant sections of the book fast-paced and let you visualize the important parts of those important games. And yet, show more for readers who won't be as interested in that aspect, there's really not enough of it to detract from what is otherwise, very simply, a good story with believable characters. The book moves quickly and gracefully across a number of settings, and it does so with a natural evolution and change which makes it a fast-paced read, and likely a journey away from what you know, regardless of what that is.

All told, the only downfall of the book is that it will make you hungry for a good Italian meal and desperate to go off to Italy to, of all things, see a football game.

Absolutely recommended--this is just one of those fun reads worth reading and passing on. And, if you've got someone who you Want to like football? Give them this. show less

JOHN JUST TOOK A VACATION, THAT'S ALL!: ...and while he was in Italy, enjoying himself with food and opera, he decided to write it down... for the fun of it!
He then added some Italianised American football, just to make the basic story more understandable to his yankee audience -- et voila, bravo!

Being Italian myself, I must say that his culinary descriptions were exceptionally good, worth of the best Parma chefs. Not expecting too much from this novel, I thoroughly enjoyed it and found Grisham's handling of the Northern Italians quite funny and true to life.

If you want to savour some Mediterranean aroma from an American perspective, then this book is for you. The football technicalities are just there for context.

Buon appetito!

If you’ve only read Grisham’s lawyer-thrillers then this book will come as pleasant surprise. It is a crisp well-written comedy about falling in love with life. At least, life as it is sometime lived in Italy.

Our hero is not a lawyer but a washed out NFL Quarterback who escapes to a season in Italy after a disastrous high-profile game. He plays for the Parma Panthers, a team made up mostly of working men who play American Football because it brings them joy and because of the after game Pizza.

This young American opens himself to the possibilities offered by great food, wonderful wine, small cars and even trips to the opera. He discovers that food is more than just fuel, meals are as much about talking as they are about eating and show more that football can be about the playing and not about the money. He also falls in love with a beautiful woman – twice.

I love spending time in Italy – I bought this book while I was on vacation there – so the descriptions of the food, the people and their passions rang true for me. They are carefully observed and described with infectious affection.

I know nothing of American Football but this book gave me the flavour of a game that has become so much about the money in America but is still about guts and glory in italy.

What appealed to me most about this book was the discovery by the young American that when you follow your passions your life becomes richer and passion starts to follow you.

This is the perfect pool-side read for your next Italian vacation. show less

This was a weird one. I thought that the title was a metaphor but, nope, this is a story about a failed NFL player who goes to Italy to play football. I don't care a thing about football but the story was kind of nice to follow and I kept thinking it would go somewhere but it really didn't.

Now, I have been reading John Grisham for years; I started reading this legal thrillers in high school. I always loved the way he wrote, so I was willing to give this one a try!

Now, this is clearly different than his typical novels, however that may be its strength, not weakness. There was a playfulness to this novel which is often missing from his legal thrillers - an issue generated from the genre.

This novel follows a football player at the end of his career, who finds himself having to take a temporary position playing American football in Italy. In addition to eating amazing food, he finds himself reflecting in Italy. It tends to have that effect though.

I have to admit, I don't care about football - American or otherwise. I know show more hockey, little else. So, all of the football references were way over my head. I loved his descriptions about Italian food however. I was rather hungry by the time I finished the book!

The one element I didn't care for though was the romance between the football player and an American student he meets in Italy. I felt that the romance lacked some element of believability. This might be because the novel is written from a male perspective, so some of the emotional depth might not exist at such an early stage in the relationship.

I also didn't care for the abrupt ending. This was undoubtedly because I was enjoying the story though, not eager for it to end!

Nonetheless, this was a fun little story. Nothing too serious, but something women would enjoy as much as men! show less