Pros: an engaging little tale about a likeable character
Cons: too many dropped plot threads, too much travelogue
The Bottom Line: Grisham apparently had some pieces of travelogue left over from The Broker, so he jammed 'em into a novella about Italian football. Not such a good idea, John...
scmrak's Full Review: John Grisham - Playing for Pizza
Back in the carefree days of the mid-1990s, before people started flying planes into office buildings, we frequent fliers joked that, "It won't be long before airlines start denying boarding to anyone who doesn't present his Grisham novel before entering the jetway." His books, at least in those days, sure seemed more common on terminal concourses than boarding passes. Mississippi lawyer John Grisham had parlayed a moderate writing talent and an ability to convince people that lawyers are smarter than the average bear into a string of runaway bestsellers. His stock was further boosted by motion picture treatments of his novels starring names like Roberts, Cruise, and McConaughey.
His bank account apparently sufficiently fattened, Grisham branched out into fiction without a lawyer in sight; beginning with 2001's A Painted House and the novella Skipping Christmas. He then focused on what appears to be another favorite tradition - he is, after all, a southern boy - football; with 2003's Bleachers. Grisham's lawyerless fiction has generally met with mixed reaction from a fanbase desperate for him to reprise A Time to Kill or The Runaway Jury. His most recent quasi-legal thriller, The Broker was little better-received, considered by many more a travelogue aimed at fans of "Under the Tuscan Sun" than a hard-hitting thriller. It appears that Grisham has fallen in love with Italy, because 2007 finds him combining his ardor for that country with his native affection for football, at least the kind they play at Ol' Miss: just witness Playing for Pizza.
Perennial third-string NFL quarterback Rick Dockery is washed up at 28, victim of an arm with the power of a howitzer and the accuracy of a SCUD missile. Had anyone in Cleveland been able to find tar, feathers, and a rail; the hapless Dockery's fate would have been set after his final appearance in a game as a Brown. It was a performance not only bad enough to get Rick cut, but to get the GM who hired him canned, too. As for Dockery, well, the mere mention of his name causes phones to slam down in their cradles, at least according to his agent - except for the one belonging to the coach of the Parma Panthers. That's not the Parma in suburban Cleveland, though; it's the real Parma, the one in northern Italy. Yes, they do play American football in Italy... of a sort.
Though he's never been to Europe and speaks but one word of Italian ("Chow," Baby!); Rick has done nothing in his young life but play football; and Parma is his last, best chance - so that's where he's going. He's headed to a league where teams are allowed three American players (usually college second-stringers), and they're the only players who get paid - though not that much. He's headed to a league where there are no shoe contracts, no cheerleaders (who's he gonna hit on!), and the few fans who show up get in free. He's headed to a league where, just maybe, he can make a difference.
Football's different in Parma: Rick's teammates (who call him "reek"; a pronunciation Browns fans would find fitting) speak little or no English, but understand post patterns and goal-line stands just fine. They play not for money, but for love of the game, for companionship, and for the giant pizza and beer parties afterwards (sounds like your softball team, eh?). Life's different in Parma, too... but it'll be up to Rick to decide whether different is better, or just different.
It's hard not to like Rick Dockery, that endearing bozo; a guy so carefree his second concussion as a pro came when he was creamed on the sidelines while trying to hit on a cheerleader. It's hard not to like the Italian players, who eat, drink, and laugh with all the gusto of Tony Soprano (and none of the sleaze). It's hard not to like the little "Horatio Allegretto" story Grisham's concocted, as Rick finally finds his niche a few thousand miles from home.
Don't get me wrong, this is an engaging little tale; but that's its greatest weakness: not the "engaging" part; the "little" part. Problem is, it's hard to like Playing for Pizza, at least as a novel for grownups, because it's plotted more or less at the complexity of a young adult novel. It's a pretty safe bet that Chris Crutcher generates better sports-based YA novels than this. The flow is so predictable that the average reader could pretty much skip the last three or four chapters and still write an accurate synopsis of the plot, including spoilers. Much as in The Broker, Grisham devotes page after page of text to the attractions of Florence or Venice - why? is he getting a kickback from the national tourism board?
The plot trundles along quite nicely under its own power, thank you, but weaves like a tailback practicing broken-field running. It'll surge toward a beautiful young soprano from the local opera company and just as suddenly cut away to an American college girl (a cheerleader, natch). It hints delicately at the... "connections" of the team sponsor and then blithely wanders away from that thought as well. Team members get introduced solely so they can make a brilliant or boneheaded play later in the same chapter; making the novel little more than a series of vignettes punctuated by expansive descriptions of Italian cuisine and tourist attractions. Those, and a running joke about finding a parking place (which prefaces the obligatory visit from the Coincidence Fairy). This is not the good stuff.
In short, Grisham's written a novella that he seems to have padded into a fairly short novel by inserting a slew of information from it.wikipedia.org; the Italian version of Wikipedia. Except for a few racy scenes and some frank language, it would be a good young adult novel: it has all the requisite messages about teamwork, perseverance, and how it's a blessing to get paid (even just a little bit) to do something you love; and in the end it's a coming-of-age story. My biggest question, I guess, is that - by age 28 - shouldn't Grisham's protagonist have already come of age?
A departure from his acclaimed legal thrillers, Grisham s #1 New York Times bestseller about an American s introduction to Italian football and food i...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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