Playing for Pizza
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Very very disappointing. Not Grisham at all, has he died and his dog wrote this one?? Would have dumped it but it was all I had to read on a long journey so read to the fizzled-out end. I usually pass on paperbacks but binned this one to avoid boring anyone else.
Pity zero stars is not an option
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Very disappointing
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Picked this up in the airport thinking it would be standard Grisham fare and perfect as a holiday read - nothing too intellectual but a well-strcutured story with a few plot twists and turns to keep you entertained till the end. It disappointed on every front, and I started to wonder what the point of it all was.
It wasn't a thriller in the usual Grisham style - the plot was predictable from the start and sort of petered out towards the end. It wasn't a sports book - the sporting scenes were pretty diffident and I never felt engaged in the sporting success of either the team or the main character (and I'm normally a sucker for cheesy sports books). It wasn't even well-researched - there were a number of factual inaccuracies about Italy and the sport that even a layman like me picked up. Grisham even admits in his author's notes to making some of the detail up.
The only thing I can think of is that the book was inspired by a trip to Italy annd was intended as some kind of homage or guide to the country and it's culture. If so, it failed miserably. Grisham portrays a 2-dimensional stereotype of Italy where all the locals are very passionate and emotional and love their food and drive around in small cars, and where the country is full of old churches, museums and galleries. Very insightful!
If you love American football and know absolutely nothing about Italy then you might get something out of this. If you are in any way expecting to be inspired, informed or gripped, then don't bother.
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Playing for Pizza
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I thought it was a lovely read and struggled to put it down. Grisham took the reader around Parma with the usual skill of any good American writer, evoking the tastes and spirit of Italy.
At times knowing all the plays in American Football was hard to follow but there would be nothing wrong in researching this for ourselves. Its called educating oneself.
Avoided over-sentimentality and another vear away from his usual legal thriller.
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Disappointing
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Grisham normally has the ability to make me wonder what will happen next. Unfortunately with this book I reached the last chapter not really caring. I don't know much about American Football so a lot of it was "rhubarb-rhubarb" to me - still he kept me holding on to see where it was all going. I think I started losing interest when he ditched the interesting Italian woman for the obvious American college student.
So what happened at the end? I really can't be bothered reading the last chapter...
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Easy Read, Not your usual Grisham
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Having read every Grisham book, every now and again you get something different. This is one such instance. Yes, JG has build his name and reputation on courtroom/legal issues and tales of the deep south but when you can tell a story like JG, I think its great that he deviates from his normal path from time to time. Skipping Christmas and Bleachers were other examples.
This book is quite simply an easy read. A nice story in a nice setting. JG manages to describe the sumptious food and the Italian passion for the game like no other. I really enjoyed it. Whilst his other stuff is page turning with readers wanting to know the next twist in the plot, this is still a page turner because its so well written and we want to know how sucessful the main character is going to be in his new life. In summary a good read, perfect for holidays.
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