In America, it's soccer. Everywhere else, it's football. Fever Pitch chronicles one Englishman's obsession with football in general and the Arsenal club in particular. Beginning with his first home game at the age of eleven, Hornby examines the ups and downs of the true fan's devotion, and sheds some light on the bureaucracy, racism, and violence of the sport. For the most part, though, he explores the compulsion to spend "a huge chunk of his leisure time fretting miserably in the cold." Of course, there may be no explanation for such behavior. Sometimes you just have to play on.

Tony Peltier