Monday, October 14, 2024

Playing for Pizza by John Grisham

Genre: General Fiction
Publisher: Dell
Released: September 24, 2007
258 pages
About the Book:

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, 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.


My Rating & Thoughts:    

I should have dnf'd this book. It started out alright but around the 60% mark it began to include descriptions of characters sleeping together and swearing. We are following Rick a NFL quarterback who has struggled in the NFL and goes over to Italy to play in their football league. There are a lot of descriptions about Italian food and cars, and obviously football. We do see Rick begin to expand his horizon and care about people other than himself, but not a whole lot and the ending was very abrupt with no real conclusion of what Rick decides to do beyond the next few weeks.

(I purchased my copy of this book; opinions expressed 
in this review are my honest opinion and completely my own.)

 

No comments:

Post a Comment