Fever+Pitch+Josh+Pedorenko

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Nick Hornby’s football addiction “I fell in love with football as I was to fall in love with women. Suddenly, inexplicably, uncritically, giving no thought to pain or disruption it would bring with it” (Hornby 1).The quote is from the great book title //Fever Pitch// by Nick Hornby. The book is a memoir because it is written by Nick, about his life and the effect football had on it. This quote really summarizes the book for the reader because it is about football, Nick’s love for the game and about Hornby’s life. //Fever Pitch// focuses on topics such as courage, strength, and Nick’s love for the game. Nick shares the conflicts in his life. There is a conflict between Nick and his father. He even gets into an argument about football with some students. Hornby’s memoir is not just about football, its about life. //Fever Pitch// is a well-rounded book and should be read by people who love a sport. One of the many themes in //Fever Pitch// is one of addiction to a sport. In this case, it is the addiction to football. This sport takes over Nick’s life and often dictates what he can do and when. The addiction is obvious thoughout the book. Almost every chapter has a title referring to a particular game or team name. Even when Nick has to be at his job, he has the game on the radio or the television. “Saturday’s game had passed when...but then, the games, to defeats at Chelsea on a miserable March afternoon” (175). The quote proves to the readers that Nick just can not stop talking about the game he’s obsessed with, saying Saturday’s game had passed then went onto the defeat at Chelsea. Another quote confirms his feelings towards football. “I went to work in the afternoon, and felt sick with nerves despite myself; afterwards, I went straight round to an Arsenal-supporting friends house” (220). This example shows the reader that this is really an addiction because Nick said that he felt sick with nerves. Hornby felt sick because he was going to miss a game, and right after he was done work, he just could not wait to watch the football game. “The Charlton game was rearranged for the same night as a very close friend’s birthday party...I contemplated a home game taking place without me: and then I phoned her with a heavy heart and told her what had happened” (206). In other words, Hornby did not go to his close friend’s birthday party just because he was going to miss a football game. The writer puts football (a sport) in front of friends. This just further proves the point of Nick’s addiction to a sport. Throughout the book Nick Hornby shows that he is addicted to football and puts it before many friends and his own family. In //Fever Pitch// there are many characters, some of them are named and some not. For example, there is Nick Hornby, the main character, his father and mother (whose names are not mentioned) and his close friend Pete. These characters give a great insight into whom Nick associates with. This helps the readers because it allows them to relate to Nick. The following quotations give the readers a glimpse at the main character, Nick. “I fell in love with football” (7), “Part of it was my own latent depression” (154) and “All that was missing was Ian Ure falling over his feet, and my dad, grumbling away in the seat next to me” (239). All of the quotes above show a great progression though Nick’s life. The story starts out with Hornby saying that he loves football, then progresses to his depression and finally to his nostalgic feelings as he remembers attending games with his dad. “Football has meant too much to me, and come to represent too many things, and I feel that I have been to watch too many games, and spent too much money” (190). This is the point in the story when Nick comes to the realization that football has taken over his life; both in time and money. Some readers would say that he is just relieving some stress because this is around the time he had depression. Others would also say that this was just a bad day because later in the book, he went back to watching football. Throughout //Fever Pitch// there are many characters, some named, and others not named, but the most important is the main character Nick Hornby. Nick Hornby is addicted to football and the reader can come to that conclusion by looking through the book. Every chapter has a name of a football team or the name of a match. Hornby also faced many conflicts during his life, his parents having a divorce, Nick himself going through depression and the tragedies in football. //Fever Pitch// is a great book. The only draw back is that I believe the reader must love or at least like a sport to enjoy reading it. I would only suggest this book to a sport loving friend because anyone else might not understand the ties to a team and the feelings that arise when your favorite team wins a game or even a championship. I also like this book because there are some major events that happened to Nick that I can relate to, an example being the Gulf war. I was not alive when it happened but I learned about it through my studies. Overall I would give this book a 6 out of 10. This book is interesting but sometimes it can get boring. Some of the interesting events were Nick witnessing a older gentlemen dying on the street in front of him and experencing the horrors of being a visitor to an away game. The major boring aspect is that Nick talks about the same subject throughout the book and that is football. For a final thought I will leave you with a question.If you where addicted to a sport, what would you do to stop the addiction if it was as bad as Nick Hornby’s?