Playing for Pizza

Doubleday

Playing for Pizza
John Grisham
2007

The Summary
"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.  Great, says Rick---for which team?

"The mighty Panthers of Parma, Italy.

"Yes, Italians do play 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 (not even where it is), has never been to Europe, and doesn't speak or understand a word of Italian.

"To say that Italy--the land of opera, fine wines, extremely small cars, romance, and football americano--holds a few surprises for Rick Dockery would be something of an understatement."

The Good
Playing for Pizza was unexpectedly good.  Granted, I understood very little of the football plays--what does third down even mean?--or the jargon that goes along with the sport, but I enjoyed listening to Playing for Pizza with Christopher Evan Welch as narrator.  Like I said, it was unexpectedly good.  Rich and vibrant and, well, funny.

Admittedly, it took me a few chapters to really settle into the story, but, once I did, I had so much fun listening to Rick Dockery's story as he journeys to Italy and becomes a Parma Panther.  I especially enjoyed the descriptions Italy--the architecture, the culture, the history, the romance (courtesy of a secondary character from Georgia, who loved all these things)--and, of course, the food.

I was almost always hungry for food while listening to Grisham's novel, but it was totally worth it.

Overall, Playing for Pizza was an excellent choice for my Read Harder Challenge--and it was just a lot of fun.  It's fun, sweet and romantic, but it doesn't try to hide the bad things that happen; rather, it follows the ordeals of an ordinary person finding himself in an extraordinary situation and it rolls with it.  Moreover, while I did find aspects of it sweet and romantic, it didn't border on too sweet or too romantic.

Playing for Pizza struck a good balance, I thought, and it's written very well, narrated very well.  I mean, if you don't like romance, it has explorations of Italy and food and football; if you don't like football, it still has Italy and history and food.  (Did I mention food?)  Personally, I'm not a fan of sports; however, I enjoyed listening to the games in Playing for Pizza--and I couldn't understand half of it.

The Bad
If you don't understand football americano, then you might just struggle through some of this novel.  I did, and I even live in a state where you live and die by football.  However, I will note that I did enjoy the games and, more to the point, Playing for Pizza has a lot to commend it besides the football games.

The Ugly
Sports injuries.

Ouch.