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 enlarge | Author: John Grisham
Publisher: Doubleday
Category: Book
List Price: $21.95
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $21.94 (100%)
New (142) Used (390) Collectible (26) from $0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  317 reviews
Sales Rank: 10169
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.8 x 1
ISBN: 0385525001
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780385525008
ASIN: 0385525001
Publication Date: September 24, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Big Disappointment November 5, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Why did Grisham write this shallow piece of trash? To stereotype Italians? NFL football players? Cheerleaders? I enjoyed his other novels which he researched endlessly. The only research he did for this one was that he treated himself to a trip to Italy and sampled the food. There is no redeeming moral, plot or dialogue to see in this farce. At least it was a quick read. The quarterback hero has no morals and neither does the story.
 Enjoyable change November 3, 2008
I enjoyed this John Grisham book. I am a side-lines football fan, able to watch the game on TV but not in real life-only because there are too many other things going on at the time. This is a pleasant "trip" to Italy and provides some other ways of looking at the game of football, while allowing a peak look into another culture.
GO GOOMBA GO November 2, 2008
IF YOU LIKE AMERICAN FOOTBALL AND CAN READ MORE THAN THE NEWSPAPER SPORTS SECTION, YOU'LL LIKE THIS BIT OF ATHLETIC FLUFF. NOT THE USUSAL GRISHAM SOMBER DEPTH, BUT A DELIGHTFUL ROMP THROUGH ITALY WITH PASTA, VINO AND SHOULDERPADS. A FUN READ. SO BUY IT, SET AND GO DEEP, PISAN....
Not a romance novel, but I liked it. October 27, 2008
REVIEWER'S OPINION:
About 95% of my reviews are on romance novels. This is off genre for me. This is sports fiction plus some human relationships fiction, but I liked it. I also happen to like movies about underdog sports teams and athletes winning or doing something positive. Lovers of romance novels who also like this kind of movie might enjoy this book. I did not understand some of the football jargon, but I still enjoyed the story. As a side note, I believe this author is best known for his mystery/thrillers, so this genre is not typical for him.
STORY BRIEF:
Rick is an NFL backup quarterback who rarely plays. His weakness is that he does things to avoid being tackled rather than make the best play of the moment. He has had three concussions. He had terrible luck in one game causing his team to lose in the last 11 minutes when they had been ahead. No US team wants him, and the press ridicules him. His agent finds a job for him as quarterback for the Parma team in Italy. It doesn't pay much. In fact, most of the team members are Italian and don't get paid at all. Rick hadn't had a serious female relationship in the past and usually found companionship with cheerleaders. He was disappointed that there were no cheerleaders in Parma. The story is about Rick's life in Italy, the food he eats, and his relationships with the team members. He has trouble parking his stick-shift car. He goes to the opera, which he had never done before. Prior to Italy he didn't seem to have outside interests. His life was football practice, games, being on the road and dating cheerleaders. In Parma some new things happen including meeting a couple of (non-cheerleader) women which was fun to watch.
MORE REVIEWER'S OPINION:
On his first night in Parma, the coach takes Rick to a local restaurant. The description of Rick eating wonderful food actually caused me to go to two Italian restaurants to eat the same things. Unfortunately, the restaurants didn't have the same food Rick ate. I'm still looking. The book starts out a little slow, but Rick grew on me. He did some neat things for the team, and I liked his female experiences. The story had a feel good ending, but I was a little disappointed because I didn't want it to end.
DATA:
Story length: 306 pages. Sexual language: none. Number of sex scenes: none. Setting: current day U.S. and Italy. Copyright: 2007. Genre: sports fiction and human relationships fiction.
 Great read, even if you are not a sports fan October 27, 2008
I was a bit worried when I saw this book because it was about a football player, and I'm not much of a sports fan. However, I really like John Grisham; so I decided to give the book a try. Somewhat to my surprise, this book turned out to be one of Grisham's best. It's a really great story about a man overcoming adversity and finding that niche in life where he can find fulfillment.
A nice bonus was that Grisham really brought Italy alive: its people, culture, food, and cities. Oh, and guess what! Not a murder was in sight! I suspect that's what turned off some of the reviewers, but the lack of bodies personally was a delightful change from my substantial diet of mysteries and thrillers. I hope Grisham writes more books of this kind!
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