No 17: Playing for Pizza by John Grisham
What is it all about?
Rick Dockery has made a career as an itinerant, third-string quarterback in the NFL, the ultimate fringe player with a strong arm and a fear of contact. Despite, or because of, this weakness he has suffered three serious concussions with the last inflicted when he is forced by injury onto the field in a championship decider. With only 11 minutes left and the game apparently won he manages to throw three interceptions all for touchdowns and is mercifully hospitalised on the final play.
His agent can hardly get his telephone calls answered in the US but does manage to get Dockery a berth with the Panthers, a semi-professional outfit in Parma, Italy, home of ham, Prosecco and opera. Dockery makes the life-changing decision to flee his troubles at home and become a big fish in a small but very foreign pond.
What has it got to do with leisure?
Although the central character is the worst kind of professional sporting peacock, this is a book about the true power of sport. Dockery leaves a cosseted world where “quarterbacks don’t hit”, where cheerleaders are part of the players’ allowances and where your value is calibrated by how much money you are paid. In Parma he is forced to work hard in training, learn respect along with Italian and recognise that his team-mates really do “play for the sport of it. And the post-game pizza.” Along the way he falls in love with opera, with a soprano and with Italy itself.
As the shallow American interacts with the density of the Parmesan culture he is both transformed and redeemed. It’s almost operatic.
Why should I read it?
After a hard day at the sport, leisure and culture face it is hard to face high literature. This book is as light as a glass of crisp Prosecco and will ease you into the restful sleep you need and deserve. Alternatively, take it on a train from Piccadilly and, given the usual delays at Milton Keynes, by the time you’re in your seat at the Pringle or the Copper Box you can have it finished. It’s not that it’s thin; it’s just that it’s light and easily digestible.
If you can handle the schmaltz, Playing for Pizza is a classic tale of culture, from architecture to artisan cuisine, and its redemptive power. Rick Dockery is no Raskolnikov* but the message is not so very different.
Read it to wile away a few hours, to give depth to your understanding of American football, to save ever having to buy a guide to Parma and its cuisine, and to discover that John Grisham really can conceive of a main protagonist who isn’t involved in the law; although he does wear loafers without socks and sometimes favours a blazer.
*Crime and Punishment. Obviously.
the leisure manager’s library
An occasional series offering a guide to leisure-related literature
