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| Playing for Pizza
by John Grisham Grade: C by Neil Evans |
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Author John Grisham, most famous for his legal thrillers like The Client, The Firm and The Pelican Brief (all made into feature length films), diverts from his comfort zone in attempting to tackle a sports driven tale of redemption in Playing For Pizza.
The novel follows Rick Dockery, a horrible third string NFL quarterback, on his journey from city scapegoat to town hero as he leaves the United States to play (American) football in Parma, Italy against his better judgment. The story is predictable and clichéd at every turn, complete with American abroad stereotypes and basic scenes of sports action.
But Playing for Pizza doesn't try to live up to the works of Grisham's past. It's a short, easily digestible work of fiction that any housewife or summer reader can plow through on the beach or vacation. I expect that people picking up this book would be bigger fans of Grisham himself rather than the topic of football and that's a good thing. If you're looking for engaging sports writing, look elsewhere. Playing for Pizza is an interesting tale with some spurts of great food writing and tolerable plot, despite that at no point does anyone receive wages in the form of pizza.
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