Inca wrote:

QUOTE:
Thanks for the review. I'll give it a pass, especially considering that it won't be cheap to get it in the US. Shame, I was hoping for something really good.

Most of what AG has said is true - and the book is quite thin to boot - yet I would still recommend it. Found it quite enjoyable myself.

I admit I'm probably harder on this book than I should be because its WSC and I expected more. As for the travelogue, well...I dunno, I don't think anyone would really take that approach to a book about football in England, or Canada or Germany - so why in Africa? It just seems so self-consciously Kapuscinski-ish...or possibly just wanky, I'm not sure. Arguably, Goldblatt's still the only source that treats African football with the seriousness that European football has been treated.

The Wilson book can be tedious, ad hoc, becuase it's a tough topic to sustain over 350-odd pages. But he does it as well as could be imagined.

But Africa is an entire continet and thus has something more to offer than germany, say.

"How Football Explains the World' is kind of a travelogue/football combo book. For me it didn't work because it didn't really add anything to what I already knew(and also because the title was so fucking stupid, and because the stupidity was repeated at the opening of every chapter), but I have travelled very little in Africa and know very little about African football - so a travelogue of Africa with football as the hook on which to hang it? Sounds great.

I mean I'm not trying to tell you to like it, obviously you didn't - but the reasons you give for not liking it sound to me like reasons why i might.

Yeah, in that case I think you probably would enjoy it.

Also, I think I might have liked it more had it not so obviously tread over the same ground as auf der Hyde, which I read last year. If you haven't read that, it's probably much more enjoyable.

Thanks AG for the reviews. At some point I will add my own but right now I am working through some "classics" and assume members of this board are less interested in another review of All Played Out. But with that in mind, I don't think the travel writing approach is unique to Africa. All Played Out, which I just mentioned, is narrated through a criss-crossing across Italy (and beyond when the qualifiers are discussed). And I just finished Tim Parks' excellent Season with Verona (I told you I wasn't reading new releases at this point) which also gains its suspenseful dimensions from Parks' travels.

With all of that said, I appreciate the criticism that lies beneath your concern, or what I think is bubbling in the review. That is, there is a subtle colonialist discourse at work here that we won't find in books exploring Western Europe (i.e., look at the exotic other with me as I travel this crazy continent). I haven't read the book yet, but I will trust that the intent is the exact opposite of this discourse--praising passionate football that is normally overlooked in the heavy critical focus on European football (with Brazil and Argentina providing an alternative from time to time).

As ad hoc wrote, though, the combination of good travel writing and good football writing, fits my own interests. I just hope it appears in the US sooner rather than later because the shipping charges from the UK are often as high as the cost of books. Take care.

QUOTE:
That is, there is a subtle colonialist discourse at work here that we won't find in books exploring Western Europe (i.e., look at the exotic other with me as I travel this crazy continent).

is this necessarily such a bad thing? half the fun of reading about other places is pretending they're different from where you are now.

i can see the logic of the travelogue approach in a book of this type, as the vast majority of the people buying the book will never have been to africa.

for those disappointed by lions, eagles etc, ian hawkey of the sunday times is working on a book about african football.

Halfway through Bamboo Goalposts, and thought I would share this gem from p. 122 when he describes tryuing to cover the first women's World Cup in China.

"We were duly accredited as foreign journalists for the English title When Saturday Comes. As I found it impossible to lace my piece with the same level of ironic wit shown by many of the other contributors, my story was never filed."

Sash - thanks for some interesting posts. Just to flag that there is a small thread on Russian club football over on, er, Football, which you might not have noticed. It would be great if you were able to contribute there.

Danielmak--are you in the US?

Inca wrote:

QUOTE:
Danielmak--are you in the US?

I'm in Chicago. What about you, Inca?

LA--I thought there might have been a chance you were here when you mentioned the Purple Line in your location.

Has anyone read The Battle of Montevideo: Celtic Under Siege? I'm not a Celtic or Racing fan per se but I'm curious about the book since it deals with a time when there was very little movement of players across continents in club football, and so the Intercontinental Club Cup was much more important. I was skimming a recent issue of FourFourTwo and the book was mentioned (I can't actually call what they do reviews so I didn't really learn anything about the book). Thanks.

Just snapped up a hardback copy of "The Ball Is Round" by David Goldblatt for £4 at Nott Hill Music & Video Exchange Bookshop......£4!!!.

Review: "Its the best football book ever".

I'm wondering if a good book was written about World Cup 2002 in the same vein as Pete Davies' books on Italia 90 (All Played Out) and USA 94 (the men in funny shorts book--title escapes me right now), the WSC book on WC98, or the Thinking Fans Guide to 2006 (a book that was hit and miss but the hits were very good and the misses more a product of me expecting more from people like Eggars and Samuels). Anyway, did anything come out about 2002 that I should hunt down? Thanks.

Ugh. Don't get me started on that "Thinking Fans" book. And I say that as a huge Eggers fan.