The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro

Rating:
Summary: Miracle worker misses the point.
Review:
I heard so much good about 'The Miracle of Castel di Sangro,' that I knew I needed to read it. Joe McGinniss certainly has a easy turn of phrase and a lovely fluidity to his prose but from the moment I began, to the second I finished this book I was frustrated, angry and mainly infruriated that a man with such reputable creditails as a writer could seriously beleive he has captured his subject. It began to grate on my nerves when he arrives in town and insists on staying in the Hotel, even when it's explained to him why it's not a good idea out of season and then writes about how poorly he is treated. It goes downwards from there. He proves almost immediatly, thathe couldn't be bothered to research the subject of the piece, the clubs season in B1, which is something I'm assuming is simply an oversite for a writer of his standing. The first sign of this lack of study comes along when he kicks up a fury upon discovery that the stadium has not been completed in time for the season. He even has the audacity to disrespect the owners invitation to lunch on his estate by demanding to know why the work hasn't be completed. This it appears is just starting point. He then sets out to annoy everyone involved in the team in any way- Telling the coach why his formations and tactics are just plain wrong becuase he says so. Yelling at the President becuase he dares to disagree with him. Writing and printing off flyers telling of his disgust at whatever is his bugbear of the moment and simply offending people through sheer bilgerance. His assumption that speaking Italian is something he will pick up is fine but by showing up in the town not speaking a word and then simply assuming that he will be accepted and listened to would be niave if it wasn't so arrogant. In fact Arrogance is the best way to describe McGinniss throughout. He claims to be a fan of football but hasn't even the slightest inkling of the Italian's passions and idiosyncratic views on calcio....and more importantly never stops to try and understand. He never grasps that idea that Italian calcio is grounded in cattenaccio and a defensive mindset and instead simply assumes that the offense-first tactics he knows from basketball are right and the team is wrong. He borders on the idiotic more often than not, simply because he never, ever conceeds, as most people who have had the delight of travelling to Italy, that the Italian's do things very differently. He unfortunatly fits the stereotype of the loud, obnoxious American. His ignorance is only compounded by his unwillingness to ever understand and his pigheadedness to go ahead and do something even after he is told repeatedly that it is not acceptable is infuriating.

My outrage grew to boiling point when he finaly got to his moral ending. How on earth he was so niave to not see the 'fix' coming is beyond me. It is simply more proof that he had not done any background research on his subject. To compound it by simply abusing players, who were clearly not happy but certain that a refusal to follow out the actions would see them not only blackbanned from football but possibly from the society they lived in was the final insult.

Make no mistake I am no condoning the actions of lying down and losing the game for money and certainly I was outraged but taking it out on the players and then making a scene in the street remostrating with the President and wealthy owner of the club left me cold. This book had the potential to be a fantastic and powerful statement on Italian football and the society at large.It could have been as brilliant as Tobias Jones'-The Dark Heart of Italy,' a perfect, critical and fascinating disection of the country. It perhaps should have been but all I read was a book about one mans ego outshining his subject.

Rating:
Summary: If your looking for a book about soccer....
Review:
You might just want to sit this one out. However if you want to read a book with a great story, wonderful culture and a annoying american, well this book is for you!

Now don't get me wrong, this book is about soccer. It's a true story about a team that had just been promoted to Serie B (second highest level) in Italy. It truly was a miracle, and when the author heard about it, he obviously knew that the next season was going to be a story worth telling.

The whole book however, is much more story driven then that. There is not much of action during the book. The longer the book goes, seemingly does the interest for soccer. It's not all bad, and even though it may not have the large amounts of soccer action others do, it does have a great story... and the story makes up for the lack of action in a big way.

My only issue (as seemingly many others on this board) is the ignorance of the writter (aka main charicter.) He's not so bad, but he just come's off as a know it all, all to often. He also has this thing for upsetting people. My big problem with him however, is the fact that he makes American soccer fans look bad. To find out how, just read the book and keep in mind he has only been watching the sport for very few years...

However, if you love soccer or Italian culture, this book is still for you. You just have to read past the ignorance of our guide sometimes. It's certainly worth its price tag, and is good for any new fan to soccer. I highly recomend the book.



Rating:
Summary: great book ruined by lack of objectivity by the author
Review: A truly great story of a small city, their soccer team and how they pulled off the impossible dream of playing in Serie B. The author seemed to stretch his story with all the translations of Italian. While I speak Italian, I found the translations detracted from the reading. The passages should have been in English to begin with. McGinnis steps over the line as an observer when he begins to believe he is a soccer expert and starts to advise the coach on line-ups. And then he ruins the book by playing GOD by using his morals and beliefs to judge a situation all too common in Italy. He turns a year of hard-won friendship into ashes in the mouth. He goes from being a reporter to a pariah - not only in the eyes of the town of Castel di Sangro and the soccer team, but in mine also. Another American trying to dictate behavior all over the world. Will we ever stop?

Rating:
Summary: Great Story ruined by annoying author
Review: I don't want to spoil it for people who may read, so I'll try to beat around the bush.

I would have liked a follow up chapter of "where are they now" and "what happened to the team". If anybody knows, please email [e-mail].

McGinnis leaves the town with a sour taste in his mouth, nonetheless, it would have brought closure to find out what happened to these people. Much like if you were ever dumped by someone, life goes on, but you do wonder "what ever happened to such and such"

Beside that, good reading, lots of great stories about Italian life, culture, geography, history. Good book for soccer fans, great book for a study in small town life and big city problems.

I was disappointed in lack of pictures as well. Not even a team shot. I guess with the ending and the accusations, I understand why, but still disappointed.

The writer is very opinionated and inserts himself into the story more often than not. This is not a fly on the wall recount.

Recommendation: worth a read, but prepare yourself for some very slanted ideas and some self promotion. It seems like there was even a better story out there, but it just wasn't captured all the way... maybe 80%

Rating:
Summary: Book about a miracle reveals story of corruption and sadness
Review: I'm a sucker for sports books so I was eager to read this one. Not being a soccer fan, it was cool to read about the author's passion of soccer. Well Mcginniss is close to insane. The first half of the book is great when you read about the soccer team, the tiny town of Castel di Sangro, and their amazing achievement of playing these great Italian teams. But the story gives you a dose of reality - deaths, corruption, deceit, disloyalty, stubbornness, etc. The fact is that when I read about cheap and unforgiving the team management and ownership, I was almost prepared for the shocking ending. I'm glad the author put this part in because the truth is there are no fairy tale endings. The weakness in the book is there was no examination of what makes soccer fans so nutty and passionate. He had this perfect place where he could talk to every single fan if he wanted to and find out what is it about this game? Still a recommended read.

Rating:
Summary: Very good book in spite of the author
Review: Inside there is a great story of uncelebrated heroes, and villians, behind what might be considered the more mundane situation -- that a soccer team from a small village manages promotion to a B league with the season-long goal of surviving. Along the way, there are many great details of the local players, supporters, life within Serie B soccer, and the fabric of society in a small, working-class Italian hillside town. Set on this smaller stage, the story has it all -- life, death, compassion, greed, character, and corruption -- woven together with many amusing and curious subtexts and insights about a "strainero" trying to fit in to a whole other culture and language.

The story is a great success at real-life drama. The only unfortunate part is that the story slowly unravels how much the author completely blew a real opportunity to fit in more and delve deeper beneath the surface of his adopted society -- opting more and more to impose his own self-righteous mindset and judgement on matters (he was as much a "bulldozer" as he accused the soccer team's manager of being) rather than taking a step back to learn more about the inner workings of another culture. This isn't ethnocentrism or even an example of American arrogance -- the author simply self-destructed at his mission to respect, observe, and ask in order to learn and report.

Even so, the book is a great success in spite of the author's mistakes. He gained access to a remote, close-knit community amidst the throes of of several major events -- also capturing moments of great humor. The author's detailed accounting of his conversations and experiences there makes it a fascinating story in its own right.

Rating:
Summary: For what it's worth...
Review: Most of the criticism of this book is aimed at the author's inappropriate application of american sensibilities to Italian calcio.

This may be a fair criticism, but to me, this was an interesting part of the book. Sure, McGinniss seems a bit overbearing at times (though hardly an 'Ugly American' as some here have implied). But the story told from this point of view makes it even more interesting.

In the end this book is more than just the rags-to-riches story of a minor league Italian soccer team. It's about immersion in another culture, and finding out that even the most knee-jerk liberal american sensibilities won't shield one from being occasionally judgemental about what one finds. In the end, the author is clearly in love with Italy, Italian calcio, and Castel di Sangro---for better and for worse.

For what it's worth, I'm an american soccer fan who enjoys learning about other cultures and languages. I think that most people with these sets of interests will enjoy this book.

Rating:
Summary: "The Fanatic is a fan in a madhouse"- Eduardo Galeano
Review: Reviewer: tom cieszinski from United States
The above quote is found on page 345 of this book and a renowned author in his own right, of various books, including one on football-soccer; "football in sun and shadow; an emotional history of the World Cup." This phrase, if I had to pick one, out of this multi-dimensional book would best summarise this outstanding work by Joe McGinnis.
Outstanding, I do not believe, I will reiterate what other reviewers have excellently recanted about this book; I would say, what I believe McGinnis brings to his writing, are numerous literary references as the above and an abundant use of the Italian language make this an excellent read.

Agreeing with one reviewer, half way through the book, it unravels some, some I say, but then, comes back for an excellent finish.

Some opine, Joe McGinnis is the "bulldozer" in this work, that he contains shade of being an "ugly American", to me however, when all is said and done & it is forgivable; understand me there please, but he falls short, of the players, he supposedly "cares" so much about, these hapless heroes, he presents in such a rich context, in their achievements, most to never be recognized in the very large system of Italian soccer, Calcio. He falls short, he burns bridges, he does not become a part of the system, but at what cost?

I would characterise Mr. McGinnis as being "pushy", similar to the second guessings of a "Monday morning quarterback" or as being confrontational and abrasive at times but by golly; who isn't or has not been at some periods of time in their life? Why, Mr. McGinnis faults the system at some points of this book, but if he were doing this in most countries, namely the US and giving advice to a coach, in this case, Osvaldo Jaconi; he might well run into a "my way or the highway" mentality (can one picture, an author of a book, giving advice to an American sports coach in the locker room, with so much frequency? I doubt it). Absolutely, correct, is the reviewer who opines he should have handled the ending differently and without giving it away as well; we have something, that is on a minor scale, similar to the Shoeless Joe Jackson Blacksox scandal of Baseball. The thing is, is that in this book, "corruption" plays a rather minor part of the book as a whole. In fact and very humorously, McGinnis often places his opinions on Coach Jaconi on how a game should be played or who should play in the game. Though he gets away with this, as far as the ownership and the office management of the team, Castel Di Sangro goes, I am surprised, McGinnis gets away with many of the things he does; read that to say; the ownership has shades seemingly of the Sicilian scenes from Godfather II; not that extreme, I mind you, but the author does seem to propose this thesis. In fact, we would be led to believe, from what McGinnis writes, that the whole of Italy, to some extent, has "organised crime" as a part of the system, though it is not as pronounced as that which we see in Sicily.

And I do believe, for the minor role, of speaking about the so-called "corruption" in this book, Mr. McGinnis quotes Eduardo Galeano's writings on soccer. Has McGinnis seen how, even in the World Cup, at times, one can see, games, in these seemingly most important of all soccer games, absolute sham calls? We saw such in the last World Cup, probably prime examples, but these are by no means, the only examples.

McGinnis takes us to places, we previously have not been; so I five star it. Once in one of these overseas countries, I stayed in a hotel, where a visiting team was doing as well. I felt for the players, I can relate to the book; in that the team I personally had contact with was by no means in the upper echelon of the league.

All of that I say, is well and good, but this book, shines, on it's writing of the games, the season and story line,

"...With one voice, the crowd was chanting, "Ca-Stell-O! Ca-Stell-O!" (page 347).

I can pass on some of the extemporary info but I take the good with the bad. I'm looking for a sequel; which I doubt can ever be; maybe something similar should be written by the author.

Oh, and lastly, I have the hard-cover edition of this book, there seems to be about 16 pages of photos, vs. what someone mentioned, possibly reading a paperback edition, said his book did not have the photographs. I'd find it difficult to fathom this book without the accompanying pictures, the first being of the town of Castel di Sangro; very picturesque; a team photo; photos of virtually every major character in the book, including il Signore Rezza and including pictures of the team in their "Soviet Jeans" uniforms.

Rating:
Summary: A Pleasant, Occasionally Frustrating, Read
Review: The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro is a wonderful read. McGinniss is an excellent writer, and soccer (or football) fans will particularly enjoy his description of spending a full season with one of the most unlikely soccer teams to ever find success in Italy's famous soccer leagues (specifically in Serie B). To sum up the plot, McGinniss spends a full season with a squad of soccer players from a tiny mountain town who have "miraculously" reached a level of competition against some of the most storied football cities in Italy. The motley crew of players makes for a wonderful cast of characters, and the twists of fate they face keep things moving at a frenetic pace. However, it is hard to believe that any adult can be as naive and idealistic as McGinniss professes to be as unexpected events unfold during his time with the Castel Di Sangro team. After all, this man covered the OJ Simpson trial and should be familiar with the darker side of human nature. In the final analysis, this is a delightful book marred only by McGinniss'occasional bouts of self-righteousness.

Rating:
Summary: Lo miracolo - an american interferes
Review: The single most superb football book I have ever read, with a narrative and plotline that would be a feat of tremendous inmagination if fiction is made more shocking by the fact that these events actually transpired. McGinniss comes across as a typical American - interfering in things he is supposedly a passive witness to. This grates with me, but also spices the book. The calciatore are presented in a most sympathetic manner, although i feel are patronised by the author. Buy this book, I have not found a more stunning insight into Il Calcio.