Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: Parks does it again by getting beneath the surface in his portrayal of Italy and soccer. He is far more penetrating than McGuiness whose book wallows in morals, and reveals his lack of knowledge of soccer and Italy. Parks is a fan and a resident of Italy. It clearly shows.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: Parks does it again by getting beneath the surface in his portrayal of Italy and soccer. He is far more penetrating than McGuiness whose book wallows in morals, and reveals his lack of knowledge of soccer and Italy. Parks is a fan and a resident of Italy. It clearly shows.
Rating: 
Summary: Chievando Scudetto!
Review: Part travelogue, part mediation on the Italian national character, and part football memoir, Englishman Parks' diary of his season with the fans of Hellas Verona is a muddled but generally enjoyable hodgepodge of anecdotes and musings. A lifelong football fan, twenty year resident of Italy, and fluent speaker of Italian, Parks is an ably accredited guide to the myriad mysteries and intrigues of Italian professional football. His method was to attach himself to the hardcore fans of his local club and go to every home and away game in search of... well, something... In doing so, Parks excels at recreating emotional highs and lows and retelling specific anecdotes experienced over the course of the season. However, by attaching himself to these fans, he places himself in the uncomfortable position of riding along with some of Italy's most racist fans. He tries to deal with this a number of ways, from placing them in a broader context of a nation absorbing large numbers of refugees, to attempting to show that the racist cheers actually represent a sort of self-fulfilling prophesy brought about by sensationalist journalism. Neither approach is very credible and it's a shame that Parks kind of dances around it. More insightful is his analysis of the fans as self-appointed pariahs/Davids, sort of a mix of "Nobody likes us, and we don't care" and "It's us against the world." As the season progresses, and Parks travels around Italy, one gets a very keen sense of the deep regionalism that exists in Italy. From politics to chanted terrace insults, there's a prominent theme of disdain for the "other". Other overall themes are lacking, as might be expected from a book written on the fly, but for the careful reader, there are some strong bits where he gets into corruption both in football and Italian society, or his meditation on the psyche of the referee. Another fun aspect to the book is that it contains a plethora of vile Italian insults and terrace chants, which are often quite hilarious. One thing that is a bit off about it, is that is only obliquely references Joe McGinniss' excellent book The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro, in which McGinniss also recounts a year following an Italian. It's a shame, 'cause the two books take quite different approaches (McGinniss is an outsider to soccer, can't speak Italian, and follows the team from within), making them rather complimentary. On the whole, I found McGinniss' more enjoyable, and more likely to appeal to the general reader, although neither author is very good at describing action on the pitch. In any event, both paint a picture of league riddled with corruption, game fixing, and bribery, which begs the question of why anyone would bother caring deeply about it?
Rating:
Summary: A raucous look at Italian Calcio
Review: This book is anything but boring! Even more than Mr. Parks' previous books, this book presents both the beauty and the ugliness of present day Italy and Italian football. I especially enjoyed his portrayal of the Verona fans, both their good qualities (wit, camaraderie, fealty) and bad (fanatiscism with a touch of fascism). I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Italian football or Italy in general. Mr. Parks' two other books about his life in Italy, one titled Italian Neighbors, are also very good and highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Season
Review: This is a very interesting book for a variety of reasons. The author, Tim Parks, is British, but has lived many years in Verona. He has developed a keen understanding of the passion of Italian calcio (football), along with the more negative facets: bitter provincial rivalries, racism, and the hard-core fan element of the "ultras." This well-documented and detailed book takes on a different perspective. Parks is an acclaimed published author. He easily could have written a "safe" documentary about life with a professional team. But he chose a different route: he sat with the ultras during home games, and traveled with them on long bus/train rides for away matches. With the exception of one away game when he was the official guest of the team, and another match when he reported the events from the press box. In essence, he was accepted by the most fanatical element of Hellas Verona supporters. Although this provided him with a rare insight, he may have lost his objectivity with such personal involvement. Hellas Verona has a reputation for having some of the most racist supporters in Italy. Parks spares no details about this volatile subject, but he also explains the bitter historical club rivalries throughout the Serie A. His game summaries are intriguing, and full of local color to keep the reader interested. He is able to describe game action in an appealing fashion, along with the fan reactions that he personally witnessed. Are these descriptions as good as a professional reporter who covers football consistently? No, but he is an excellent writer, and most of all, a fan of the sport. I didn't expect to read game summaries that would parallel the Times of London, BBC, or La Gazzetta dello Sport. He interviews the fans, as well as the actual team players and coaches. He finds himself being drawn into the lives of the ultras, along with their chants during the actual games. He also has a good understanding of the Italian psyche, whether it be on the field, or away from it. Other reviewers have referenced the book, "The Miracle at Castel di Sangro," by Joe McGinniss. While neither author is an expert on the Serie A, or Italian soccer for that matter, I felt that Parks had a better understanding of the sport. The other author did not grow up in a soccer culture, and his book, while entertaining, is unfortunately reminiscent of the Ugly American attitude. "I've never seen a soccer game before, but I'm going to tell you how to coach the team." Parks doesn't exhibit this approach in this work. While his book may have flaws, he is indeed a soccer enthusiast. Thank you for the opportunity to review this book.
Rating:
Summary: You'll be gripped from start to finish
Review: Without doubt this is the best football book that I've ever read. Right from the start Tim Parks actually draws the reader into the unfolding drama and story, rather than it just being a case of you reading a book and just taking information in. You'll find yourself eagerly flicking pages to find out what happened next, sometimes I read this book deep (and I mean, deep!) into the early morning rather than put the book down. Basically this book is all about Hellas Verona football club in Italy, and their battle to stay in the top division in Italy, Serie A. They are one of the most, if not the most, unfashionable clubs in Italy to support, due to the media's overblown coverage of the club's racism problems. In this book you'll find out about many interesting fans and the sometimes hilarious, sometimes appalling, things they got upto throughout a tense season. It's a totally factual account and that makes this all the more intriguing. If you thought you knew everything about Italian football then take a read of this, you'll be surprised at what really goes on. You thought rivalry was bad in English football! Not only did Verona have to battle the media and their reputation, but added to that was the fact that they did not have the resources of huge clubs like Inter Milan and Juventus. Tim Parks wrote this book extremely well, never baffling the reader or losing the plot. It's very enjoyable and added to that you'll learn snippets of the Italian language and all about the Italian way of life. A superb read.
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