Nick Hornby

An autobiographical memoir by a humorous British author and obsessed soccer fan captures the intensity of a sports fan who measures his life in seasons rather than years

Fever Pitch

Claudiu

I really enjoyed this sort of autobiography with a football background or maybe stories about football mixed with autobiographical stuff. I love football (what is called soccer in a couple countries but football everywhere else) but my love of it is nothing compared to the author's real lifelong obsession. Thanks a lot for all these stories that helped me get and feel closer to some of the best teams I know and admire.

Savindi Jinasena

Synopsis:The names Liam Brady, Bob Wilson, Charlie George and Frank McLintock will roll of the tongue and by the end of this book they will be engraved in your head because Nick Hornby is Football obsessed. 

Fever Pitch is Hornby’s tribute to the ever consuming passion of supporting Arsenal F.C. From his first experience in the terraces of Highbury to the championship winning seasons under manager George Graham, Hornby looks at what it truly means to be a supporter of the beautiful game.

Cover Gushing Worthiness: In all honesty, I didn’t think about the cover of this book too much. When I did think about it I found the colours of it bizarre, considering that Arsenal’s colours are Red & White. I was under the impression that maybe those should be the colours of the cover. Now that I think about it the Blue & Yellow of the cover does reflect what a football season is all about; strange, exciting and an absolute emotional roller-coaster for the supporters of any team. So that way the cover nicely compliments Hornby’s story.

Before I continue with the review I thought I should maybe give a bit of background information about some of the things in this book.

Arsenal F.C.- Nicknamed ‘The Gunners’ because of their cannon symbol, Arsenal are a club in North London. Arsenal are also the English Premier League’s 3rd most successful team, having won the league 13 times.
Highbury- Arsenal’s former home ground. Currently Arsenal’s new home is the Emirates Stadium.
George Graham- Former Arsenal player and Manager.
Frank McLintock, Liam Brady, Charlie George, Bob Wilson- all previous Arsenal Players and Legends.

This book is a memoir and it covers the years of 1968-1992 when Arsenal won the championship under George Graham and it is also a reflection of Hornby’s life during all those years. At first I have to say that I was disappointed that it didn’t cover the years of Arsenal under current manager Arsene Wenger (nicknamed ‘the Professor) because it has been the most successful period for the club. However that didn’t deter me from reading this book.

At first the book did seem like it was the rantings and ravings of football madman and I was somewhat disappointed. Then again I had to tell myself “You know…you’re exactly the same right? You rant and rave when your team doesn’t do well.” It reminded me how as a supporter you don’t realize how crazy you sound to those who know nothing about football, yet alone sport. The other thing that somewhat frustrated me was that I wasn’t familiar with people who Hornby mentioned and then again I had to remind myself “History major, will you stop trying to understand all of football history? You weren’t even born yet!!.” This is the problem with studying history; you want to be a know it all even though this isn’t your team!

As I kept on reading I was fascinated by Hornby’s relationship with Arsenal. How everything in life revolved around the club and it’s power to grip your emotional stability.What I found most interesting was how Hornby, as passionate of a supporter he is, had a love/hate relationship with the club. And I think every supporter has the same if not similar experience. We look at people as if they’re ridiculous when they don’t understand the emotional roller-coaster of supporting a club from August to May. We get angry when people tell us “it’s only a game.” To us it’s not only a game, it’s a sense of spirituality that will be experienced twice a week and it can either break you or leave you feeling elated.

While the beginning of the book was a tad boring, it picked up the pace and enjoyment in the middle which continued until the end of the book. I had to laugh at Hornby’s passion for his club. You know you’re passionate and obsessive about your team when you stay at the football game, despite your girlfriend fainting and being taken to the hospital! I literally laughed out loud when I read that. As you can imagine that relationship did not last:P.As football obsessed as I am, even I would have broken up with my boyfriend if he refused to come with me to the hospital if I fainted at a game.

What made me adore this book was Hornby’s personal anecdotes and how he wonderfully captured the personal experience of supporting a Football club. He posed some serious questions to football fans such as: what would you do if your supported Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea or Manchester United, what if your significant other wanted to share the ‘Arsenal Experience’ (you can insert your own team here) but you didn’t want them to? I can already imagine the laughs on people’s faces, but to those of us who support teams, these are huge issues. Even to this day I always think “What if I date someone who supports Manchester City or Liverpool? How on earth am I going to bring that person home?”.

In terms of Narration and Character I enjoyed Hornby’s voice in the story. His writing made me feel like I was a shadow behind him as he went to football games and graduated from terrace boy to season ticket holder. I felt like I was there when he experienced uncomfortable and almost life threatening situations in the football stadiums. I was basically a witness to everything in Hornby’s life because he wasn’t hiding anything and I loved that about this book.

In all honesty, this is a difficult book to review. Sometimes it’s hard to put your feelings into words as a football fan. The outside world may not understand what you’re going through as you support a team. You can only be understood by those who are experiencing it with you. But we do love the people who put up with our moods of ecstasy and disappointment.

Overall Fever Pitch was a great read. I think I enjoyed this more because I’m a football supporter, but I hope that won’t stop people from reading this book. I think it’s a great way to get into the mind of us obsessive fans. Although I don’t see myself as being nearly as obsessive as Hornby. But I suppose that might be up for debate! This book definitely lived up to it’s hype of being the ‘Holy Grail’ of Football memoirs.

My Rating: 4/5

Would I recommend it? Yes

Gleich sein erstes Buch machte Nick Hornby mit einem Schlag berühmt: Fever Pitch hat beim Publikum und bei den Journalisten wahre Begeisterungsstürme entfacht. Hornbys Buch war bahnbrechend, weil es als erstes auf den Punkt brachte, was Fußballbesessenheit in all ihren ernsten und komischen Facetten ausmacht. Fever Pitch ist die Geschichte eines Fußballfans, dessen Leben von den seltenen Siegen und zahlreichen Niederlagen seines Clubs bestimmt wird. Der Fan heisst Nick Hornby, sein Verein Arsenal London. Mit wunderbarer Leichtigkeit und sprühendem Witz schildert Hornby die Spiele und sein Leben: In zahlreichen mal amüsanten, mal nachdenklichen Anekdoten erzählt er von der Scheidung der Eltern, dem Alltag in der Vorstadt, dem lustlos absolvierten Studium in Cambridge und den ersten Freundinnen. Fever Pitch ist der Versuch, einen Blick hinter die Besessenheit zu werfen. "Warum hat die Beziehung, die als Schuljungenschwärmerei begann, beinahe ein Vierteljahrhundert überdauert, länger als irgendeine andere Beziehung, die ich freiwillig eingegangen bin?" Ein Bestseller in England und Deutschland - Nick Hornbys Kultbuch Fever Pitch erstmals als Paperback. Der Film zum Buch lief im Frühjahr 1997 in den deutschen Kinos.

Ballfieber - die Geschichte eines Fans

Fever pitch

Marcos Silva

If you are a football fan, you'll find this book amazing. It demonstrates perfectly how a supporter feels when watch a game of its favorite club. If you're not into football, you can read it for the fun of it, because there's lot of funny passages described there.

Amy Arthun Lorton 

I loved the movie "Fever Pitch" and think this book is a cute, light read.

A famous account of growing up to be a fanatical football supporter. Told through a series of match reports, FEVER PITCH has enjoyed enormous critical and commercial success since it was first published in 1992. It has helped to create a new kind ofsports writing, and established Hornby as one of the finest writers of his generation.

Werner Schuette

It is a book about football (for all American reader: it's all about soccer). From somebody who is into football to readers who are into football. For everybody else, think about reading it. 
(we need emojis and links here ;) )
Nick Hornby writes funny, autobiography and analytically about one thing: football (in particular Arsenal London)!


Michael Hessling

Live British writing; that gave this book one extra star. Had a rough time with the slang, though. Still, this books describes being a fan, and I can recognize myself.

Fever Pitch

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