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Books : A Season with Verona
Rating: 
- A Season With Verona
A fantastic read that I could not put down. Enjoyable if your into Italian football.
Rating: - Bellisimo
What a great read. Buy this book and you won't be dissapointed. Follow the fortunes of mr parks and his fellow brigate as they go round italy supporting their team verona. At the end of each chapter you get to see the football results of the week,i could hardly wait to get to the end of the chapter as you feel such a part of it all. Superb characters and details of the places they visit. One of my favourite books, Ciao.
Rating: - One Hell(as Verona) of a book!!
What an amazing read. Tim Parks brings the reader right into the Curva Sud, and lets us stand and watch each thrilling game with him and his comrades! Shame on those glory hunting fashionable football fans......Only by supporting a real side like Hellas Verona, will you ever enjoy the true passion of the game.
I'll be booking myself a Ryanair flight to watch the mighty Verona in the next few months!!
Rating:
- A Season with an Apologist
It's difficult to review a book which is as gripping and well written as A Season With Verona, and at the same time leaves the reader feeling like he has just read a subtly crafted apology for rascism, bigotry and hooliganism.
A further gripe is the author's insistence on referring (admittedly in passing) to what appear to be some of his cause celebres which are entirely unrelated to football, Italy or anything else remotely relevant to the content of the book. In particular, fair minded readers may recoil at the author's references to "massacres" in "Palestine". The author, clearly highly intelligent, would be well advised in future not to slavishly adopt glib (and incorrect) media reports of distant conflicts and stick to what he clearly knows best - Italy and football.
And what of Italy and football? Parks describes both with a dexterity and sureness which is the mark of a great author and devoted football fan. The combination of these qualities has produced possibly the best non-fiction work on football ever. This surpassess My Left Foot, Striker and Goalkeepers are Crazy. It is beautifully written, and will make the reader wish that more serious writers considered sport as a worthy topic.
That said, reading this book I got the sense that Parks was prepared to excuse the bigotry and rascism of his supporter friends on the basis that it was indiscriminate and "playful". I also sensed that Parks may not have been so quick to excuse such behaviour in a different environment. In other words, I detected a degree of contradiction, even hypocrisy, in this book.
See what you think. If you're a true football fan, or you've ever wondered what drives a true fan, this is a must read.
Rating: - Up and Down.
When I looked at the outside of this book for the first time, I thought it would take ages to read it, but I became so immersed with the fortunes of the team, and the banter of the away trips, that I flew through it. One of the strong points is one that has been elaborated upon before; how it manages to combine the ins and outs of football fan culture with the quirks of a travel-log. It is essential reading for real football fans who know there is more to the game than you can ever hope to see on Sky Sports. For all the positives and negatives described in the book, it succeeds in reminding us of all the sights, sounds and scents of a genuine football experience, as opposed to a good night's television viewing, or a once in a lifetime aeroplane trip to see you team.
Verona are not a glamorous club. The Brigate Gialloblú, Hellas' Ultras group, whom Parks travels with, is one of the oldest of such groups in Italy and Europe. Perhaps Parks doesn't do their history and importance to the club justice, as most of the club officials, although likeable, treat the fans with little interest. It is well explained though, how little a team like Verona actually makes on gate receipts though, with sponsorship and wheeling and dealing in players more important revenue streams. The reader sympathises with the fortunes of a club often on the wrong end of dodgy, possibly corrupt refereeing, and smiles when the team gets the little bit of fortune they need in their relegation struggle.
Parks also manages to inject much appreciated (at least from this reader) humour into the book too, though, mainly courtesy of the escapades of the Brigate, in their mammoth, epic, drink-fuelled away trips. Getting off the bus after an away trip with a thumping headache, covered in muck, beer, and occassionally even vomit or blood, is a sign of a good away trip, and for a married bloke, Parks gets remarkably close to this kind of banter, and for the most part, describes it excellently. The anecdotes involvong his family life are also refreshing, in the context of a football fan culture book.
A MUST-READ!!!
- A Season With VeronaA fantastic read that I could not put down. Enjoyable if your into Italian football.
Rating:
- BellisimoWhat a great read. Buy this book and you won't be dissapointed. Follow the fortunes of mr parks and his fellow brigate as they go round italy supporting their team verona. At the end of each chapter you get to see the football results of the week,i could hardly wait to get to the end of the chapter as you feel such a part of it all. Superb characters and details of the places they visit. One of my favourite books, Ciao.
Rating:
- One Hell(as Verona) of a book!!What an amazing read. Tim Parks brings the reader right into the Curva Sud, and lets us stand and watch each thrilling game with him and his comrades! Shame on those glory hunting fashionable football fans......Only by supporting a real side like Hellas Verona, will you ever enjoy the true passion of the game.
I'll be booking myself a Ryanair flight to watch the mighty Verona in the next few months!!
Rating:
- A Season with an ApologistIt's difficult to review a book which is as gripping and well written as A Season With Verona, and at the same time leaves the reader feeling like he has just read a subtly crafted apology for rascism, bigotry and hooliganism.
A further gripe is the author's insistence on referring (admittedly in passing) to what appear to be some of his cause celebres which are entirely unrelated to football, Italy or anything else remotely relevant to the content of the book. In particular, fair minded readers may recoil at the author's references to "massacres" in "Palestine". The author, clearly highly intelligent, would be well advised in future not to slavishly adopt glib (and incorrect) media reports of distant conflicts and stick to what he clearly knows best - Italy and football.
And what of Italy and football? Parks describes both with a dexterity and sureness which is the mark of a great author and devoted football fan. The combination of these qualities has produced possibly the best non-fiction work on football ever. This surpassess My Left Foot, Striker and Goalkeepers are Crazy. It is beautifully written, and will make the reader wish that more serious writers considered sport as a worthy topic.
That said, reading this book I got the sense that Parks was prepared to excuse the bigotry and rascism of his supporter friends on the basis that it was indiscriminate and "playful". I also sensed that Parks may not have been so quick to excuse such behaviour in a different environment. In other words, I detected a degree of contradiction, even hypocrisy, in this book.
See what you think. If you're a true football fan, or you've ever wondered what drives a true fan, this is a must read.
Rating:
- Up and Down.When I looked at the outside of this book for the first time, I thought it would take ages to read it, but I became so immersed with the fortunes of the team, and the banter of the away trips, that I flew through it. One of the strong points is one that has been elaborated upon before; how it manages to combine the ins and outs of football fan culture with the quirks of a travel-log. It is essential reading for real football fans who know there is more to the game than you can ever hope to see on Sky Sports. For all the positives and negatives described in the book, it succeeds in reminding us of all the sights, sounds and scents of a genuine football experience, as opposed to a good night's television viewing, or a once in a lifetime aeroplane trip to see you team.
Verona are not a glamorous club. The Brigate Gialloblú, Hellas' Ultras group, whom Parks travels with, is one of the oldest of such groups in Italy and Europe. Perhaps Parks doesn't do their history and importance to the club justice, as most of the club officials, although likeable, treat the fans with little interest. It is well explained though, how little a team like Verona actually makes on gate receipts though, with sponsorship and wheeling and dealing in players more important revenue streams. The reader sympathises with the fortunes of a club often on the wrong end of dodgy, possibly corrupt refereeing, and smiles when the team gets the little bit of fortune they need in their relegation struggle.
Parks also manages to inject much appreciated (at least from this reader) humour into the book too, though, mainly courtesy of the escapades of the Brigate, in their mammoth, epic, drink-fuelled away trips. Getting off the bus after an away trip with a thumping headache, covered in muck, beer, and occassionally even vomit or blood, is a sign of a good away trip, and for a married bloke, Parks gets remarkably close to this kind of banter, and for the most part, describes it excellently. The anecdotes involvong his family life are also refreshing, in the context of a football fan culture book.
A MUST-READ!!!