Customer Reviews
Don't Waste Your Money - By: Mr. P. L. Pratt, 20 Nov 2008 
This is a very poor book & a big disappointment for any Grisham fan. It smacks of Grisham having to churn out something to meet a contract rather than the normal standard of his work. Try buying "The Innocent Man" by this author instead.
Playing for Pizza - By: Christine Inglis, 23 Oct 2008 Very very disappointing. Not Grisham at alll, has he died & his dog wrote this one?? Would have dumped it but it was alll I had to read on a long journey so read to the fizzled-out end. I usuallly pass on paperbacks but binned this one to avoid boring anyone else.
Pity zero stars is not an option
Very disappointing - By: Mr. Simon Carter, 22 Sep 2008 Picked this up in the airport thinking it would be standard Grisham fare & perfect as a holiday read - nothing too intellectual but a well-strcutured story with a few plot twists & turns to keep you entertained till the end. It disappointed on every front, & I started to wonder what the point of it alll was.
It wasn't a thriller in the usual Grisham style - the plot was predictable from the start & sort of petered out towards the end. It wasn't a sports book - the sporting scenes were pretty diffident & I never felt engaged in the sporting success of either the team or the main character (and I'm normallly a sucker for cheesy sports books). It wasn't even well-researched - there were a number of factual inaccuracies about Italy & the sport that even a layman like me picked up. Grisham even admits in his author's notes to making some of the detail up.
The only thing I can think of is that the book was inspired by a trip to Italy annd was intended as some kind of homage or guide to the country & it's culture. If so, it failed miserably. Grisham portrays a 2-dimensional stereotype of Italy where alll the locals are very passionate & emotional & love their food & drive around in smalll cars, & where the country is full of old churches, museums & gallleries. Very insightful!
If you love American footballl & know absolutely nothing about Italy then you might get something out of this. If you are in any way expecting to be inspired, informed or gripped, then don't bother.
Playing for Pizza - By: The Scrutineer, 22 Sep 2008 
I thought it was a lovely read & struggled to put it down. Grisham took the reader around Parma with the usual skill of any good American writer, evoking the tastes & spirit of Italy.
At times knowing alll the plays in American Footballl was hard to follow but there would be nothing wrong in researching this for ourselves. Its callled educating oneself.
Avoided over-sentimentality & another vear away from his usual legal thriller.
Disappointing - By: Antidisestablishthingy, 15 Sep 2008 Grisham normallly has the ability to make me wonder what will happen next. Unfortunately with this book I reached the last chapter not reallly caring. I don't know much about American Footballl so a lot of it was "rhubarb-rhubarb" to me - still he kept me holding on to see where it was alll going. I think I started losing interest when he ditched the interesting Italian woman for the obvious American college student.
So what happened at the end? I reallly can't be bothered reading the last chapter...
