Lunedì Letterario

Playing for Pizza
by John Grisham
2007

While flying to New York, I enjoyed reading Playing for Pizza by John Grisham. I have enjoyed many of Grisham’s “lawyer books” over the years, and this is a completely different kind of novel. One reviewer called it a “tale of touchdowns and tortellini.” It is the story of Rick Dockery, a 28-year-old third-string NFL quarterback, who really messed up the Cleveland Browns chance of going to the Superbowl. With any chance of a career in the NFL gone, Rick agrees to play for a small Italian team, the Parma Panthers. (There are only three paid players on the team, and half way through the book two of them quit.) Rick has never been to Europe and the pages of the book invite the reader to discover Italy through this quarterback’s eyes. A college student girl friend drags him around to palaces and churches and there are delicious descriptions of Italian foods. It is a fun read, even for someone like me who is not much of a football fan.