The first John Grisham book I read was The Client. I quickly fell in love with his writing style, and consumed as many of his works as possible. A few days ago, I stumbled upon Playing for Pizza. It was published in 2007, and is a delightful departure from Grisham’s usual genre.
Playing for Pizza is the fictional story of Rick Dockery, a third-string quarterback for the NFL. After suddenly and unceremoniously being thrown into a championship game, he not only lost, but made a fool of himself and let his team down in the process. He was fired, abandoned by his friends, and almost forgotten by his agent. In an effort to flee the harsh tongues of sports critics and the destroyed patriotism of football fans, Dockery accepted a contract to lead the Parma Panthers in Italy.
I had never heard of North American football in Europe before reading this book, but an author’s note at the end assured me it does in fact exist. The following is small, and the teams are mostly comprised of local athletes who play for the love of the game and the promise of free pizza dinners.
In order to write Playing for Pizza, Grisham did research. He visited Parma, Italy, and met the Panthers (who are actually a real team). He watched a number of games, interviewed the players, and familiarized himself with how football is viewed in Italy. Grisham also got to know the city of Parma, which allowed him to write about it in a way that was both enticing and easy to understand. The majority of the story is set in Italy, so it’s important the content seems genuine.
Reading this book was very beneficial to me. I am currently writing my own book that can be best defined as historical fiction, which is more or less the genre of Playing for Pizza. Grisham took real places and events, and infused them with fictitious characters. The difference is that my characters are real, even though it was necessary to take liberties on some of their actions.
Here’s an interesting fact I learned while reading the book: the town Parma is where all of the real Parmesan cheese in the world is made.
Read the book. It's great.
After reading this book, I put "visit Parma,Italy" on my bucket list.
ReplyDeleteWant to come with me?
I'm not surprised to hear that all the "real" Parmesan cheese is made in Parma. Naples is the birthplace of the authentic Italian pizza.
ReplyDeleteI saw a travel show once where the host went to Naples and sampled an incredibly simple pizza made with tomato sauce, basil, and some other spices....nothing else. She said it was the absolute best pizza she ever tasted.
That's a Pizza Margharita you are talking about,John. Fresh basil, a good tomato sauce or freshly hand-squeezed roma tomatoes and fresh mozarella, not the kind made by Kraft. Try the TreStella brand of bocconcini - it's more flavorful and very soft and melts wonderfully.
ReplyDeleteAnd that is todays cooking lesson.