Wade Lindenberger and Mike Ford had an interesting idea in attempting to write a novel about fantasy football, and they actually have released such an unwieldy beast in their BROTHERHOOD OF THE PIGSKIN, published by iUniverse. But I’m afraid sports and fantasy sports fans will be sorely disappointed. It’s not that the idea of a novel around fantasy sports is a bad one; indeed, Robert Coover wrote a masterpiece about such a system called THE UNIVERSAL BASEBALL ASSOCIATION, INC., J. HENRY WAUGH, PROP.
And with the burgeoning of the fantasy sports movement as it becomes more mainstream and less the preserve of those who buy their APBA cards every year, the time could be right for an incisive, human, thoughtful novel about the endeavor. This isn’t it. Instead, it’s a recap of one particular year in a particular league, which if I’m guessing, probably greatly resembles the authors’ own fantasy football league, and may have been penned as a puff piece for league members.
It really does seem to be a recap more than anything. It’s just so leaden. The characters are clichés and go by ridiculous nicknames. There’s a guy called Cactus Connection, which I heartily dispute could ever have been anyone’s nickname, and someone called Ladies’ Man, who acts like a drunken, fourth-rate Matt Helm without the charm or realism. There’s lots of boozing and swearing and gambling and testosterone-flinging. But, nothing really ever happens.
We get lineup cards and some individual game statistics, but there doesn’t seem to be much point to any of that. A couple of gaming methods are introduced late in the book, which could have been used to some type of novelistic effect — say, matching the method with a character type and exploring that — but it doesn’t happen. Characters don’t change, their speech is wooden, the plot is dull, the writing is pedestrian.
You could say it was almost a diary of the year, except for what happens at the end, which was just plain ridiculous. I’m not saying that Lindenberger and Ford are bad people, or even that they’re beyond hope, or even that their idea can’t work. But they need some intensive training in the art of storytelling — how to get us interested in characters, how to make the plot and subject matter interesting to readers, how to say something with words, how to have a point and make it shine. Better luck next time. —Mark Rose
Related posts:
- The Brotherhood of the Shroud
- Just Kick It: Tales of an Underdog, Over-Age, Out-of-Place, Semi-Pro Football Player
- Seven Soldiers of Victory: Volume One
- The Somnambulist
- The Ridiculous Race
