Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Among the Thugs by Bill Buford ISBN: 0-679-74535-1 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 June, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.9 (48 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: The Other Football
Comment: Bill Buford uses two different ways to tell the tale of the English football supporter. Buford's first method, used in the beginning and end parts of the book, provide a view from the inside as the author documents his the part of his life spent, for lack of an original phrase, "among the thugs," specifically with supporters of Manchester United, one of the top teams in England's Premier League. Buford paints a harrowing picture as he describes people who are basically degenerates. Much like people used to fight in support of their country (does anyone really do that anymore?), the supporters use violence, much of it simply appaling, as their vehicle for team support.
Buford's second technique, employed in the middle section, uses a more scholarly approach as the author relates the supporters' behavior to the tenets of modern sociology, especially those that deal with the dynamics of the group or the crowd.
Although possessing a thoroughly interesting subject, especially for Americans whose sports are comparitively homoginized in the face of such thuggery, Buford's somewhat schitzophrenic approach takes away from the novel as a whole. When Buford immerses himself in the thug life, the reader immerses himself, too, thus providing for entertaining and slightly voyeuristic literature. Buford's sociology lesson is boring and repetitive, however, and the incompatible narrative methods keep the book from attaining its full depth.
In all, Buford presents an flawed yet interesting tale about a subject to which few Americans can relate.
Rating: 4
Summary: The View From Inside the Mob
Comment: Bill Buford is now fiction editor for The New Yorker. But for many years he lived in Cambridge, England, where he revived the literary quarterly Granta and brought it to prominence. While residing in Britain, he became fascinated with soccer hooligans, who visited a dreadful wave of violence on cities all over Europe in the 1980s.
There's much to commend Buford's book. The portraits of the people he comes to know are pointed, vivid, and well rounded. He's particularly able as a narrator of violence, carrying the reader along for page after page of his accounts of riots forming and then "coming off."
Much of what's interesting about the book is Buford's account of his own recognition of the inner thug, so to speak. When he begins his story, Buford is full of smug generalities and facile answers. He's sure he knows who the thugs are -- young, unemployed, uneducated yobs -- and why they're wild in the streets -- social protest. Then he begins to meet some of them and enter their social sphere, and realizes he's wrong. Many of them are older than he'd thought, family men with children and decent jobs. They're not protesting anything -- they're fighting because it's fun. And as he gains acceptance among them, Buford realizes that he, too, feels an atavistic thrill when the combat begins.
English readers have suggested that Buford may have been taken in a few times by Brits having some fun with a gullible Yank. That might well be, but most of the book is an eyewitness account. Compelling reading.
Rating: 4
Summary: Good Social Commentary
Comment: I thought this book would simply be a blow-by-blow recitation of the crimes and violence perpetrated by Britain's soccer "hooligans." I was very pleasantly surprised that it turned out to be much, much more. Mr. Buford gives a very nice discussion of the crowd mentality and explains from a first-hand perspective how quickly a large event can turn violent. He also does a nice job of explaining how the social environment in Britain led to the conditions that allowed large number of disaffected young men with few other outlets for their frustrations than Saturday games and riots.
 |
Title: Barmy Army by Dougie Brimson, Brimson ISBN: 0747263051 Publisher: Trafalgar Square Pub. Date: 01 February, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.99 |
 |
Title: Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby ISBN: 1573226882 Publisher: Riverhead Books Pub. Date: 01 March, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro by Joe McGinniss ISBN: 0767905997 Publisher: Broadway Books Pub. Date: 06 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
 |
Title: The Glory Game by Hunter Davies ISBN: 0809293323 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies Pub. Date: 03 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
 |
Title: The Behavior of Law by Donald Black ISBN: 0121026523 Publisher: Academic Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 1980 List Price(USD): $40.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
