June 14, 2004
St. John's account of following the University of Alabama's football team as a part of the team's fanatical legion of tailgaters is just as much fun as the book's title (words to a school chant). As St. John, an Alabama native who writes for the New York Times
, tries to join Bama RV nation, he spends five months obsessing about every tiny detail associated with Alabama football and, in the process, comes into contact with a slew of good ol' boys, well-to-do entrepreneurs and the most hated man in Alabama. Despite his own passion for Bama football, St. John is an outsider and must go to the extreme, like buying his own dilapidated RV (astutely nicknamed "The Hawg"), to be completely accepted by the hardcore RV-owning regulars. Driving the country roads from Gainesville to Nashville, St. John uncovers the ugly, quirky and splendid qualities of both football fans and the states below the Mason-Dixon line. But this book is more than a beer and barbecue–fueled travelogue. St. John also explores the sociological and physical effects of being a rabid sports fan. These journalistic asides contrast nicely with St. John's superstitious, obsessed sports-fan persona, which rules much of this amusing and insightful book. Agent, Elyse Cheney.
July 1, 2004
In these books, authors St. John and Glennon follow two football teams-the University of Alabama and the New England Patriots, respectively-through a dramatic season, hoping along the way to do a pop cultural, anthropological study of the American fan. As a result of their reporting among the faithful, we learn that fans can often be truly fanatical, but anyone hoping for deep insights into their psychology will be disappointed. Both books are essentially entertaining romps, with New York Times reporter St. John hanging with the RV tailgater crowd following the Crimson Tide and Boston-area journalist Glennon watching Patriots games with groups of women fans, at gay bars, and in a Sears electronics department. (St. John, who bought an RV for the book, does speak briefly about the history and social psychology of fans and crowds.) Despite all the fun the authors seem to have in their travels, they note some disturbing tendencies among many fans: large-scale drunkenness, racism, and homophobia, and a strong "us/them" mentality, causing St. John to note that "being a sports fan is as much about opposing as advocating." Still, both authors portray a football game as a pretty perfect place to be on an autumn weekend, and both books are recommended for medium to large public libraries, especially those in Alabama and New England.-Jim Burns, Jacksonville P.L., FL
Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
February 1, 2005
Adult/High School -With the intent of investigating hard-core "fandom" in all its extreme manifestations, St. John, an Alabama native and lifelong fan of the Crimson Tide, spent a season commingling with those who trail this college football team from stadium to stadium. He purchased a motor home and joined the dedicated crowd that often arrived for the Saturday game on Wednesday, jamming the roadways of the host town and jockeying for prime parking in lots where they quickly deployed all of the amenities of ongoing tailgate parties. The narrative is lively and entertaining, punctuated by rich regional speech patterns and sports-related profanity. A modest amount of space is devoted to analyzing fan moods/behaviors from a sociological standpoint (why fandom "is as much about opposing as advocating"), but the greater portion of the book consists of memorably drawn portraits of the regulars in the crowd, including a couple who skipped their daughter's wedding because it conflicted with a game. The coach, the team, their stats, and headline-generating plays are certainly on scene, but it is the fan action that St. John captures with empathy and wit." -Lynn Nutwell, Fairfax City Regional Library, VA"
Copyright 2005 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from July 1, 2004
Wearing a " very "thin veneer of journalistic detachment, veteran reporter St. John decided to follow his beloved Alabama Crimson Tide football team during the 1999 season, intrigued by one couple who chose an Alabama game over their daughter's wedding (they made the reception). The team slogan, "Roll Tide," is coin of the realm here, and the author uses it liberally to insinuate himself into a large, highly individuated group of RVers who follow their team each week from stadium lot to stadium lot throughout the Deep South. With perfect balance and deadpan humor--think " Ball Four--"St. John brings a journalist's clarified sense of detail and narration to his story, both the unfolding of the Alabama season and his slow-developing but enduring friendships within the RV community. The portraits of his fellow Bama fans are sharp, sneaky-funny, but not unlovingly drawn. But he just can't help himself: he is forever a fan, subject to every quicksilver high and low, every triumph and indignity and cosmic mystery that befall the rest of us. He never professes to completely understand the nature of being a fan, though he reveals here and there, as if by accident, some simple truths. "I chose Alabama the way a baby bird chooses its mother," he offers at one point. "It was the first thing I saw."(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)
October 4, 2004
St. John, a New York Times
reporter and native Alabaman, explores the nature of extreme sports fandom in this compelling and funny audiobook. Over the course of five months, St. John follows the University of Alabama's football team in his own RV and connects with the "RV culture," fans for whom game day is simply the focal point of a celebration that can last for days. Some of the fans he encounters are indeed extreme—like the couple that skipped their daughter's wedding because it took place on game day, or the man who risks having his name taken off a heart transplant list, declaring "If I can't go to Alabama football games, what's the point in living?" But St. John's focus is less on these eccentric characters than on the general culture, in which football fetishism has been completely integrated into everyday life. St. John has a pronounced lisp, which is jarring at first, but it quickly becomes endearing. And while his character voices all sound like variations on the loud-dumb-Southern-guy theme, he approaches his narration with the gusto and enthusiasm of a fervent fan, which succeeds in getting listeners into the spirit of this fun, insightful tale. Simultaneous release with the Crown hardcover (Forecasts, June 14).