Season is the story of two characters, the Old Man and the Young Man, who find themselves sitting next to each other each week and develop a slow companionship. The Old Man is struggling with age and the decline of his wife, while the Young Man is fatherless, in a new relationship with a troubled girlfriend and struggling to find his goal in life.
The novel is cleverly structured, having a chapter for each of the 38 games in a Premier League season. It's based loosely around Harrison's team of Norwich City, though they are never named. To make it generic he uses the nationalities of those involved rather than names. The team is managed by the German and the players are the Norwegian, the Finn, the Englishman, the Irishman, the Argentinian, the Dutchman and so on.
There's even a relegation struggle to make us feel at home and a trip to a corporate bowl in London, though the suggestion is the home fans are not too friendly. Really it's a book about loneliness, dodgy refs and the rituals of football. To use my quote on the back cover it, "perfectly captures the comforting rituals of football for taciturn males, both old and young." Though obviously none of my football gang would ever sublimate their emotions in favour of discussing football trivia over a post-match pint.
Season has already received good reviews in the Daily Telegraph, the Mail on Sunday and the Irish Times and is well worth a read during this fortnight free of West Ham action.
1 comment:
Sounds interesting. If he writes three sequels he could call it the Four Seasons
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