TOW 4- IRB

The book Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby has struck close to home with me. Nick Hornby has written a number of best-sellers and in this book he recounts the origin of his obsession with football and the effect that it has had on his life. He explains that his parents’ separation was the instigation of his obsession because football provided a “medium for communication” between him and his father. In Hornby’s book Fever Pitch, Nick attempts to explain how what started as a normal liking of a sport spiraled into an all-controlling obsession that has shaped his relationships with others and commanded his free time through the use of seemingly unintentional hyperboles and humor. His audience is anyone who has background knowledge about the game of soccer and could potentially share some similar experiences with him.

Hornby employs a humorous tone from the very start. He introduces himself as a deeply devoted fan who can think of nothing besides football. The introduction begins with a scene of him drinking his morning tea and visualizing over and over again an amazing goal he saw many years ago. Throughout the book, Hornby expresses his utter desperation and depression that resulted from his team’s poor record. He describes attending a soccer game to be “entertainment as pain” (Hornby 21) that was filled with “faces contorted by rage or despair or frustration” (Hornby 21). He gives the word “fan” a negative connotation and then continues to describe his utter obsession with football, even though it brings him so much pain and frustration. This shows the reader that his obsession is not made up and is not heightened, it is real and credible and noteworthy. He states that men with the same addiction as him “become repressed, they fail in their relationships with women...they cannot relate to their children, and they die lonely and miserable” (Hornby 23). This hyperbolic statement successfully communicates his message that his obsession has controlled and stifled his ability to establish and maintain relationships with others. Later on in the book, Hornby describes the time when his parents’ divorce was being finalized. His father visits in an attempt to cheer him up but is actually “praying even harder than usual for a home win” (Hornby 34) because they both “knew that to a large extent [his] father’s mission depended not on his ability to reassure or persuade but on the news from north London.” (Hornby 34). This is another example of a natural hyperbole used by Hornby. At this moment, his parents’ pending divorce is not what will upset him and his father can do nothing to cheer him up because his desperation stems from his concern about the result of the Arsenal match. Hornby’s use of hyperboles and humor succeeds in communicating his message about the detrimental and beneficial effects of his obsession on his life.