JEAN-PHILLIPPE TOUSSAINT — SOCCER

Lightweight stuff about a game and, more often, its adjacent experiences. Philosophical padding. Might have liked it more if it weren’t such a watered-down version of what Gerald Murnane did with Something for the Pain: A Memoir of the Turf. Then again, I have no great love for soccer, so maybe I’m biased. Great cover design, though. 

I gave the novel to my oldest friend because I thought he’d get it in a way I probably didn’t.