A Fan's Notes - Softcover

Exley, Frederick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0224059319 ISBN 13: 9780224059312

Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press, 1999

Synopsis

The narrator of this tale is the ultimate unreconstructed male. his primary concerns are booze, sex and the New York Giants. But things go very wrong for him - he drinks too much, he's impotent, and the Giants start to lose. So we follow his trail, through failed marriages, to mental hospital.

About this title

Review

Frederick Exley recounts his life as the son of a hero-worshipped high school athlete who is doomed to be a spectator not only of sports, but of life. From irresponsible drifter, to dreamer of impossible dreams, to drunkard, to frequent patient at an asylum, Exley carried baggage from his childhood through much of his adult life, never feeling he could escape the dark cloud of expectation that hung over him. When Frank Gifford, former New York Giants backfield star, is injured, Exley is jolted into painful realisations about his life and a confession.

Review

"A Fan's Notes is one man's life written with brilliance and insight. No one should have had Exley's life, and no one who has read it can forget it" (James Dickey)

"Writers of every kind of aesthetic and cultural persuasion talk about it and press it on their friends. When I urge it on a friend who asks what it is about or what it is like, I say read it, just read it" (Geoffrey Wolff)

"Astonishing... It is visceral and intimate. Self-absorbed, it is also searingly perceptive about what happens between fathers and sons, men and women" (Independent)

Edition details

• Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0224059319
• ISBN 13: 9780224059312
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 396