TITLE = Among the Thugs AUTHOR = Bill Buford PRICE = US$ 14 SIZE = 317 pages YEAR = 1990 SOURCE = www.amazon.com RATING = 1 star
OK, the biggest question was whether this deserves one stars or perhaps
two. Maybe one-and-a-half would be about right. This is typically what you
might expect from some sensationalist journalist writing about soccer
hooligans. Half the time, he's not even vaguely interested in
soccer. He spends a whole chapter describing hanging out at a pub with the
National Front. I suppose his "point" is that all soccer hooligans are
right-wing thugs?!
Some of the writing is fairly interesting, but it fails on
too many accounts. The author doesn't appear to be much of a soccer fan
either, as his main objective appears to be looking for violent idiots and
then smearing soccer fans as a whole.
The book is worth reading if you like sensationalist soccer-smear
campaigns, otherwise don't bother.