Book Passes... Review Scores!

Installment the second

being a review of Ian Buruma’s “Red Card”

being itself a review of a book about soccer nationalism

Although Mr. Buruma seems to highly recommend the book he reviews, actually reading the book is made unnecessary for anyone who reads his review. That’s helpful. One less book that I have to read only to realize, just as my eyes pass over the final words, that it was a complete waste of time. It does sound like a rather interesting subject. We do, after all, live in a today of restrained violence and aversion to the death of enemies. There was a time when people in the streets of London would call you names because of the people you fought in battle. Now it’s all about what soccer team is on your shirt. Of course, we still have wars, but we don’t bond over them with foreign strangers as much as we used to. That is what soccer is for.

As interesting as the subject is (and as many facts as there might be to deepen the interest), it is enough for me to take away only a few of the facts as selected by Mr. Buruma. I’m not going to remember all of these facts anyway, let alone a whole book’s worth of them. I elect to stick to a few curated by someone who knows what they’re talking about.

And the reviewer does seem to think he has a good handle on the book’s subject matter—perhaps an even better handle than the book’s author. It must be nice to have someone else write a book on the subject of your expertise. That way you don’t have to bother with writing it. All you have to do is write a review proving that you could have written it, and then note the little details the book’s author left out. And it’s all a win in the end for Selective Reader when the review delivers the book in a crystal-clear distillate … except that Mr. Buruma did neglect to mention the fact that Australia has a soccer team, too.

But, with the World Cup around the corner, maybe I will read the book—once Mr. Buruma’s facts have carried me as far as they can in polite company …