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By Guest
Reviewer/Laurel Meadows
WHEN regular reviewer Karen
O’Keefe received Stephen Rea’s book Finn McCool’s Football Club: The Birth,
Death and Resurrection of a Pub Soccer Team in the City of the Dead, she
immediately judged the book by its cover and assumed it was about football. As
Karen has no interest in football, American or The Beautiful Game, she promptly
mailed Rea’s book to me, a card-carrying Pompey supporter.
Rea’s book grabbed me from the opening
paragraph, with its first-hand accounts of surviving Hurricane Katrina and its
terrible aftermath. The book may begin with a hurricane, but the real story
does not.
Imagine, if you will, moving to a new home in
a new country with your new wife. Now imagine that you have chosen to move to a
city that is arguably the most difficult to outgrow being an “outsider.” After
freelance writer Stephen Rea had travelled the world a bit, and was ready for a
change, he and his wife Julie packed up and moved to New Orleans. That is where
the real story begins. Rea and his wife have come to remember those
early days as “the good ’ol days” in comparison with what was to follow.
After leaving Rea’s native Northern Ireland,
he and his “ever-chilled” (as in “pass me another jumper”) wife Julie, settled
in New Orleans, a city they had both visited, but one in which they had never
lived. While Julie started a new job, Stephen worked on writing a comedic novel
set in The City of the Dead, completing 100,000 words.
But, he realized, something was missing:
friends. Getting a bit of cabin fever, he succumbed to the call of his lifelong
passion: football. Finding an “over 40s” team was difficult, but eventually
Rea succeeded. His new team’s routine was simple: show up to pitch, play game,
and leave pitch until next practice. There was none of the good-natured banter
and camaraderie he was used to back home.
Although Rea had not wanted to fall back on
the ubiquitous Irish Pub, he found himself at Finn McCool’s Irish Pub, a bit of
home in New Orleans. Everyone was welcome there, no matter which colours they
wore. Even better, Finn’s was starting a football club... for “Over 40s”... an
answer to Rea’s prayer.
Time passed, and Finn’s Football Club (FC)
was days away from its first real match when Katrina began its rainy approach.
Although they watched the news with the rest of us, they, like the rest of us,
thought the storm would pass without much fanfare. Obviously they, like the
rest of us, were sorely mistaken.
The close-knit mates of Finn McCool’s FC rode
out Katrina, some in Houston, some still in New Orleans. Although Rea’s book
has football as a continuing thread, it’s not a football book. Although
Hurricane Katrina is a strong player, Rea’s book is also not another depressing
“I survived the Mother-of-all-Hurricanes” book. It is a book about friends and
friendships new, old, and undiscovered. And it’s about what is important in
life. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, as will you. And Karen is now sorry she
judged this book by its cover.
About the Author: Stephen Rea has been a
freelance writer for the past 20 years. He owned a travel agency in Northern
Ireland for 12 years, giving him the opportunity to travel to all seven
continents, all 50 US states, and many countries around the world. Rea and his
wife Julie continue to live in New Orleans.
Until next month...
Please email Laurel at
laurelmeadows@gmail.com or visit
her website at www.tiggrztravels.blogspot.com
or listen to her podcast
Boise and Beyond, available on iTunes. You may email Karen at
okeefekg@gmail.com
or visit her website
at www.snark-hunter.com.
Link to previous reviews -
January 2009 February 2009
March 2009
April 2009
May 2009
June 2009
July 2009
August 2009
September 2009 |
