The blurb for John Patrick McHugh’s Fun and Games came garlanded with praise from a slew of starry Irish literary names, not least Sally Rooney. I often wonder how that might feel for a writer; a kind of euphoric anxiety, perhaps. Set in the summer of 2009, McHugh’s novel follows seventeen-year-old John and his footballing mates, all four determined to play for their club in the Championship.
Life careened into you and there was nothing you could do about it and so what was the point? Life, he wrote in a notebook, was pointless! He wrote: I hate my family and I hate my life!
Even before his mother inadvertently texted a picture of her breasts to the wrong person, becoming the talk of the Island, John spent much of his time consumed with social anxiety, second guessing his every move not least with Amber, his colleague at the hotel where he’s working over the summer, definitely not his girlfriend but they seem to secretly hook up more and more. His father has moved out at his mother’s request but he still relies on them both to ferry him back and forth to his job and training practice. John’s thoughts are fully taken up with himself – his prospects with the team and Amber, what his friends think of him, how horrible his body is in comparison with theirs – leaving little room for his parents or his sister, about to get married, or any troubles that Amber might have. As the summer wears on, he’s faced with a few home truths, coming close to thinking about other people and their problems.
In his heart, John could thus argue he had protected Amber and the sanctity of them. John could feel less bad and once you begin to feel less bad, you basically have washed the error and the fault away.
I wasn’t sure if I would stick with McHugh’s novel at first; there are some lengthy football passages, not something I’m at all interested in. That said, John’s character drew me in to this funny, poignant coming-of-age story which smartly nails late adolescence with all its excruciating discomforts. Oblivious to the difficulties of everyone around him, John agonises over texts sent, replies received and not received while labouring over witticisms he plans to deliver. His parents are loving and solicitous of him yet he’s only concerned with how their split will affect him. He wants Amber but looks down his nose at her, lies to his friends and endlessly self-dramatizes. It’s a tribute to McHugh’s characterisation that he managed to engage my sympathy for John let alone have me rooting for him. His novel lived up to all those starry puffs for me, and its ending is a masterstroke.
4th Estate Books: London 9780008517342 272 pages Hardback (Read via NetGalley)
Like you, I’m not going to be reeled in by a novel about football. But you’ve made it seem so much more than that, and having two grandsons only a little older than John, one football mad, encourages me to think this might after all be a book for me.
McHugh’s clearly a big football fan! Much of that went over my head but it’s more about John and his relationships. Hope you enjoy it if you do decide to take the plunge.
I’m certainly willing to give it a go. I can Phone a Friend (my grandson) if I get bogged down in football detail .
I’m sure he’ll happily help you out!
I feel like I would struggle with John, but you have convinced me to give him a chance!
He’s essentially a likeable character but struggling with his adolescent self!
The football aspect doesn’t really appeal to me, but I have heard great things and your review makes it seem worth checking out.
I’m really glad I got over my football antipathy, Cathy. It was well worth it.
Ha, I have zero interest in football in real life but I love sports novels so this appeals! It sounds like it might sit alongside Ross Raisin’s A Natural.
I know little or nothing about football and it is a bit technical at the beginning which is why I toyed with giving it up. I’ve not read anything by Raisin since God’s Own Country when he was the latest bright young thing!
I thought I’d read all his stuff, but it turns out he has a relatively new novel out – A Hunger.
Sounds wrenching but the reviews are persuasive. Adding it to my list.
Not sure this one is for me. It’s football championship season at moment in Ireland and it’s enough to be hearing about it on media etc. McHugh is an up and coming young writer so it’s good to see him getting support from more established writers.
Football seems to have become a year-round sport or so it seems to me. He deserves all that praise!
I really love it when a book that has a sports component (or a writer returns to a sports theme, like Nick Hornby with his book/reading essays) still manages to hold my interest. Despite all that natural resistance. eheh
I’m sure Nick Hornby would love this one. I learnt to get over that natural resistance after reading Chad Hardbach’s brilliant The Art of Fielding.
That is EXACTLY the book I had in mind, but although I could picture the cover, I couldn’t fetch either title or author. /excessivebowing
A very familiar feeling! I keep hoping for another from him.
I’m taking it seriously that this got past your football censor, lol. I found adolescent boys dull and annoying when I was growing up with them and I’m not generally drawn to novels in which they star! (David Nicholls’ Starter for Ten being the exception that proves the rule.) But if you liked it then I would definitely run my eyes over it in a bookstore and see how the prose sat with me. I know I’m getting old when I look at this cover and feel that I’ve seen enough snogging covers to last me a lifetime!
Not the most attractive cover, it has to be said, and I did have to work hard to get through the football. For all his self- absorption, though, John turned out to be an endearing character. Those starry Irish names didn’t let me down!
I wasn’t so sure this would work for me; but you’ve made it sound so good and made me curious about the ending too!
Me, neither – all that football – but I’m glad I stuck with it. Bit of a teaser about the ending!