The Cephalopod Coffeehouse: May 2015

Welcome one and all to the Cephalopod Coffeehouse, a cozy gathering of book lovers, meeting to discuss their thoughts regarding the tomes they enjoyed most over the previous month.  Pull up a chair, order your cappuccino and join in the fun.  If you wish to add your own review to the conversation, please sign on to the link list at the end of my post.

Title: Among the Thugs 

Author: Bill Buford

via Wikipedia

In the 1980s, soccer's popularity in the United States was growing by leaps and bounds. With the simultaneous rise of youth soccer and cable television, more Americans than ever were becoming aware of a sport with which much of the rest of humanity was already dangerously obsessed.  Exposure to the world's game - known by most as football - brought knowledge of its darker side: hooligans, especially English hooligans.  Football-related violence in England was, we were told, epidemic and uncontrollable.  No American journalist - indeed, perhaps no journalist of any nationality - went to greater lengths to learn about English hooligans than Bill Buford.

Buford spent most of the decade embedding himself in hooligan culture, particularly the Manchester United "firm" known as the Inter-City Jibbers.  Among the Thugs was the end result, a highly disturbing chronicle of the excesses of an unchecked mob.  Buford endured riots and police beatings in his quest to understand the mentality behind the phenomenon.  As upsetting as the gory details frequently are, the book's ultimate power lies in Buford's startling conclusions about the group psychology of the crowd.  In essence, the rioting mob is not the other.  It is us.

This was my second Buford book.  Heat, his exploration of the culinary world, is far less gruesome.  In both cases, his commitment to the project is uncompromising. 

Please join us and share your own review of your best read from the past month.  This month's link list is below.  I'll keep it open until the end of the day.  I'll post June's tomorrow.  Meetings are the last Friday of each month.  Next gathering is June 26th.