Synopses & Reviews
A brilliant and kaleidoscopic exploration of the world’s favorite sport and the passion, hopes, rivalries, superstitions, and global solidarity soccer inspires from award-winning author and Mexico’s leading sports journalist, Juan Villoro.What was the greatest goal of all time? Why do the Hungarians have a more philosophical sense of defeat than the Mexicans? Do the dead play soccer? On a planet where FIFA has more members than the United Nations, Juan Villoro’s examination of soccer and its 3.5 billion-person fandom has stakes beyond those of such playful questions. Soccer is more than just a game; it is a catalyst for panglobal unity and even, Villoro suggests, the “recovery of childhood.”
At once serious and fun-loving, Villoro reports from the last World Cup of the twentieth century, paints portraits of contemporary soccer’s most prominent stars (Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Diego Armando Maradona), chats with Jorge Valdano, and teases out the contradictions of the Spanish league. A book for both soccer fanatics and neophytes who long to feel the delirium of the faithful, God Is Round will keep readers on the edge of their seats and shouting ¡Olé!
Review
“If you want to talk about soccer, go talk to Juan Villoro.”
Review
“In trying times like these, when the anguish and uncertainty can be almost too much to bear, Mexico turns to him, its philosopher-fanatic, to make sense of the seemingly nonsensical. With the nation’s hopes for the World Cup spiraling into doubt and chaos, Juan Villoro, one of Mexico’s most decorated and esteemed writers — who also happens to be a leading soccer analyst—comes charging down the metaphorical field to scold, explain and extract the lessons within.”
Review
“The literature of Juan Villoro… is opening up the path of the new Spanish novel of the millennium.”
Review
“Villoro, a contemporary of Roberto Bolaño, offers a similar style and comic tone, and much to enjoy.”
Review
“Juan Villoro is a novelist, short-story writer, essayist, and chronicler whose work addresses an impressive array of topics with insight, dark humor, and irony: canonical Mexican literature; the Zapatista insurrection in Chiapas; the legacy of Mexico’s Cristero War; the intersections of popular television and fiction genres; and the social and cultural functions of spectator sports like boxing and soccer. A remarkably versatile writer, both in terms of subject matter and genre, Villoro also stands out for his insistently reflective style. His discussion of an issue is also an appraisal, often subtly executed, of how that issue should be or traditionally has been treated.”
Review
“An inheritor of Jorge Ibargu¨engoitia’s sense of humor, Carlos Monsiváis’s acute perception, and Juan Rulfo’s poetic density, Juan Villoro has gracefully established himself as a central figure within Latin American literature. His versatility, evident in his prolific and protean production, is famous in the Spanish-speaking world. From his early short stories to his famous crónicas, from journalistic essays to academic ones, from children’s books to literary translations of German classics, from books on soccer to monumental novels, his capacity to intertwine, in every possible register, political reflections and literary imagination, provides each of his interventions with an impressive poignancy. His work is an exploration into the perverse social fantasies driving Mexico’s violent modern history and leaves nothing untouched.… His work seems today of the utmost relevance.”
Synopsis
A brilliant, kaleidoscopic exploration of soccer--and the passion, hopes, rivalries, superstitions, and global solidarity it inspires--from Juan Villoro, "Mexico's top futbol expert" (NBC News).
On a planet where FIFA has more members than the United Nations and the World Cup is watched by more than three billion people, football is more than just a game. As revered author Juan Villoro argues in this passionate and compulsively readable tribute to the world's favorite sport, football may be the most effective catalyst for panglobal unity at the time when we need it most. (Following global consensus, Villoro uses "football" rather than "soccer" in the book.)
What was the greatest goal of all time? Why do the Hungarians have a more philosophical sense of defeat than the Mexicans? Do the dead play football? In essays ranging from incisive and irreverent portraits of Maradona, Messi, Ronaldo, Pele, Zidane, and many more giants of the game to entertaining explorations of left-footedness and the number 10, Juan Villoro dissects the pleasure and pain of football fandom. God Is Round is a book for both fanatics and neophytes who long to feel the delirium of the faithful.