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Kick the Balls: An Offensive Suburban Odyssey

Alan Black

Hardcover | Pages: 272 pages

Rating: 3.39 | 130 Users | 37 Reviews

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Title	:	Kick the Balls: An Offensive Suburban Odyssey
Author	:	Alan Black
Book Format	:	Hardcover
Book Edition	:	Anniversary Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 272 pages
Published	:	June 12th 2008 by Hudson Street Press
Categories	:	Sports. Soccer. Nonfiction. Autobiography. Memoir. United States. Humor

Explanation Supposing Books Kick the Balls: An Offensive Suburban Odyssey

Fever Pitch meets Trainspotting in this laugh-outloud, caustic account of one man’s attempt to coach a peewee soccer team

When Alan Black was a child growing up in Glasgow, Scotland, soccer—or what he called fitba’—was the be all and end all. His experience was not the little league, boys-of-summer stuff of modern America. For him, it was life and death. Now middleaged and living in California, Alan finds himself coaching a team of eight-year-olds in his beloved sport—and nothing is going right.

For a start, the kids are no good at soccer. Secondly, they’re pampered. Born and bred on the sport, Black’s hardscrabble Scottish upbringing consisted of playing tough and victory at all costs. Needless to say, his coaching methods are a far cry from the “winning isn’t everything” mentality his little leaguers have been reared with; and players and parents alike are shocked as Black attempts to transform the losing team through drills and bombast. Alone at night, watching evangelicals on TV, Black finds himself searching for some truth in the culture he finds so bizarre. And it’s with the Tigers that he feels most out of sync—faced with a mix of soft suburban children, a raft of overprotective parents, and an Iranian co-coach called Ali. Told with Black’s uproarious Scottish sensibility, Kick the Balls follows the abrasive, irreverent, and hilarious coach as he contends with a team that winds up with a zero-win record.

Both a celebration of his own tough childhood and an account of one man’s navigation of an alien culture, Kick the Balls will delight fans of well-told, laugh-out-loud memoirs.

Define Books In Pursuance Of Kick the Balls: An Offensive Suburban Odyssey

Original Title:	Kick the Balls: An Offensive Suburban Odyssey
ISBN:	159463047X (ISBN13: 9781594630477)
Edition Language:	English

Rating Epithetical Books Kick the Balls: An Offensive Suburban Odyssey

Ratings: 3.39 From 130 Users | 37 Reviews

Rate Epithetical Books Kick the Balls: An Offensive Suburban Odyssey

Quick read, a caustic and biting semi-serious investigation of the 'burbs, soccer moms. Likely offensive for those who enjoy suburban Saturday morning peewee soccer and all the trappings, starbucks and the gap, etc -- but for those less enamored with escaping to the protected edges of polite civilization, Black offers a humorous sociological study, even if some of the reaches for laughs do disarm the very points he seems to be trying to be make. All told, a quick afternoon read, pleasant enough

This wasn't quite as side-splittingly funny as I had expected, but it could be my own fault for having unrealistic expectations. At any rate, it is a funny book and I did enjoy reading it. One thing that particularly pleased me is that Black didn't devolve into an afterschool special type of lesson learned and end up in a warm and fuzzy place. If anything, he worked up toward a fairly lucid and straightforward (as well as funny) assessment of how ridiculous American parenthood/childhood can be

This book started out gangbusters with crisp intelligent writing and a massive load of sarcasm, it was 5 stars, then we were dragged through the 3 then 2 star valley of doom (in itself fine) and repetition. I could not see the point and considered giving up myself. The final act redeemed this book and gives it meaning. The literary beating of the long middle of this book is metaphorically and literally youth sports today.

Alan Blacks hilarious memoir, Kick the Balls, reminded me of George Carlins rants against these last generations of growing-ever-softer, Americans. Blacks counterpoints, recalling the beatings and violence in the neighborhood, in the classroom and on the pitch really illustrate how Hooligans were bred over there in Scotland. Not saying he was one, rather the victim of hard knocks like many of us from that generation here and everywhere.I love his rant on Dockers pants turning a generation of

Not impressed. Too vulgar and unkind for my liking. I know the swearing and over-exaggerated descriptions of the kids he coached are intended to be funny, but I don't see the humor. Too much of this vindictive humor in our world today...didn't even finish the book. Hope he repented and changed his tune at the end, but didn't have the will to continue to read the merciless insults.

A funny look at youth soccer in America from a Scottish immigrant trying to coach a team.

A very funny book about a youth soccer and a coach from Scotland living in San Francisco.Good for a few laugh out loud moments.