You might have heard of the movie starring Burt Reynolds. Maybe you've seen the book mentioned on Sports Illustrated's top 100 sports books. Either way you have it, Dan Jenkins' Semi-Tough is an important piece of literature for the sports genre, especially for football.
The novel is about a fictional season with the New York Giants, narrated by Giants player Billy Clyde Puckett. Billy Clyde isn't a writer - in fact, the way Semi-Tough is written is pretty rough, structurally and vocabulary-wise. Puckett isn't studious, and he's actually recording his words instead of writing them. He's following his season with the Giants and their work heading to the Super Bowl against the Jets, and he sure does party. Much of Semi-Tough consists of ridiculous hijinks leading up to the game, rather than the game itself; but don't get me wrong, Jenkins' doesn't shy away from football talk, and he shows he knows what he's writing about,
One of the most enthralling parts of Semi-Tough is character description. Almost impossibly, each character on the Giants team (plus characters that aren't really a part of football) is different. They're not just football players - they're nasty, bad-acting, and stereotypical football players. Jenkins mocks both the stereotypes associated with players and the players themselves, citing that both are exaggerated to some degree.
It's not really the story that keeps the reader going, although the plot is very strong too. What's more entertaining is the sarcasm that Jenkins writes into the story on the football culture. Everything is exaggerated - the parties, the women, the players, the fans, the pre- and post-game rituals. Nothing is left out, and Jenkins knows just what to say to both give the reader a laugh and to also get them thinking.
At the end, the reader is left missing both the characters and the environment Jenkins created. It would seem that, from a synopsis, Semi-Tough would be a light, fluffy reading that leaves no real taste in the mouth. It is true that Semi-Tough is a quick and easy read, but Jenkins wasn't banking on the fact that his novel would be a work of literary genius. He set out to bring the exaggerations and stereotypes -- the ridiculousness of a sports culture -- to the surface, to bring about thought and laughter, and writing for Billy Clyde Puckett, he manages to "semi-succeed."
Article comments
1 - Timbuk3
I did in fact read this book, at least as much of it as I could stomach. I played in an adult football league and live and breath football but that doesn't mean that I enjoy this collection of endless racial epithets and insults. Perhaps this book was funny in the Archie Bunker 70's but by today's standards, it is shockingly horrid and not a bit funny.