[Albion] Anyone read the book A Natural by Ross Raisin?

[Monkey Man]

I've just finished it. It's a novel about a gay footballer at a lower-league club and the relationship that he tries to conceal from team-mates, family members etc. It's had pretty good reviews.

The footballer plays for a team referred to only as "Town" but all the other teams that crop up in the story are real. Brighton get a mention, a reference to the homophobic chants that our fans have been treated to over the years.

Some sections of the book are presented as excerpts from the web forum that Town fans inhabit. Some of the posts read like the kind of thing you'd see on NSC or elsewhere but the homophobia that emerges is something you definitely wouldn't see on here without it being closed down pretty quickly and the perpetrator banned. So that element of the book jarred with me a bit, as did a lot of the casual anti-gay "banter" among the players and the heckling from fans. But maybe we're just lucky to support a club where that kind of thing is seen as part of the dark ages, along with racism and the like.

Anyway, it's an interesting read, partly for the way it deals with the issue of footballers coming out (or not), but also an insight into life as a lower-league player. It feels like the author has done a lot of research.

 

[schmunk]

It sounds like a very currant story.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Any relation to Susan Sultana?

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Some sections of the book are presented as excerpts from the web forum that Town fans inhabit. Some of the posts read like the kind of thing you'd see on NSC or elsewhere but the homophobia that emerges is something you definitely wouldn't see on here without it being closed down pretty quickly and the perpetrator banned. So that element of the book jarred with me a bit.

It jarred with you because NSC is your reference point. If you've ever clicked through the links people have posted to threads about us on forums like Huddersfield, Burnley, Palace, etc, you'd probably feel that the author's imagined forum is sadly, fairly realistic.

 

[Monkey Man]

It jarred with you because NSC is your reference point. If you've ever clicked through the links people have posted to threads about us on forums like Huddersfield, Burnley, Palace, etc, you'd probably feel that the author's imagined forum is sadly, fairly realistic.

Yeah, that's what I was hoping wouldn't be the case but you're probably right.

It's not easy being part of the metropolitan liberal elite ... you miss so much of what's going on in the real world.

 

[schmunk]

It jarred with you because NSC is your reference point. If you've ever clicked through the links people have posted to threads about us on forums like Huddersfield, Burnley, Palace, etc, you'd probably feel that the author's imagined forum is sadly, fairly realistic.

Yes, we're a right bunch of wet pinko liberals here (with a few notable exceptions...)

 

[catfish]

I read it last year and really enjoyed it but I've got a memory like a sieve and am strugggling to recall much about it.

 

[Spanish Seagulls]

It's a bit gay, just a bit. And why not.

 

[The Optimist]

So that element of the book jarred with me a bit, as did a lot of the casual anti-gay "banter" among the players and the heckling from fans. But maybe we're just lucky to support a club where that kind of thing is seen as part of the dark ages, along with racism and the like.

Why did the casual anti-gay banter among the players jar? Unfortunately that’s exactly what I’d guess goes on during training at a lot of clubs.

 

[blue'n'white]

I read it but cannot remember too much about it - will have to reread

 

[Monkey Man]

Why did the casual anti-gay banter among the players jar? Unfortunately that’s exactly what I’d guess goes on during training at a lot of clubs.

I don't know, maybe I'm just never in an environment where I hear that kind of stuff. But then I'm not a footballer, although I am a member of the metropolitan elite, and a snowflake to boot.

 

[Palacefinder General]

No, I haven't read it

 

[darkwolf666]

I read it last year and really enjoyed it but I've got a memory like a sieve and am strugggling to recall much about it.

I thought as much, you've clearly forgotten you owe me a tenner

 

[kemptown kid]

Read and enjoyed it, but rate his other one - God's Own Country - a grisly North Yorkshire Wasp Factory style novel - higher.