Fever Pitch

The brief Introduction to Fever Pitch begins with an anecdote describing a contemporary morning in the life of author Nick Hornby. As he and his partner sip their morning tea, she asks what he is thinking about, and he is forced to lie, arguing that “obsessives have no choice; they have to lie on occasions like this” (2). If obsessives told the truth every time, he says, then “we would be unable to maintain relationships with anyone from the real world” (2). Hornby’s thoughts in that moment are actually about football, and more specifically about Arsenal Football Club, but to admit that would mean that his Arsenal fandom is really an unnatural obsessiveness with the club.

The obsessive nature of fandom is the overarching theme of Fever Pitch, and how that obsession has affected Hornby’s life is a primary focus. With the remainder of the Introduction, Hornby explains how Fever Pitch came about and what he feels the book’s purpose is, writing that it “is an attempt to gain some kind of an angle on my obsession” (3). The book is about being a fan and was written with ordinary fans in mind, and it “is an exploration of some of the meanings that football seems to contain for many of us” (3).