The Throwback Special: A Novel The Throwback Special: A Novel

The Throwback Special: A Novel

    • 3.8 • 29 Ratings
    • $11.99
    • $11.99

Publisher Description

Finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction

Winner of The Paris Review's Terry Southern Prize for Humor


"Chris Bachelder is a witty, compassionate troublemaker, and we need more like him." —George Saunders

Here is the absorbing story of twenty-two men who gather every fall to painstakingly reenact what ESPN called “the most shocking play in NFL history” and the Washington Redskins dubbed the “Throwback Special”: the November 1985 play in which the Redskins’ Joe Theismann had his leg horribly broken by Lawrence Taylor of the New York Giants live on Monday Night Football.

With wit and great empathy, Chris Bachelder introduces us to Charles, a psychologist whose expertise is in high demand; George, a garrulous public librarian; Fat Michael, envied and despised by the others for being exquisitely fit; Jeff, a recently divorced man who has become a theorist of marriage; and many more. Over the course of a weekend, the men reveal their secret hopes, fears, and passions as they choose roles, spend a long night of the soul preparing for the play, and finally enact their bizarre ritual for what may be the last time. Along the way, mishaps, misunderstandings, and grievances pile up, and the comforting traditions holding the group together threaten to give way.

The Throwback Special is a moving and comic tale filled with pitch-perfect observations about manhood, marriage, middle age, and the rituals we all enact as part of being alive.

GENRE
Fiction & Literature
RELEASED
2016
March 14
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
224
Pages
PUBLISHER
W. W. Norton & Company
SELLER
W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
SIZE
1.5
MB

Customer Reviews

wideread ,

Amazing

I have no interest in the sport, but was absolutely captivated by the characters and the writing, and it helped my understanding of the male species!

Trizza21 ,

It’s not about the football

This book sent me down a rabbit hole of reading all of Bachelder before I knew it I reached the end and wanted more. His timing and story telling is amazing. I’d say The Throwback Special and Abbott Awaits might be two of my favorite books of any I read in the last few years.

More Books Like This

Shift Shift
2020
Beggar's Garden Beggar's Garden
2011
Floating Dragon Floating Dragon
1983
The Good Body The Good Body
2010
Less Than Human Less Than Human
2019
The Grand Tour The Grand Tour
2016

More Books by Chris Bachelder

Bear v. Shark Bear v. Shark
2002
Dayswork: A Novel Dayswork: A Novel
2023
L’infortunio L’infortunio
2017
A propósito de Abbott A propósito de Abbott
2012

Customers Also Bought

O Beautiful O Beautiful
2021
Reservoir 13 Reservoir 13
2017
When We Were Sisters When We Were Sisters
2022
The Privileges The Privileges
2010
The Class of '65 The Class of '65
2015
July, July July, July
2002