Tariq
Goddard, Sceptre, 2003, £12.99
pb, 274pp,
0-340-821480
In Moscow
in 1938 the Beautiful Game (aka football or soccer) is a matter of political
interest. But for the players of Spartak it is a passion and a way of
life. When they are asked to lose the
game to Dynamo, the team has a hard choice. The NKVD - forerunners of the KGB –
run Dynamo, and it may be the real game is actually life or death, not
football.
There’s
probably not enough football to make this book a love-match for footie
fans. Instead Goddard focuses on
Spartak, their lives and their dilemmas. Also featured is the horrific Grotsky,
manager of Dynamo, who is a cruel brute, though some of his behaviour is
explained. The private lives of the characters are expertly contrasted with the
deadly dynamics of politics. The Spartak team have a strong group ethos, and
there is an overwhelming sense they are living on borrowed time. Many are
trapped in the past, but the future is too uncertain to anticipate. Goddard’s
dialogue is believable, there’s an easy stream of consciousness, and the
players are suitably raucous. Much is
left unresolved at the end of the story, however the last lines are apt.