The Football Factory
The Football Factory
by John King
Vintage $90
John King's cult novel was published in 1997, and has been re-released to coincide with the film version. It's a testosterone-fuelled odyssey with hooligans as they brawl their way around England's Premier League football grounds. The central character is Chelsea supporter Tom Johnson. He's an aggressive, hardcore fan who's also successful, attractive, well groomed and intelligent. The plot is a slice-of-life series of vignettes in which Tom comments on the nature of violence and whether there's a place for it in society. King paints a depressing picture of British heterosexual males (women don't figure strongly in the book) reminiscent of the film Fight Club, his theory being that men fight just because they feel the urge within.