Playing the Moldovans at Tennis
4 journalers for this copy...
different cover
TBR. Thanks to Jenatleisure for this!
Picked up from maid-of-kent when we visited last weekend, as I needed something nice and easy for the plane back. As with the other Tony Hawks that I read (the one with the fridge), this pretty much did the trick.
In this one, Tony makes the utterly stupid bet that he can play every single player of the Moldovan football team at tennis, and beat them. Not only does this involve beating 11 elite sportsman (albeit in a different sport, and not that elite), there's also the small matter of finding them and convincing them to play him. So, armed with nothing more than 11 name, off sets Tony Hawks to get himself invited into Moldova and behave like a complete fool in fron of a nation.
What follows is the loveliest story of a rich Westerner in piss-poor, and rather drab, Moldova. With a little help from friends he makes, not to mention his interpreter, he slowly makes headway; both in challenging the footballers and winning the hearts of Moldovans (or, at least, the Moldovan family he stays with). It'd be a shame to reveal whether he wins the bet or not, but I can say that he brings a little light into the lives for two Moldovan kids, which really does melt your heart. Especially when, in the epilogue, the teenager reveals that Tony is now his hero...
It's actually quite an impressive book: funny, yet quite sad when describing the rotten lifes that Moldovans. I really hope that, 10 years later, the Moldovan government is not quite as corrupt and incompetent and people's lifes are more like ours!
As for the book, I shall probably release it in the pub, fittingly while the Dutch football team is performing better than the Moldovan one, hopefully winning the World Cup Final...
In this one, Tony makes the utterly stupid bet that he can play every single player of the Moldovan football team at tennis, and beat them. Not only does this involve beating 11 elite sportsman (albeit in a different sport, and not that elite), there's also the small matter of finding them and convincing them to play him. So, armed with nothing more than 11 name, off sets Tony Hawks to get himself invited into Moldova and behave like a complete fool in fron of a nation.
What follows is the loveliest story of a rich Westerner in piss-poor, and rather drab, Moldova. With a little help from friends he makes, not to mention his interpreter, he slowly makes headway; both in challenging the footballers and winning the hearts of Moldovans (or, at least, the Moldovan family he stays with). It'd be a shame to reveal whether he wins the bet or not, but I can say that he brings a little light into the lives for two Moldovan kids, which really does melt your heart. Especially when, in the epilogue, the teenager reveals that Tony is now his hero...
It's actually quite an impressive book: funny, yet quite sad when describing the rotten lifes that Moldovans. I really hope that, 10 years later, the Moldovan government is not quite as corrupt and incompetent and people's lifes are more like ours!
As for the book, I shall probably release it in the pub, fittingly while the Dutch football team is performing better than the Moldovan one, hopefully winning the World Cup Final...
Reserved for ComradeCamper.
Released 13 yrs ago (7/31/2010 UTC) at Cambridge, Cambridgeshire United Kingdom
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Sent to ComradeCamper. Hope you enjoy it :-)
This book arrived in today's mail, to my great delight. Thanks so much, RonOren!
I read "Round Ireland with a Fridge", and enjoyed it very much -- but somehow hadn't made the connection that this was the same author. Duh.
It sounds like this book is in a similar vein to the Fridge book, but maybe with a little more heart, so I'm already sure I'm going to like it.
I read "Round Ireland with a Fridge", and enjoyed it very much -- but somehow hadn't made the connection that this was the same author. Duh.
It sounds like this book is in a similar vein to the Fridge book, but maybe with a little more heart, so I'm already sure I'm going to like it.
