But while those books look at a single consciousness, “The Throwback Special” is about the ways men blend together when they interact with each other. But in being neither of those well-known pursuits, it allows for sly new questions to be asked about men’s relationship to sports, to violence, to nostalgia and to one another.Īt times “The Throwback Special” conjures the meolancholy tone of Richard Ford’s Frank Bascombe novels. The book’s central activity combines two forms of especially male obsession: the mental escapism of fantasy sports and the tactile fetishism of Civil War re-enactments. Bachelder observes their 16 th annual meeting with a mixture of affection and befuddlement. In Chris Bachelder’s wistful and elegant new novel, “The Throwback Special,” a group of middle-age men gather each year to recreate the gruesome play. Witnessing the injury became a long-term trauma for many viewers. In 1985, during a Monday Night Football game, Lawrence Taylor of the New York Giants sacked Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann, badly breaking Theismann’s leg and ending his career. John Williams from the New York Times checks out Chris Bachelder’s new novel “The Throwback Special” in NY1’s The Book Reader.
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