The Throwback Special

From “a real force in American fiction” (Sam Lipsyte), a startlingly original novel about the psyche of the American Male. The Throwback Special is the story of twenty-two ordinary guys who gather each fall to reenact what ESPN has called “the most shocking play in NFL history”: the November 1985 play in which Joe Theismann of the Washington Redskins had his leg horribly broken by Lawrence Taylor of the New York Giants on Monday Night Football. (The play was known by the Redskins as “the Throwback Special.”) Over the course of a weekend we follow the men as they choose roles; spend a long night of the soul revealing their secret hopes, fears, and passions as they prepare for the game; and finally enact their strange and yet oh-so-American ritual for what may be the last time. With his trademark “microfine sense of humor and tragic sense of history” (Michael Chabon), Chris Bachelder fills his moving and very funny tale with pitch-perfect observations about manhood, marriage, and middle age.