St. John of the Midfield [Paperback]

Garasamo Maccagnone (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 12, 2007

Garasamo Maccagnone is a writer of great literary range. Page One Literary Review

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Born in 1959, Garasamo Maccagnone studied literature and journalism at Macomb College, Wayne State University, and Western Michigan University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: BookSurge Publishing (November 12, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1419678795
• ISBN-13: 978-1419678790
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,573,199 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Youth soccer and the mafia combined for an excellent read, January 28, 2008

By 

Cheryl C. Malandrinos "johnnycat15" (Western Mass) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: St. John of the Midfield (Paperback)

Powerful, thought-provoking, and filled with the love of the game, "St. John of the Midfield" by Garasamo Maccagnone is a literary fiction lover's dream.

Told entirely as a flashback, Mario Santini begins by retelling the story of the night Bulgarian soccer great Georgi "Bobo" Stoikov shared with him how he and his brother, Jordan, jumped from a speeding train to escape Communist Bulgaria in the hopes of living the American Dream. All is lost when Jordan and Bobo are injured during the escape, but Bobo satisfies his love of the game by teaching youth soccer to travel teams. When Mario's son Luca joins Bobo's team, it sets in motion an intense one-sided rivalry between Bobo and a man from his past, which ultimately leads to Bobo's death.

As a parent to a son who played youth sports, I can attest to the realism found within the pages of "St. John of the Midfield"--when the desire to win is so strong, that people do unspeakable things all in the name of victory. Opening the story with Bobo telling the story of his defection to Mario is pure genius, as it immediately draws the reader in and makes Bobo a sympathetic character. And the challenges Mario deals with as he tries to be a good man despite the ties to his Sicilian crime family, speak eloquently to the struggles all people deal with as they move through life. While a little heavy on the similies for my taste, this is an excellent read.

In "St. John of the Midfield" Garasamo Maccagnone combines youth soccer, the Sicilian mob, and the frailities of the human condition to create an entertaining and all too realistic portrait of youth sports that all adults will enjoy.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shattered Illusions, January 17, 2008

By 

Erika Borsos "pepper flower" (Gulf Coast of FL, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: St. John of the Midfield (Paperback)

What on the surface looks like a book about coaching soccer, its importance in the life of an adolescent and the effects on the family when a child belongs to a sports team grows into a book about life altering experiences which impact everyone involved. The book is about competition, loss, love, betrayal, murder, violence, and redemption. Most readers will be hooked within the first five pages. Garasamo Maccagnone writes a powerfully moving novel which leaves a huge impact on the reader toward the end when a number of unexpected events from various subplots within the novel intersect. The surprise ending hits the reader like a ton of bricks. It is totally unanticipated, coming out of the blue. What becomes crystal clear is how the family becomes the main priorty as the the subplots are resolved and interwoven into the main storyline.

The story is told in the second person, by Mario whose son Luca joins a soccer team coached by a once famous world champion soccer player from Bulgaria named Georgi "Bobo" Stoikov. Bobo and his brother Jordan narrowly escaped from under the yoke of communism. The Stoikov brothers hoped to join a league in the United States but due to injuries sustained during their escape their plans would never be fulfilled. Instead Bobo became a soccer coach for youngsters in southwest Michigan. He helps develop their physical skills but most importantly he builds their self-esteem, and teaches them the benefits of team work. He did what others before him only dreamed about, he motivated his young players to win the state championship. There was no way to predict the unintended and unexpected consequences of this win ... for Bobo nor for one of his best players, Luca, the midfielder. Nor could one predict how fate would intervene and treat Mario.

The book is multi-layered and complex because the author so beautifully ties together the Sicilian roots of Mario (the person whose voice describes events) with the main plot of the story. He does an admirable job of describing his mother, a sensitive woman of Polish descent, who mourns the loss of her daughter (Mario's sister). Sophie had drowned accidentally at the age of 17. His father is a strong willed man whose love of family and loyalty to his Mafia heritage rules his life. The family business involves drug smuggling under the guise of a trucking operation. Mario, the narrator of this book deals only with the legitimate aspects of the business. It is quite astonishing how the competitive nature of winning at soccer becomes blown into a life and death struggle for many who are affiliated with the sport Needless to say, there are many life altering lessons which surface within this book. Erika Borsos [pepper flower]

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Although extreme, the author accurately describes many of the hypercompetitive aspects of youth sports, January 12, 2008

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: St. John of the Midfield (Paperback)

Since I coached AYSO youth soccer for four years, I can relate to these descriptions of the competitive aspects of the sport. Since I was often pressed into working as a referee as well, I experienced the negative aspects of trying to call a game and have parents complain about the calls. When I received a message that I was required to attend a training session on how to handle a physical assault from a parent, I chose to bow out of coaching.
The main premise of this book is that two stars of the Bulgarian national soccer team during the Communist era defected by leaping from a moving train. Both were injured in the jump and can no longer play at that level. One of the men (Bobo) is now expressing his love for the game by coaching youth soccer and trying to instill all of the good qualities of sportsmanship into the boys. The narrator (Mario Santini) has a son named Luca who is playing on Bobo's team.
Bobo is a superb coach and under his tutelage, his teams become very powerful and his players masters of the sport. However, this is the time when things get ugly. There are tournaments and a great deal of despicable competitive actions that culminate in a cheap shot against Luca. Other, less subtle manipulations include a coach that chooses his players based on the quality of their mother's body, extramarital flings and trash talking. All thoroughly believable and some of which I have witnessed.
A second undercurrent is that the father of the narrator is a member of an organized Sicilian crime family that imports and distributes illegal drugs. The family is ruthless and will have someone killed if they are sufficiently angered. When the parent of a soccer player gets inexcusably nasty, the family steps in and "takes care of it."
This book does not have a happy ending, people die, others are injured and it is all quite depressing. Unfortunately, while the circumstances depicted here are extreme, given the atmosphere that exists at some youth sports events, they are not all that implausible. The author tells a good story and while there are many different plot elements involving the soccer teams and Mario's family, he does not engage in plot device overload. I started the book and was so engrossed that I finished it in a day.