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Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players Paperback – July 30, 2002

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Stefan Fatsis (Author)
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Stefan Fatsis (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars 139 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Books; 20th ed. edition (July 30, 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0142002267
  • ISBN-13: 978-0142002261
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (139 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #147,824 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsFissate Fiestas Satisfy Fascist
By Joel Sherman on July 18, 2001
Format: Hardcover
The title is all the 7-letter words that can be formed from Fatsis and a blank. Okay, I'm a little biased. .... But seriously, having spent a fair amount of time with the author for the last four years, I can say I was tremendously impressed by the breadth of his research, the depth of his devotion to the subject as well as his own personal quest, and the honesty of his characterizations not only of many people I know well but also of himself. I learned things from this book that I never new about the history of Scrabble despite having been involved for nearly half of the life of the competitive association and having read as many publications as I could that have been generated within its community. I learned things about my fellow players that endeared me even more to some of them. I learned things about Stefan that made me feel we must be somehow related even tho I know we don't share any genes. And wouldn't you know it, on top of it all, I also found out the sonofagun can really write!
I have to warn casual players (and readers) that parts of this book may appear to bog down in detailed explanations of how players study word lists and other apparent trivia. But when you reach one of those passages, please remember this is a work of non-fiction, and as such it has a duty to be informative at least part of the time. So skim past the slow passage, and you'll find more rewarding characterizations, beautifully chosen metaphors for the game and the author's struggle to master it, and narration that runs the gamut from poignant to weird to downright hilarious. The great majority of the book is as entertaining as it is informative, so don't stop til you reach the end -- I didn't, and I hadn't finished a book in years.
6 Comments 164 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
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5.0 out of 5 starsIs it love or obsession? Who cares?
By Kate Dennis on July 29, 2001
Format: Hardcover
Years ago at a friendly kitchen table game of Scrabble my dad excitedly mentioned that they have tournaments for this sort of thing. I thought he was nuts, but a few months later he had won his first tournament in the fifth division at New Albany. When he showed off his winnings, one (frankly goofy) mug, I knew it was all down hill.
I watched with a bemused and frightened kind of admiration as he flew cross-country to play in tournaments and memorized world list after word list and his ranking improved. He'd come to visit and tell stories of racks, plays, opponents, wins and losses. None of which I really understood or cared about. But I nodded encouragingly like any good daughter ought to. When my friends talked about how dorky their fathers were, all I had to do was mention my dad plays Scrabble competively and is really pretty good at it. They resigned to my dorky dominance. I always realized my dad was part of some bizzare sunculture, but Word Freak made a few things clear: 1. My dad is execptionally normal in the grand scheme of Scrabble things. 2. He is nowhere near alone. 3. The subculture is much more bizzare and much more developed than I ever knew.
I don't read nonfiction, but I felt obliged to read this and I really, really liked it. These characters--these (real) people--are unbelievable and yet believably real. Fatsis does an amazing job of not only presenting them as real (obessed) players, but explaining the profile of a competitive games player. He even makes the history of Scrabble interesting. (How that's possible is beyond me.) It's chracter-driven, entertaining and well written. In short, I loved it.
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5.0 out of 5 starsA strange tribe among us
By Peter F. Rousmaniere on June 30, 2001
Format: Hardcover
Fatsis spent time with avid scrabble players. Here are his observations. He relates through several dozen loosely linked narrations how the game has been transformed since the 1950s into a community that is strangely both exotic and familiar. This witty book celebrates scrabble as our national mental pasttime. Everyone who likes the game will find her or himself in these pages.
With a fresh writing style, he shares a huge amount of information about the way the game is seriously (if not addictively) played without the reader feeling burdened. (Did you know that in any random selection of 7 tiles, there is a 12% chance of a seven letter word appearing?)
Fatsis delves in an anthropological way into the life styles of noted participants in the competitive game. Some of these people are poster children for the saying that you either succeed in art or in life but not in both. The author knows how to approach even the most difficult personalities with wit and compassion.
He takes the reader to visit lonely geniuses in ill-kept apartments, clubs in New york City which spawned top competitors, competitions in Reno and elsewhere. He recounts the tussles between player associations and the manufacturers as unhappy, comical scenes from a lifelong dysfunctional marriage.
Fatsis is, I take it, a sports writer for the Wall Street Journal, and you should take that as an indication he knows how to bridge chasms. Lurking underneath the surface of his prose, I sense a belief in the power of play to discover value in our lives, and what more exquisite play is there but with words? Is it coincidental that during the decades of scrabble's dominance as a pasttime, one of our leading poets, James Merrill, used a Ouija board to help compose poems?Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsFreak Out!

Only just started reading this. So far so good.

Published 3 months ago by Jonathan M. Durston
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Still a great read, 14 years later.

Published 4 months ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsAND a very good read.

Fabulous book for us Scrabble geeks. AND a very good read.

Published 7 months ago by Pamela Weeks
2.0 out of 5 starsMildly Interesting to a Scrabble Fanatic

This book was mildly interesting to the self-made Scrabble fanatic that I've become. First, this book was written when times were different in the Scrabble world. Read more

Published 8 months ago by drfiddler1
4.0 out of 5 starsWell worth the read if you like the

This is an entertaining book about the underground and weird world of professional Scrabble. Well worth the read if you like the game

Published 15 months ago by Gideon Weitzman
4.0 out of 5 starsso I really liked this fascinating glimpse into the world of...

I'm a word freak,so I really liked this fascinating glimpse into the world of competitive Scrabble. I haven't dipped my toe into those particular waters, but understand the... Read more

Published 15 months ago by Sarah A. Saltus
4.0 out of 5 starsMost enjoyable parts related to the Scrabble "Big Four"

I liked the book as an examination of obsessive behavior. It might even serve as a warning to players hellbent on becoming experts. Read more

Published 16 months ago by Kyle A.H.
3.0 out of 5 starsIt's an okay read, but a little outdated with ...

It's an okay read, but a little outdated with respect to authorized words in the 5th edition of scrabble dictionary.

Published 17 months ago by David
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Fascinating book.

Published 17 months ago by Katrina L. Heycock
5.0 out of 5 starsA Great Freaking Read

Very well crafted, informative and entertaining. I've read this book twice: first, as a very infrequent player; and more recently, as someone who's played a couple hundred games in... Read more

Published 19 months ago by JSG

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