''A Fan's Notes'' is a 1968 novel by

Frederick Exley Frederick Earl "Fred" Exley (March 28, 1929 – June 17, 1992)Bruce Lambert''New York Times'', June 18, 1992. was an American writer. His fictional memoir '' A Fan's Notes'' received critical acclaim and awards. He followed it up with two more ...

. Subtitled "A Fictional Memoir" and categorized as fiction, the book is semi-autobiographical. In a brief "Note to the Reader" in the opening pages, Exley writes: "Though the events in this book bear similarity to those of that long malaise, my life...I have drawn freely from the imagination and adhered only loosely to the pattern of my past life. To this extent, and for this reason, I ask to be judged a writer of fantasy." Since its publication the book has been reprinted several times and achieved a

cult following A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

. ''A Fan's Notes'' was briefly featured in the documentary film ''Stone Reader'' as an example of a brilliant

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

Synopsis

''A Fan's Notes'' is a sardonic account of mental illness, alcoholism,

insulin shock therapy Insulin shock therapy or insulin coma therapy was a form of psychiatric treatment in which patients were repeatedly injected with large doses of insulin in order to produce daily comas over several weeks.Neustatter WL (1948) ''Modern psychiatry ...

and

electroconvulsive therapy Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a psychiatry, psychiatric treatment where a generalized seizure (without muscular convulsions) is electrically induced to manage refractory mental disorders.Rudorfer, MV, Henry, ME, Sackeim, HA (2003)"Electroco ...

, and the black hole of sports fandom. Its central preoccupation with a failure to measure up to the American dream has earned the novel comparisons to

Fitzgerald The FitzGerald/FitzMaurice Dynasty is a noble and aristocratic dynasty of Cambro-Norman, Anglo-Norman and later Hiberno-Norman origin. They have been peers of Ireland since at least the 13th century, and are described in the Annals of the ...

's ''

The Great Gatsby ''The Great Gatsby'' is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts First-person narrative, first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious mil ...

''. It also was said to have, "hanging over the shoulder", Fitzgerald's later, confessional ''

The Crack-Up ''The Crack-Up'' (1945) is a collection of essays by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. It includes previously unpublished letters and notes, along with the three essays Fitzgerald originally wrote for ''Esquire'' magazine, which were first pu ...

'', per a critic. Beginning with his childhood in

Watertown, New York Watertown is a city in, and the county seat of, Jefferson County, New York, United States. It is approximately south of the Thousand Islands, along the Black River about east of where it flows into Lake Ontario. The city is bordered by the ...

, growing up under a sports-obsessed father and following his college years at the

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

, where he first came to know his hero

Frank Gifford Francis Newton Gifford (August 16, 1930 – August 9, 2015) was an American football player, actor, and television sports commentator. After a 12-year playing career as a halfback and flanker for the New York Giants of the National Foo ...

, Exley recounts years of intermittent stints at psychiatric institutions, his failed marriage to a woman named Patience, successive unfulfilling jobs teaching English literature to high school students, and working for a

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

public relations firm under contract to a weapons company, and, by way of Gifford, his obsession with the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

. Exley's introspective "fictional memoir", a tragicomic indictment of 1950s American culture, examines in lucid prose themes of celebrity, masculinity, self-absorption, and addiction, morbidly charting his failures in life against the electrifying successes of his football hero and former classmate. The title comes from Exley's fear that he is doomed to be a spectator in life as well as in sports.

Film adaptation

''A Fan's Notes'' was made into a film in 1972 directed by

Eric Till Eric Till (born 24 November 1929) is an English film and television director working in Canada, the United States, and Europe since the 1960s. His 1977 film ''It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet'' was entered into the 10th Moscow International Film Fes ...

and starring

Jerry Orbach Jerome Bernard Orbach (October 20, 1935 – December 28, 2004) was an American actor and singer, described at the time of his death as "one of the last'' bona fide'' leading men of the Broadway musical and global celebrity on television" and a " ...

as Exley.

Awards and honors

*1968

William Faulkner Foundation Award The William Faulkner Foundation (1960-1970) was a charitable organization founded by the novelist William Faulkner in 1960 to support various charitable causes, all educational or literary in nature. The foundation The foundation programs include ...

for notable first novel *1969

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

finalist

Legacy

Exley's biographer,

Jonathan Yardley Jonathan Yardley (born October 27, 1939) was the book critic at ''The Washington Post'' from 1981 to December 2014, and held the same post from 1978 to 1981 at the ''Washington Star''. In 1981, he received the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Back ...

, of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', called the book "one of the few monuments of postwar American fiction."

References

*Exley, Frederick. "A Fan's Notes". 1968, New York. ()

Notes

External links

The New York Times Book Review
October 6, 1968
Walter Kirn "Sad Sack Superman" Slate Magazine
August 20, 1997 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fans Notes 1968 American novels American novels adapted into films American sports novels Cultural depictions of players of American football Novels about alcoholism Memoirs about alcoholism Novels set in New York (state) Harper & Row books 1968 debut novels