David Winner: Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Soccer

The author, David Winner, was recently mentioned in a Salt Lake Tribune article about independent publishers and the "gems" that they tend to publish.

The Cannibal of Guadalajara by David Winner is a quirky comedy of manners set in New York and Mexico. Its central character is Margaret, a realistically drawn, sympathetic over-50 divorcee, whom we first encounter feeling ungainly and out of place at a singles bar in the Meatpacking District. To her surprise, a dark and handsome young man appears to woo her, bringing her martinis and returning to her apartment. She and Dante begin seeing each other, though he soon reveals himself to be ridiculously stubborn and deeply damaged by the childhood experiences that give the book its title. By then, however, Margaret has fallen in love with his charming upper-class Mexican immigrant family in Brooklyn, in whose elegant home they dine every Friday night. Meanwhile, her ex-husband, Alfred, reappears, first via e-mail dispatches from his world travels, then on her doorstep. A road trip and a platonic, quasi-familial ménage à trois ensue. Warning: The book is marred by a hideous cover and poor copy editing, though at times the typos add to the humor, as when a character’s “huge breasts overflow unappealingly from her glittery brazier.”

Read the rest of that Salt Lake Tribune article here. The author, David Winner, also wrote these interesting books: The Cannibal of Guadalajara, Those Feet: A Sensual History of English Football. The author was also featured on this Bloomberg Radio podcast.