Have you ever carried something that was just too heavy for you, and your arms just...gave out? They couldn't hold it anymore? That's what happened to me. And at the end it was like a building had collapsed. I just couldn't take it.
Our inaugural shitty book, “Monday Night Jihad,” by Jason Elam and Steve Yohn, is roughly a cross between “Black Sunday” and the bathroom line at a Tom Tancredo rally. Featuring unconvincing justifications of state-sponsored torture juxtaposed with near-pornographic depictions of maimed bomb victims, heroic cocoa-wielding stadium vendors, more made-up football team names than all seven seasons of “1st & Ten,” and a total dearth of impure thoughts whatsoever, there’s something here for everyone!
Just in time for the Super Bowl is this debut suspense novel from a 14-year NFL place kicker and his Colorado pastor. The result yields some nice moments paired with problematic writing and improbable plot twists. Air Force 2d Lt. Riley Covington is given grace to play NFL football instead of serving out his military time, but he opts to return to active duty after a horrific stadium bombing. Hakeem Qasim is an Iraqi groomed for terrorism by tragic events in his childhood. The lives of both the squeaky-clean Christian Riley and the radical Muslim Hakeem intersect in a way that readers will see coming early in the novel. Rich details about life as an NFL player invigorate the story; the details become problematic when the story gets wordy (as in one long and unnecessary chapter toward the end of the book). Although the final […] plot twist is too easy, unexpected humor helps leaven the serious themes, and the sparks of romance that fly between Riley and an American Muslim woman will pique readers’ interest.
NB: Mike Tanier of Football Outsiders wrote a great review of it a couple months ago that’s funnier than anything I’m gonna drunkenly shit out here. Respect is due.
Yohn, the co-author, also maintains “The new Riley Covington blog,” (which is, unfortunately, not written in character) and both authors seem like super good-humored guys about themselves, so nothing personal. In the event either dude sees this and takes offense: you are to me what Mark Bavaro is to you.
