From Publishers Weekly
The follow-up to British comedian Hawks's Round Ireland with a Fridge (a chronicle of his efforts to make good on a liquor-sodden wager to hitchhike Ireland with a refrigerator in tow) employs a similarly ridiculous premise. While watching a football game between Moldova and England, Hawks, an ex-junior-tennis-champion, and his friend argue the importance of technique in sportsmanship. The conversation culminates in a ridiculous bet; Hawks must beat the Moldovan football team at tennis, or else strip naked in a London street and sing the Moldovan anthem. What follows is an oddball travelogue spanning Moldova, Northern Ireland and Israel as Hawks tracks down and plays each team member. Hawks, who admits to knowing nothing about Moldova, offers few insights about the country; his socioeconomic and cultural observations lean toward the superficial. However, Hawks offers plenty of easy laughs (mostly at his own expense) as he brazenly and good-naturedly takes on local bureaucrats, would-be capitalists and seemingly insurmountable language barriers in pursuit of an admittedly pointless goal. "Things can be done," Hawks notes as he gears up for the journey. "The people in life who get them done are the ones who know that, and the ones who don't are the rest." Noting his reliance on the kindness of others, Hawks engages in a social experiment, demonstrating the willingness of strangers to help another achieve even the most whimsical of goals. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In Round Ireland with a Fridge, Hawks, England's answer to Dave Barry, bet his friend that he could carry a small refrigerator around Ireland while hitchhiking. And he won. Now it seems that he drank too much again and made another outrageous bet with his buddy. This time he wagered that he could play and beat each member of the Moldovan soccer team at tennis. The loser must sing the Moldovan national anthem naked, of course. In order to win this bet, he first had to establish the location of Moldova (formerly a member state of the USSR), contact the Moldovan football team, and be invited into the country by a native on special official letterhead. Oddly enough, his adventure begins at the International Beatles Week in Liverpool, to which he finagles an invitation from inside Moldova. Soon thereafter, Hawks travels the remote country trying to find the team, with a side trip to deliver a round table to King Arthur (the newest King of the Gypsies). But I'm not telling who sings nude! This is a hilarious, quirky book. As long as you don't allow yourself to get hung up by a few obscure British references, it may be one of the funniest books you have ever read. Highly recommended. Sandy Knowles, Henderson Cty. P.L., NC Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* This might be the all-time wackiest challenge: track down all 11 members of the Moldovan national soccer team, and beat them all at--Are you ready for this?--tennis. Why would anyone undertake such a thing? Well, for starters, the author seems to like strange adventures: witness his previous book, Round Ireland with a Fridge [BKL Mr 1 00], in which Hawks . . . well, traveled around Ireland with a refrigerator. Not only that, but this isn't just a challenge, it's a bet: if he doesn't accomplish his mission by beating 11 men he's never met at a game they may never have played, he'll have to take off all his clothes and sing the Moldovan national anthem (whatever that might be) in the middle of a public thoroughfare. This is an extremely entertaining book--almost as funny as Bill Bryson's wonderfully eccentric travel books (although Hawks still has a way to go to match Bryson's delightful use of language)--and it's a real treat for fans of the weird, the silly, and the out-of-left-field. As a bonus, there's lots of information here about tiny Moldova, stuck in there between Romania and Ukraine, but odds are most readers will be laughing too hard to take much of it in. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"Hawks's comedic talent comes across well in the written form...he has a breezy, witty style that makes the book extremely enjoyable...Hawks is not only a crazy comic but a keen observer of the human experience." - The San Francisco Chronicle
"This is an extremely entertaining book...A real treat for fans of the weird, the silly, and the out-of-left-field." - Booklist (starred review)
"[Hawks's] account of his travels to Moldova, Transnistria, Northern Ireland, and Israel to track down those worthy opponents may remind some readers of Bill Bryson, except that Hawks is genuinely funny and doesn't have to reach to get a laugh." - Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Hawks's comedic talent comes across well in the written form...he has a breezy, witty style that makes the book extremely enjoyable...Hawks is not only a crazy comic but a keen observer of the human experience." - The San Francisco Chronicle
"This is an extremely entertaining book...A real treat for fans of the weird, the silly, and the out-of-left-field." - Booklist (starred review)
"[Hawks's] account of his travels to Moldova, Transnistria, Northern Ireland, and Israel to track down those worthy opponents may remind some readers of Bill Bryson, except that Hawks is genuinely funny and doesn't have to reach to get a laugh." - Kirkus Reviews
Book Description
It doesn't take much - "£100 is usually sufficient" - to persuade Tony Hawks to take off on notoriously bizarre and hilarious adventures in response to a bet. And so it is, a pointless argument with a friend concludes in a bet - that Tony can't beat all eleven members of the Moldovan soccer team at tennis. And with the loser of the bet agreeing to strip naked on Balham High Road and sing the Moldovan national anthem, this one was just too good to resist.
The ensuing unpredictable and often hilarious adventure sees him being taken in by Moldovan gypsies and narrowly avoid kidnap in Transnistria. It sees him smuggle his way on to the Moldovan National Team coach in Coleraine and witness (almost) divine intervention in the Holy Land.
In this inspiring and exceptionally funny book, Tony Hawks has done it again, proving against all odds that there is no reason in the world why you can't do something a bit stupid and prove all of your doubters wrong. Or at least that was the idea....
About the Author
Tony Hawks is a London-based writer and comedian who makes regular appearances on British TV and radio. Playing the Moldovans at Tennis is his second book, and if you have not already done so, he strongly urges you to buy his first book Round Ireland With a Fridge, a surreal adventure prompted by a £100 bet. Unlike most authors, Tony has singularly failed to settle down and live in the country with a wife and four children. This, however, is his ambition.
Playing the Moldovans at Tennis FROM THE PUBLISHER
It doesn't take much - "£100 is usually sufficient" - to persuade Tony Hawks to take off on notoriously bizarre and hilarious adventures in response to a bet. And so it is, a pointless argument with a friend concludes in a bet - that Tony can't beat all eleven members of the Moldovan soccer team at tennis. And with the loser of the bet agreeing to strip naked on Balham High Road and sing the Moldovan national anthem, this one was just too good to resist.
The ensuing unpredictable and often hilarious adventure sees him being taken in by Moldovan gypsies and narrowly avoid kidnap in Transnistria. It sees him smuggle his way on to the Moldovan National Team coach in Coleraine and witness (almost) divine intervention in the Holy Land.
In this inspiring and exceptionally funny book, Tony Hawks has done it again, proving against all odds that there is no reason in the world why you can't do something a bit stupid and prove all of your doubters wrong. Or at least that was the idea....
FROM THE CRITICS
Kirkus Reviews
Another goofy travelogue—and a UK bestseller—by the English writer who, on a dare, once hitchhiked around Ireland with a refrigerator. Don't come to Hawks, as you might with just about any other literary travel-writer, expecting to glean respectful social-studies lessons about exotic Third World places and why they seem that way to jaundiced First Worlders. When Hawks takes us to Moldova—that sandwich-thin, Romanian-speaking slice of the former Soviet Union once known as Bessarabia—it's mostly to complain about the awful food, the horrific drinking habits of the locals, and the absence of reliable telephones, electric lights, and hot water. Still, he's quick to admit his ignorance of the place. He writes, for instance, that he'd been blissfully unaware of a separatist movement of Russian-speaking Moldovans that declared a "Transnistrian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic" following the collapse of the Gorbachev regime. "All this had gone largely unnoticed by Western observers and particularly by me," he confesses. "I'd been too busy practicing my serve." He'd been doing so to bone up for another goofy dare, namely, to find and play tennis matches against the Moldovan national soccer team, which had given the English team a good scare in an international match some months earlier. His account of his travels to Moldova, Transnistria, Northern Ireland, and Israel to track down those worthy opponents may remind some readers of Bill Bryson (except that Hawks is genuinely funny and doesn't have to reach to get a laugh). The payoff (finding out how the bet turns out) is well worth the occasional dry patches. Not particularly elevated or elevating, but a lot of fun.
Art & Photography
Book Info
