Mr. Irrelevant: A Novel

by Jerry Marshall

thriller/sports Sports writer Paul Tenkiller and pro-football player Chesty Hake have been roommates for eight seasons. Paul's Choctaw background of poverty and his gambling on sports, and Hake's dark memories of his mother being killed are the forces which will make their friendship go horribly wrong. Chesty Hake, the last man chosen in the draft, has been dubbed Mr. Irrelevant. By every yardstick, he should not be playing pro football. But because of his heart and high threshold for pain, he preservers. Paul Tenkiller has been on a gravy train. Gleaning information vital to gambling on football, his relationship with Hake is at once loyal and deceitful. Then during his eighth and final season, Hake slides into paranoia and Tenkiller is caught up in the dilemma. Paul is behind the curve, and events spiral out of his control, until the bloody end comes in murder and betrayal. Football will never be viewed the same again.

346 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Cesar Aparicio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr.Irrelevant (Chesty Hake) was basically an irreverent person. Not seen as the big popular person. He was the last man chosen in the National Football League. Mostly expected to not be able to play PRO football. Not only that but his life out of football is kinda bad and not as you expect. He been in multiple funerals but not of long distance family. His farther died and his mother was murdered. He had a women that he adored. As always the women wouldn’t stop betraying Chesty. After all those bad vibes and horrible relationship he basically stored all his anger and sadness. This leads on to Mr.Irrelevant to lose control of everything.

[Paul · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found a $3.00 signed first edition of this book at the Printers Row Book Fair in Chicago back in the early 00's. I hoped it was an undiscovered masterpiece. Well, it is, if only in the way that "Plan 9 From Outer Space" and the collected recordings of William Shatner are also classics. Boring. Flat, dull writing. Unrealistic, cardboard characters in an uninteresting situation. A sportswriter rooms with a special-teams player for Kansas City's second NFL franchise. Wow. Add in a pointless mystery and a completely idiotic plot twist towards the end (I suspect the author was as sick of writing this book as you will be of reading it, if you last) makes it a shockingly terrible read, the only novel I've ever read in anticipation that I'd be let in on some sort of sick joke. Well, the joke was on me. Uggghh.