emily’s Reviews > Death of the Soccer God > Status Update

‘French culture—spiked w/ creole to charm the peasants. He was born a double agent & never changed. I may be Haitian by nationality & charm, he said, but I’m European & American when it comes to money—austere on the surface, greedy at heart. From what I came to later understand about how history was recorded—if it’s written in English, Haitians will always look bad—this tropical hellhole—I didn’t have time to dwell—’

‘I hated the football. I hated how much my happiness depended on how well I touched it and got rid of it. Strikers—don’t get to touch the ball all that much—unlike, say, midfielders—we seduced that little black-and-white bastard after our teammates desperately sent it to us past walls of defenders. Tell yourself you’re going to live forever? Not us. Our arrogance hits different. That’s your best tease, death?’

‘World Cup football touches everyone in the world, whether they want it to or not, whether their nation played in it or not, whether they even liked football or not, were good at it or never tried to kick a damn football, indifference was hard to hang on to. What—is football? Why would someone try to be good at that? In that instant, Gil remembered the first time he was blindsided by a hate he misread as love.’