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Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive ScrabblePlayers
by: Stefan Fatsis

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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 794
EAN: 9780142002261
ISBN: 0142002267
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 384
Publication Date: July 30, 2002
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Release Date: July 30, 2002
Sales Rank: 68296
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
Scrabble may be truly called America's game. But for every group of 'living-room players' there is someone who is 'at one with the board.' In Word Freak, Stefan Fatsis introduces readers to those few, exploring the underground world of colorful characters for which the Scrabble game is life-playing competitively in tournaments across the country. It is also the story of how the Scrabble game was invented by an unemployed architect during the Great Depression and how it has grown into the hugely successful, challenging, and beloved game it is today. Along the way, Fatsis chronicles his own obsession with the game and his development as a player from novice to expert. More than a book about hardcore Scrabble players, Word Freak is also an examination of notions of brilliance, memory, language, competition, and the mind that celebrates the uncanny creative powers in us all.

'Fatsis . . . writes with affectionate zeal about the game and the fraternity of brilliant, lonely, and otherwise dysfunctional oddballs it attracts.' (The New York Times)

'Word Freak has an impassioned subtitle, and it lives up to every word.' (People)

Amazon.com Review:
Like a cross between a linguistic spy and a lexicographic Olympic athlete, journalist Stefan Fatsis gave himself a year to penetrate the highest echelons of international Scrabble competition. Word Freak is the account of his journey. It's a wacky grab bag of travelogue, history, party journal, and psychological study of the misfits and goofballs whose lives are measured out in Scrabble tiles.

Fatsis gives us all the facts about Scrabble--from the story of the down-on-his-luck architect who invented the game in the 1930s to the intricacies of individual international competitions and the corporate wars to control the world's favorite word game. He keeps the reader turning the pages as we get involved in the lives of the Scrabble obsessives: men and women who have a point to prove against the world and have chosen Scrabble as their playground and their pulpit. As Fatsis goes on his own quest to attain the coveted 1600 rating, we actually get obsessed with him as he lies awake at night pondering moves and memorizing lists of words. For anybody who is interested in words, Word Freak provides an entertaining and absorbing read. --Dwight Longenecker, Amazon.co.uk

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- The greatest book ever for the ultra-serious Scrabble player: The rest of us? Not so much.
I enjoyed this book on the whole, but can recommend it only to those with a serious interest in Scrabble. A lot of the book gets bogged down in the intricacies of competitive Scrabble tournaments, which is interesting only for a short time. I play living room Scrabble, but did not understand how complex and complete the knowledge required to become a true skilled player is.

The parts of the book describing the game's genesis and history were interesting. But the 366 pages could have been cut by a third to make for a better book for the masses, in my opinion. Three stars out of five. But a nice effort nonetheless.

Rating:

- A surprising read
Word Freak surprised me with its depth. It's a work that weaves technical details of what can be a very tedious game at the upper levels, with an engaging tale filled with emotion and humor. It's basically the journey of one guy (the author) going from "I've played Scrabble before" to a bona fide expert at the game. And along the ways, there are fascinating personalities and gripping stories to enjoy.

The story really becomes more a commentary on an underground society -- the personalities, compulsions, emotion, and triumphs of a small group of people for whom Scrabble is more than just a game. You start out wondering just how someone can come to be so deeply into the game. But fortunately, you get to see it firsthand as the author himself undergoes his transformation.

The book at times becomes laden with technical talks...study techniques, game details...which can be a chore to work ... Read More

Rating:

- Clumsy Bad Writing -- Good Vocabulary Though
In choosing to write about the misfits, neurotics, and obsessives who call themselves Scrabble players Stefan Fatsis could have chosen one of two approaches. He could have for one year followed North America's best players as they trained for and played in the National championships -- the result would have been a screwball comedy. Or he could have focused on why he -- an ostensibly successful Wall Street Journal reporter -- would himself become as obsessed with the game as the unemployed geniuses that constitute the core of the Scrabble elite -- the result would have also been a screwball comedy. Instead Mr. Fatsis chooses the middling path, and focuses on how he as an amateur tried to make it as an elite Scrabble player -- the result is interesting but is the furthest away from a screwball comedy -- it's about a serious man with a serious mission to master a serious game.

That's the most frustrating ... Read More

Rating:

- Cool book on the scrabble sub-culture
A friend recommended this one to me. Not a topic that I ever even knew existed - professional scrabble! But this is a fascinating subculture populated by lovable misfits -- the introverted nebbish Joel from New York, the hip Marlon, who comes from one of the poorest black neighborhoods in America, but scrapes by on his earnings from his totally ingenious mastery of a word game most of us know only as a casual past-time. Fatsis writes with genuine affection for his subject - despite using the term "freak" in his title - and he is a really good guide to the intricacies of the game, which, when played at a really high level is far more complicated than I ever could have imagined. He also gives an excellent overview of the history of the game itself - its invention, its commercialization, its growth as a kind of American icon among board games. I can't say how glad I am that I read this book. It's a joy...even if the topic ... Read More

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