Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players

Early on, the author begins a sentence: "Without knowing, I imagine...", and there seems to be a fair bit of that in this book. On page 146, he attributes my refusal to grant him an interview to my being "too frustrated to rehash" my dictionary "battles". (The main reason: I had just completed an extensive email interview with a prospective author to whom I felt a sense of loyalty inasmuch as I had sold him my collection of Scrabble News. The questions in that interview covered a lot of ground missing from this book, so I hope the book appears someday.) Alas, lightning destroyed my surge protector and the computer on which my emailed refusal resided; without knowing, I imagine that it contained the phrase "word freaks", and I'd be real surprised if it contained any of the words "frustrated, rehash, battles". Nonetheless, a leitmotiv of Mr. Fatsis' opus is his ability to lay out lucidly and fairly positions with which he may disagree, and he does so with respect to my thoughts on the official dictionary in the chapter titled "Words", and alludes to them on at least two other occasions. Some of this chapter's astuter apercus appear to stem, without explicit credit, from an article I wrote for a language review, though the article appears in the sources on page 370 (of the paperback edition, which contains a 3-paragraph update to the original edition), and there are two direct, credited quotations. There's a lot of information on the invention and marketing of the game. But most of the book is about people, tournament enthusiasts. Unfortunately, much of the focus is on the three players described by the author himself as "most extreme" in a classic understatement. There's a tsunami of information on the author's own rise to expert ranks. In this rather long book, there's still plenty of room for descriptions of a wide variety of other enthusiasts, most of whom I knew when I played, and the descriptions ring true even if one must be suspicious of details. There's a lot of info on the clothes worn by interviewees, enough to make one wonder what the author himself wears. The author would have done well to interview in addition a half dozen or so "blue-hairs", who collectively have enriched my life in countless ways; it's no wonder membership is meager when a significant portion thereof is mocked at the highest levels. So why the four-star rating for so flawy a book? Simply because it's so easy to ignore the rough parts to get to the good stuff. There's enough profanity, drugs, etc., to disconcert many and warrant a PG-13 rating (and you might want to keep this or any Scrabble book away from your kids till after they take their SATs, since a lot of the acceptable words are misspellings in any other contemporary context). But when the author puts his mind to it, he often finds le mot juste or a clever figure of speech. (One of my favorites: "stiffer than Al Gore".) In my experience, perhaps 15% of people who find word games attractive want to play solely with the vocabulary they already know. Such people are probably not reading this review, and in any case probably won't enjoy this book; the author tosses out words like "eidetic, hiragana, weltanschauung," and dozens more with every expectation that you can look them up if necessary. Of the other 85%, fewer than 1% find that they can long enjoy an environment where they are hustled into accepting forms like DE (as in "Charles de Gaulle"; I wish I were kidding). For that 1%, this book could be the start or continuation of a great adventure. And for the other 84%, including people like me now retired from clubs and tournaments, the book is a great read and will help confirm that the right decision has been made.

In Word Freak, Stefan Fatsis claims the ranks of normal Scrabble experts are plentiful, but instead chooses to focus on the lives of antisocial, reclusive and at times creepy champion players who appear to be in abundance.Take world champion GI Joel Sherman for example: The GI refers to Joel's gastro intestinal problems, one of his plethora of maladies. He carries with him a portable expectoration cup for his frequent muciod needs, has bug paranoia, suffers from Asthma and allergies (food included), has sacs under his sad eyes, has had a ton of dental work over the years, gets gas attacks from just about anything, is lactose intolerant, suffered from the thyroid condition Graves' disease at one point, and has frequent anxiety. He retired at 29, lives with his father and brother, and plays Scrabble professionally. His study time is after midnight, when he spends hours studying board position and posting his analyses to Scrabble sites on the internet. He considers Scrabble as his reason for existence.It is precisely because of GI Joel's and all other misfit expert players' profiles that Word Freak is a joy to read. The book takes an interesting turn as Mr. Fatsis himself morphs partially into one of these word freaks as he sets out to attain his goal of achieving a 1,600 rating and thereby expert status. During this process, he befriends and rooms with many of his subjects. Therefore, his work on this book can be hardly viewed as objective.Fatsis, and most other serious Scrabble players complain that Scrabble has never gotten the respect and recognition it deserves. Hasbro, which is the owner and sole manufacturer and distributor of Scrabble in the United States does not adequately promote the game, they complain. Fatsis has the perfect response why this is so - Scrabble's annual sales of $20 million and change pales in comparison to Hasbro's $3 billion in revenues. Besides, who wants to watch experts go head to head in a game that hardly resembles what most casual players like me play in their living rooms and during flights? As Fatsis explains, tournament Scrabble play is not a game familiar to the casual observer, and the rules are quite different as well.The prize money in the largest tournaments are $20K-$30K. That, coupled with the hours of daily study required to reach expert level turn competitive play into a freak magnet; if you can afford to dedicate your life to the game, you just may become an expert player, but first you have to be able to support yourself while unemployed.Anyone who is into competitive games, whether a Scrabble player or not would find this book at least entertaining.By the way, the word "Ka" combines with any of the letters in "Betsy's Feet" to form words that can be used in Scrabble. That and countless other hints and strategies are discussed in the book.

Packed with great tips that even keen Scrabble players might not have thought of. Makes an unusual present for word geeks.

Made me want to start playing Scrabble.

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