Good departure points for discussion of A Fan's Notes include individual definitions of success and failure, apt measures of a well-spent life, or contemporary incarnations of the American Dream. Fruitful conversation might also arise in identifying factors that lead to fanaticism, sports-as-spiritual uplift, under achievement, and despair.

C. Barry Chabot mines the complex and anguished relationship between father and son that Exley explores in his novel. Chabot says: "Exley's father was that most pathetic of heroes, the smalltown athlete who, for one reason or another, never leaves the scene of his youthful triumphs . . . A Fan's Notes offers a powerful image of a boy deeply eager for [but denied] private confirmation from a loved father."

1. How do you characterize the narrator's relationship with his father?

What evidence in the text supports this characterization?

2. Describe the nature of Exley's "quest" in A Fan's Notes. What role does New...