I like A Life Intercepted by Charles Martin and published by Center Street (2014). I like it a lot. I’ve read it twice. Curiously, I read it the first time a few weeks before all our lives were intercepted. The book resonates with me.
The title comes from the statement a father makes to his pre-teen son whom he is teaching how to be a quarterback (QB). During one of their practices, the boy asks about being intercepted. The father counters. It is not “if,” it is “when.” You will be intercepted. “Might as well get over that right now. . . . What matters is what you do when you get the ball back in your hands.”
The novel opens with a prologue. A sixteen-year-old boy and an older woman are viewing and studying the game films of a QB nicknamed “Rocket.”
The book then flashes back thirteen years and the protagonist, Matthew Rising, “The Rocket,” begins to tell us his story. Matthew, a QB with considerable talent and skills is about to sign with the NFL. He has led his high school and college teams in championship seasons. He is a two-time Heisman trophy winner and he’s been on the cover of Sports Illustrated twice. His wife loves him, his teammates trust him, his hometown idolizes him and his many fans across the country adore him. And despite all the fame and adulation, he is a nice guy. A man with integrity.
He doesn’t see what is coming next.
The novel fast forwards and he is and has been in prison for twelve years, a convicted a sex offender. He never played pro-ball. Now he is being released on parole. Electronic anklet and the knowledge that his activities are henceforth strictly regulated, he returns to his hometown. He is a pariah. Almost everyone has turned against him, believing him to be guilty. He tells the reader without bitterness that even he, after seeing the video tapes presented at the trial, would have doubted his innocence.
His best friend and former center, Wood, lets him live in a cabin on a property outside of town. The cabin is just far enough away from a Catholic high school to satisfy the requirements of the law. The property also borders a massive junkyard that was a kind of playground for the boys when they were teens.
Climbing up the Bucket, a mound of old cars, Matthew can see the high school football field of the Catholic school where he and his dad practiced and where he played football in high school. He watches a young player who has a throwing problem. Ray, a friend of Matthew’s and a former coach, tells him the high school’s present coach is damaging the teen’s considerable natural abilities.
The next evening the young player, Dee, asks Matthew to coach him. Matthew refuses. By law he’s not allowed to be near anyone under 18. If he does and he is caught, he would be sent back to prison.
Audrey, Matthew’s wife, whom he has not seen in ten years, comes to the cabin in the early hours of the morning and demands that Matthew coach Dee. Matthew’s dreams she says are dead, but this motherless, abandoned kid could still fulfill his. Because of his love for Audrey, Matthew agrees to secretly coach the teen.
But can he help Dee undo the bad coaching? Can they accomplish it before it is discovered that Matthew has been helping a minor and violating his parole? Will Audrey let herself love Matthew again? And what really happened on the night that the video was made?
Martin is a great storyteller. His characters are complex and human, his world imperfect. His plotting is often unexpected, and he moves easily between the past and the present, telling us only what we need to know in the moment and holding back, like in a mystery, what is still being played out. The novel is well-paced. Quiet scenes of training and instruction are counter balanced with intense scenes of the mounting threats that would derail Matthew’s and Dee’s goal.
Martin will keep you reading even if you don’t know a thing about football–or care–because the novel is about more than the sport. It is about life. And because Martin is a Christian with a Christian worldview, I found God showing me truth, even though the author does not mention His name.
Take the football term “audible.” Most people know what it is, but I didn’t. It’s when the QB who has called the play in the huddle, sees that defense is preparing for just that play and calls a different play at the line of scrimmage. That an audible might be called means that the QB’s team members must be listening for the QB. Christians do this all the time in life. We call it prayer and, in this season when the defense seems formidable, we need, I need, to be listening for the audible that our QB is calling.
I am not going to recommend this novel for most high schoolers. There are several mentions of nudity. The scenes are not graphic, and I don’t think they are gratuitous, but sex scenes effect teens differently than they do adults so, consider prayerfully whether this is a book for your junior or senior high schooler. Also, Matthew, though innocent of the crime for which he was convicted, is still breaking the law by training Dee. Spoiler Alert: He is found out, but he is the one who “outs” himself and he does go back to prison. That’s all I’m going to tell you. Except that it doesn’t end there, and it all ends happily.)
I won’t end this review without telling you what Matthew’s father did next after telling Matthew that he would be intercepted. “He [his father] waved across our imaginary opponents, chuckling. ‘They can’t beat us.’ A smirk. ‘They’re good, but they ain’t that good.’”
Nancy Ellen Hird is a mom, a writer and a credentialed teacher. (She taught seventh grade and preschool.) Her latest works for children are I Get a Clue and We All Get a Clue, mystery novels for girls 10-13. For several years she was a freelance reviewer of children’s and teen’s literature for the Focus on the Family website.
