Word Freak, by Stefan Fatsis

Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble, by Stefan Fatsis
Houghton Mifflin, 2001.
No index, no photos, 370 pages.
Library: 793.734 FAT

Scrabble might truly be called America's game. More than two million sets are sold every year and at least thirty million American homes have one. But the game's most talented competitors inhabit a sphere far removed from the masses of "living room players." Theirs is a surprisingly diverse subculture whose stars include a vitamin-popping stand-up comic, a former bank teller whose intestinal troubles earn him the nickname GI Joel, a burly, unemployed African American from Baltimore's inner city, the three-time national champion who plays according to Zen principles, and Fatsis himself, whom we see transformed from a curious reporter to a confirmed Scrabble nut.

He begins by haunting the gritty corner of a Greenwich Village park where pickup Scrabble games can be found whenever weather permits. His curiosity soon morphs into compulsion, as he sets about memorizing thousands of obscure words and fills his evenings with solo Scrabble played on his living room floor. Before long he finds himself in tournaments socializing - and competing - with Scrabble's elite.

But this book is about more than hardcore Scrabblers, for the game yields insights into realms as disparate as linguistics, psychology and mathematics. Word Freak extends its reach even further, pondering the light Scrabble throws on such notions as brilliance, memory, competition, failure and hope. It is a geography of obsession that celebrates the uncanny powers locked in all of us.