THIRD AND LONG

A novel about a broken-down former college football player in need of redemption and a town seeking salvation.

Down-and-out Nick Remke arrives in Longview, Ohio, by train in 1997 and gets directions to Made Right, the town’s largest employer. The clothing factory is barely hanging on, buffeted by foreign competition. During his job interview, Nick meets administrative assistant Marie Zanay, who suggests that he play up his football experience. He tells the co-owners that he played briefly for Notre Dame and that his real last name is Nocero; he’d changed it to his mother’s maiden name, he says, after his dad left the family. The thrilled, football-crazy owners give him a plant-manager position that had been offered to someone else. Soon, Marie, whose son Brian is the star of the high school football team, and Nick grow closer. After the football coach suffers a stroke, Nick gets pressured into taking the job by his bosses, and the team starts winning. At the same time, Made Right’s fortunes rebound, and both the team and the rest of the townsfolk begin to believe that this stranger could save them all. Then an ambitious local sportswriter discovers unexpected information that changes everything. Katz, the author of The Whistleblower (2020), has created a setting in Longview that many readers will recognize: a struggling town that’s unable to adapt to a global economy. Nick, who’s in dire straits himself, does what he has to do to get one more chance to prove himself, and he finds the perfect spot in Longview, which is full of people still wanting to believe in something. The author shows how Nick and the town’s residents help each other to grow and change, and his choice of an anonymous resident as a narrator, looking back at Nick’s actions, is effective, as he moves from being a skeptic to a believer before finally reaching a kind of middle ground. Also, Katz, a former sportswriter, manages to bring the quaint atmosphere of small-town football to life. Overall, it’s an endearing portrait of an abandoned part of America.

A well-crafted tale that offers readers hope in changing times.