As soon as the celebrations began throughout the baseball world last October, and the enormity of the achievement began to crystallize, the Red Sox’ World Series championship-recap machine began in earnest among the Fourth Estate. First were the special supplemental sections in the local newspapers, then the DVDs, and now, slowly but surely, come the hardcover treatments. You knew they were coming — from all different angles — and now they’re in our midst. The first, of course, was Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season, Stephen King and Stewart O’Nan’s season-long diary between two devoted fans. Next up was Boston Herald baseball-beat writer Tony Massarotti, who, along with New York Daily News columnist John Harper, wrote A Tale of Two Cities: The 2004 Red Sox–Yankees Rivalry and the War for the Pennant, charting the tale from opposing fronts as the drama played out in the Bronx and Boston last fall. Still to come is the much-anticipated putting-the-curse-to-rest work by the Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy (who as a Globe columnist and noted baseball author should offer a backstage pass to readers). Also pending is Idiot: Beating "The Curse" and Enjoying the Game of Life, by Sox centerfielder Johnny Damon, which should take readers even further behind the scenes of the magical 2004 season.

I haven’t read the first two yet, and while I eagerly anticipate the latter pair, you’ll be happy to know that there’s one heartwarming work already out that solidly captures the Sox’ long journey and eventual arrival at the summit, utilizing the memories and recollections of the citizens who make up the fabric of Red Sox Nation. It’s Leigh Montville’s Why Not Us?: The 86-Year Journey of the Boston Red Sox Fans from Unparalleled Suffering to the Promised Land of the 2004 World Series (Public Affairs Books).

It’s always a dicey proposition when a journalist must tread the line between being a native New Englander who has, at a young age, formed a bond with the team that he would eventually cover — and the unbiased professionalism that comes with a press-box seat and his role as teller of the tale. Such is the case with most of our top regional sportswriters — Shaughnessy, Massarotti, the Globe’s Gordon Edes, even "The Commissioner," ESPN’s Peter Gammons — and Montville is no different. Yet Montville, who was once a sports columnist with the Globe before moving on to Sports Illustrated magazine, does not shy away from his allegiance to the Red Sox. He admits that he had to distance himself from his devotion during his years covering the team from afar. Since he left SI, he has distinguished himself numerous times as a best-selling author, and last summer’s Ted Williams: The Biography of An American Hero provided a stunning portrait of the Splendid Splinter. Montville kept his personal feelings out of that book, but he feels no obligation to do so in Why Not Us?; after all, he’s no longer covering the team, and his love for the Sox had been kept under wraps for so long that once he was free to embrace the team as a fan again, he was able to rekindle the passion that the New Haven native first acquired growing up on the Connecticut "borderline" between Yankee and Red Sox country. Like most Red Sox aficionados, he knows the history of the team and its rivalry with its notorious neighbor to the south. As a result, he can speak adequately for all Red Sox fans who know suffering on a first-name basis.

Why Not Us? might have been eminently enjoyable simply telling his story — but then again, every Sox fan has his own take on following the team and how he reacted to its turnaround in last October’s post-season. Why should Montville’s personal account be book-worthy? Because he knew enough to collect others’ stories as well, and he incorporates them all into a fascinating interweaving of nearly every relevant aspect of the Sox’ championship season.

Not so much the on-the-field stuff, but simply the common man’s reaction to what was going on — and ultimately, the fairy-tale ending and just how profoundly it affected those who had waited so long. If you’re a Sox fan, you’ll nod in agreement at certain recollections, while others will bring you to the edge of tears as various contributors tell their stories of true cathartic transformations. Montville has collated the tales of the nobodies, the somebodies, and everybody in between, yet each one’s contribution is slightly different and unique.

You’ll hear Montville’s own familiar tale, sure, but you’ll also get the intriguing reminiscences from nuns, bartenders, comedians, soldiers, grade-school kids, scalpers, and even Epsteins. You’ll get to read the memorable Internet thread from the Sons of Sam Horn Web site — a disjointed yet emotional ride that started with an innocent-enough posting that pleaded, "Win it for ..." prior to game seven of the ALCS against the Yankees. You’ll get, oddly enough (but still interesting), a chapter on the Baseball Tavern, a legendary watering hole a block from Fenway where several Sox players repaired after clinching the wild card in 2003. You’ll even get some of the curse-busting theories, including the captivating story of the young man who currently lives in Babe Ruth’s old homestead in suburban Sudbury — and how that fan, of all people present one night, got a couple of teeth knocked out by a Manny Ramirez foul ball in the Fenway stands last July.

The book is a quick 182-page read, but strangely enough, it doesn’t feel as though anything is left out. If you want game summaries or player quotes, check elsewhere. If you want the stories of years of suffering being erased, of faith and loyalty, of parents and children, of the departed and the living, and of dreams at last coming true, it’s all in the living history outlined in these pages.

It’s Montville’s story, to be sure, but it’s also every Red Sox fan’s story. It’s the fable that has been desperately waiting to be told for these many years, yet its potential storytellers always wondered whether it ever would be. (Indeed, untold generations never got that opportunity.)

Thanks to the 2004 Red Sox, the floodgates have opened, and now it can be told, in all its improbability, disappointment, redemption, and ultimate satisfaction.

"Why not us?" was originally Curt Schilling’s question to the masses as the pennant race unfolded last fall. Once Schilling helped fulfill that destiny and raised a Champagne toast in St. Louis to "The greatest Red Sox team ever assembled," Montville took that original proposal and posed it to the rest of the long-suffering zealots who worshiped at the altar of the local nine.

Why Not Us? Have we got a story for you.

"Sporting Eye" runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com. Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com