Helpful Score: 3
This is the second book in the Frank Bascombe trilogy (along with The Sportswriter, published in the mid-1980s, and The Lay of the Land, published in 2006). The book deservedly won the National Book award for its depection of almost average guy Bascombe, a New Jersey real estate saleman and divorced dad making a pilgrimage to the Baseball Hall of Fame with his estranged teenage son.
Helpful Score: 2
Dense, turgid, and essentially unreadable tale of a 40-something divorcee trying to juggle a stalled real estate career, a tottering relationship with his girlfriend, and the needs of his troubled adolescent son over a long holiday weekend. Took me 3 days to get through the first 150 pages, at which point I decided I really didn't care.
