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Shoeless Joe
Shoeless Joe
Author: W. P. Kinsella
"If you build it, he will come." Them mysterious words of an Iowa baseball announcer lead Ray Kinsella to carve a baseball diamond in his cornfield in honor of his hero, the baseball legend Shoeless Joe Jackson. This is a book "not so much about baseball as it is about dreams, magic, life, and what is quintessentially American," said the Philade...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780395320471
ISBN-10: 039532047X
Publication Date: 4/1982
Pages: 265
Rating:
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 2

3.8 stars, based on 2 ratings
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (T)
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 3
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

havan avatar reviewed Shoeless Joe on + 138 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Just finished this and needed to re-watch the movie Field of Dreams that it inspired. While the novel has some characters, themes, and events that some might feel are missing from the film, on the whole, the film is faithful to the spirit of the book and in some ways even improves upon it.

This book is about the love of baseball, known for decades as the American Pastime. The book is also about the love of the land and this is one of the themes that gets trimmed. But the love of baseball is embellished upon. It's a love passed down from fathers to sons and while this man has only one daughter, its clear that that love is being taught to her as well. Finally, the book and the movie are about having the courage to fearlessly follow your dreams when you know that they're in the right.

The novel clearly falls into the Magical Realism school and the movie makes that even more apparent. It's about the beauty of dreams and one man's quixotic mission to follow his dreams.

The connections with baseball are perfect for this theme. Baseball is evocative of a simpler, more innocent time when even the villains could be heroes.

Surprisingly the book is more modest than the movie in some of its plot points. The book's protagonist is a bit more of the everyman while the movie emphasizes the fabulous dreamer part of his character.

It's a measure of the magic of film that the movie evokes the beauty of the ball diamond and the worshipful air of expectancy associated with a game under the lights without coming off as religious, while some of the passages in the book that attempt the same descriptions seem weirdly evangelical.

Ray's twin brother, the old farmer Eddie Scissons and Annie's Brother Mark all receive less emphasis in the film but their absense was not too deeply felt.

Not omitted, but considerably changed was the authors's fascination with reclusive writers. James Earl Jones does a credible job as the formerly activist writer Terrence Mann in the film but this fictional writer is a poor substitute for the original J.D.Salinger of the book. However it is nice to see a black man in this film that is firmly centered on pre-Jackie Robinson baseball.

I'd recommend this to baseball fans, fans of dreamers, fans of writers and to fans of fathers and sons. This read is well worth the time.
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reviewed Shoeless Joe on
LOVED this book. Read it years ago and I remember savoring every page. Doesn't matter if you don't love baseball; it's a great story.
reviewed Shoeless Joe on + 2 more book reviews
Charming book. So well written that I slowed way down to savor every word. Better than the movie!
reviewed Shoeless Joe on + 15 more book reviews
Love this story
reviewed Shoeless Joe on + 6 more book reviews
Good read, sort of a "guys" book, some bad language, the story of a guy's dream of something that could be
reviewed Shoeless Joe on + 24 more book reviews
Inspired the movie "Field of Dreams". Warms your heart in just the same way. Kinsella has a gift for touching our warm and fuzzy-bone.
reviewed Shoeless Joe on + 3352 more book reviews
Interesting posthumous tale about one of our American baseball legends.


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