Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed on 6/30/2020 + 1223 more book reviews

I really enjoyed this marvelous book that uses college baseball as a backdrop. It's a story about friendship and coming of age written with a deep sense of emotion and is full of characters who are vulnerable, quirky and very unforgettable. The main protagonist of the story is Henry Skrimshander, a very promising shortstop who is recruited to play on the Westish College team in rural Wisconsin. Henry's Bible is The Art of Fielding, a baseball manual written by the fictional Aparicio Rodriguez, a Hall of Fame shortstop for Henry's beloved St. Louis Cardinals. (Aparicio was based on the fictional combination of Luis Aparicio and Ozzie Smith). Henry seems destined for greatness and actually ties Rodriguez's NCAA record of 51 consecutive games without an error which leads to scouts from the Big Leagues looking seriously at him. But then an errant throw makes Henry doubt himself and his game suffers drastically.

But Henry is not alone in this very satisfying story. Henry was recruited to Westish by another student, Mike Schwartz, a strapping catcher who acts as his trainer and mentor. Then there is Owen Dunne, Henry's roommate who describes himself as a gay mulatto. The college president, Guert Affenlight, is also a Herman Melville scholar and has a special interest in Owen that he is trying to keep secret. And then there is his daughter, Pella, who moves in with him when her marriage falls apart.

The baseball sequences in this novel are very well written and provide a great overall background for the story. Henry's meltdown as he struggles to get his game together and the other characters reactions to it really provides the drive to the novel but the other sub-plots involving Affenlight and Owen, and Pella and Schwartz add even more substance to this powerful tale.

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