Thursday, January 17, 2013

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

ISBN: 0316126675   ISBN13: 9780316126670
Pages: 544
Genre: Fiction, Sports, LGBT
Publisher: Back Bay Books (Paperback)
Published: 2012/05/01 (Paperback)

 

 

 

 

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Page-Turner

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Full disclosure, I am a baseball fan. This probably weighs on my positive view of this book. I destroyed this book. (No I didn't burn it). I mean the book is over 500 pages and I read it in about six days. How fast do I normally read you ask? Certainly not 100 pages a day. Probably closer to 25-30.

That being said this is a very light read. The plot line was decent, but the biggest issue I had was character abandonment. The main character in the book is Henry Skrimshander (I love the names in this book by the way) who is an outstanding shortstop. At the beginning of the novel there is a lot of time spent on developing Henry's character, but towards the middle he kind of gets abandoned as other plot threads and characters are pursued. The book does pick up on Henry again but not until the end of the novel.

There are four main plot threads that are followed in this book. Thread one is Henry's meeting Mike Schwartz. Mike Schwartz becomes a personal coach and trainer of Henry after seeing Henry's incredibly fielding prowess. They train relentlessly to build up Henry's physical abilities.

A second thread revolves around Guert Affenlight, the President of Westish college, and his struggles with sexual identity. Guert realizes his attraction to Owen Dunne and tries to make sense of his feelings and how to handle them properly.

A third thread is Pella Affenlight. Yes she gets her own thread. Pella is the daughter of Guert Affenlight. She drops out of college to marry an older man and leaves him without his knowledge. She decides to start attending Westish college, and immediately gets involved with Mike Schwartz.

The fourth plot thread is, of course, the progress of the Westish baseball team. A team which has not won a championship in the 100 some years they have existed. However, after the addition of Henry Skrimshander and his rapid improvement on offense, the team starts winning for the first time in school history.

This book takes us through the up and down struggles of life from the viewpoints of multiple characters. From baseball wins and losses, team meltdowns, relationship debacles, and societal prejudices this book addresses them all. Overall, I really enjoyed the book, and I think even if you aren't a baseball fan it is worth a read.


Character Review

**Warning May Contain Light Spoilers**
 
Main Characters:

 

Henry Skrimshander  - The main character of the story. Has an affinity for a (fictional) Cardinals shortstop Aparicio Rodriguez (author of the Art of Fielding within the novel). Becomes very dependent on Mike Schwartz early on in the book. A generally likeable guy, but lacks the ability to form relationships outside of Mike Schwartz. Focuses entirely on baseball training.


Mike Schwartz - The leader. The team captain. Justifies his existence through his own successes. Begins suffering from his own physical inadequacies (bad knees) that will keep him from pursuing sports beyond college. Suffers from anger issues and falls into a pit of drinking and narcotics (think prescription painkillers) abuse. Becomes involved with Pella Affenlight shortly after her arrival to Westish College.

Owen Dunne - Probably my favorite character in the book. We meet him at the beginning of the book as he is Henry's roommate in the dorms. Owen is incredibly intelligent and very well read. He identifies as a homosexual and ends up getting involved with Guert Affenlight, the president of Westish college. He spends most of this time on the Westish bench (until later in the novel) usually reading a book.

Guert Affenlight - President of Westish College. He discovered unpublished papers by Herman Melville which rocked him to academic success. He returns to Westish and becomes the President of the college. Suffers throughout the book with sexual identity after he discovers his attraction to Owen Dunne. He is one of those amiable college Presidents who knows everyone's name (well except maybe the real new people).

Pella Affenlight - The daughter of Guert Affenlight. She leaves her husband (who she dropped out of college to marry) to head to Westish college on her own. She likes to think of herself as a strong independent person, but is really rather dependent on other people. She quickly becomes with Mike Schwartz after arriving in Westish College.

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