The Art of Fielding
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Book Overview
A disastrous error on the field sends five lives into a tailspin in this widely acclaimed tale about love, life, and baseball, praised by the New York Times as "wonderful...a novel that is every bit as entertaining as it is affecting." Named one of the year's best books by the New York Times, NPR, The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Bloomberg, Kansas City Star, Richmond Times-Dispatch, and Time Out New York. At Westish College, a small school on the shore of Lake Michigan, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big league stardom. But when a routine throw goes disastrously off course, the fates of five people are upended.
Henry's fight against self-doubt threatens to ruin his future. College president Guert Affenlight, a longtime bachelor, has fallen unexpectedly and helplessly in love. Owen Dunne, Henry's gay roommate and teammate, becomes caught up in a dangerous affair. Mike Schwartz, the Harpooners' team captain and Henry's best friend, realizes he has guided Henry's career at the expense of his own. And Pella Affenlight, Guert's daughter, returns to Westish after escaping an ill-fated marriage, determined to start a new life. As the season counts down to its climactic final game, these five are forced to confront their deepest hopes, anxieties, and secrets. In the process they forge new bonds, and help one another find their true paths. Written with boundless intelligence and filled with the tenderness of youth, The Art of Fielding is an expansive, warmhearted novel about ambition and its limits, about family and friendship and love, and about commitment -- to oneself and to others. "First novels this complete and consuming come along very, very seldom." --Jonathan Franzen
Henry's fight against self-doubt threatens to ruin his future. College president Guert Affenlight, a longtime bachelor, has fallen unexpectedly and helplessly in love. Owen Dunne, Henry's gay roommate and teammate, becomes caught up in a dangerous affair. Mike Schwartz, the Harpooners' team captain and Henry's best friend, realizes he has guided Henry's career at the expense of his own. And Pella Affenlight, Guert's daughter, returns to Westish after escaping an ill-fated marriage, determined to start a new life. As the season counts down to its climactic final game, these five are forced to confront their deepest hopes, anxieties, and secrets. In the process they forge new bonds, and help one another find their true paths. Written with boundless intelligence and filled with the tenderness of youth, The Art of Fielding is an expansive, warmhearted novel about ambition and its limits, about family and friendship and love, and about commitment -- to oneself and to others. "First novels this complete and consuming come along very, very seldom." --Jonathan Franzen
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:0316126691
ISBN13:9780316126694
Release Date:September 2011
Publisher:Little Brown and Company
Length:528 Pages
Weight:1.80 lbs.
Dimensions:1.5" x 6.5" x 9.3"
Customer Reviews
2 ratings
A Deep Reflection on Change and Life
Published by Randy Ehrler , 5 months ago
You don't have to love baseball to enjoy “The Art of Fielding” by Chad Harbach, but it helps. Ultimately, this is a book about the struggle to balance work and play, and the challenges of early adulthood when our hobbies start carrying more responsibility and obligation. Though centered on baseball, it's really about those formative college years when we strive to separate ourselves from our parents and childhood, discovering who we are as adults, and deciding what to hold onto, let go of, and pursue. The novel follows Henry, whose talent initially goes unnoticed but then shines in his first two years of college, and how he handles the ensuing pressure. With a rich cast of characters and deep reflections on age, the novel echoes the recurring cycle of reevaluating our place and desires throughout different life stages. It prompts us to question and reflect on our own lives, marking it as a thought-provoking and transformative read.
Heart wrenching and poignant
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 7 years ago
I thought I wouldn’t like a baseball book, but this one captured me body and soul. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book where I still clutch my chest and think about a set of characters in bittersweet memory. Absolutely fantastic.
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