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morgob's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book. It was recommended to me by a dear friend of mine named Zach, who said I would get a lot out of it right now, and I did. This book is about baseball, which is not really something I enjoy, but it is about so much more than that. The premise is this star athlete named Henry is an outstanding shortstop and is expected to become a professional athlete, and then he makes a huge mistake that totally throws him off (no pun intended). His confidence is completely shattered and he starts playing horribly, and basically his entire life spirals out of control.
One of the things I liked best about this book is I could relate to two of the characters a bit, Henry and Schwartz. College athletics is something else. Especially if you run or play D3. You're not being paid to be there, there are no scholarships for that, you're doing it because you are committed to the sport. And, if you are like me, you end up being committed to the team and to making yourself an overall better person. That is collegiate athletics. It is also the intense grind, the getting up before the sun rises to do a workout or a double, to spend extra time in the weight room to get stronger. In college athletics, you have at least 3 hours set out for you to just focus on your sport every day. My favorite times used to be preseason and the very end of the year, after classes ended and track was still going for another week. I absolutely loved that time because there was nothing but running. I could do two or three runs or workouts a day and just feel like a total badass. There was nothing in my life that mattered except running and putting the work in.
Anyway, a lot of the reason I liked this book so much is because it reminded me of Cornell and being on the team. It made me miss it so much. I miss the team, the intensity, hurting every step across campus, putting miles upon miles under my belt each week. I miss all of that. This book spurned me on to set up a new plan for my running that I will stick to. It's like how I read one book every summer about running at a specific point when motivation is low, just to get myself moving and inspired again. This was that book for me.
It was a sad book, don't get me wrong. It was horribly sad. There's death and failure and mental health problems. I didn't actually dislike any of the characters, though. They were people and they were flawed, but I loved all of them. I wanted so badly for things to go well for them, even President Affenlight, though I really didn't like him for most of the book. Overall, this book is about life and failure. It took me a long time to have confidence in myself. I still don't have it mastered completely. But that is one of my greatest achievements of college. It's about failure and having the courage to try again. Overcoming mental barriers to achieve personal excellence.
I think this was exactly the right time for me to read this. I have said goodbye to college and am moving on. I've gone through struggles similar to Henry's. Instead of an error in a game, it was a bad race. Instead of not eating because he just wants to let go, I wasn't eating because I thought it made me faster. I just loved this book because of how much I could relate to it, and how it talks about college and collegiate athletics, and a little bit of what happens after. That was always such a big question on my mind the past few years: what happens when it's over? How do you move on from college athletics, when you're no longer on a team? I'm working through those things, becoming my own coach.
Anyway, the last thing I want to say is that I loved the ending. I saw some people asking questions about it and getting angry because of it, and I wanted to offer my own opinion. This was a lot longer than I wanted it to be, but those are my thoughts.
One of the things I liked best about this book is I could relate to two of the characters a bit, Henry and Schwartz. College athletics is something else. Especially if you run or play D3. You're not being paid to be there, there are no scholarships for that, you're doing it because you are committed to the sport. And, if you are like me, you end up being committed to the team and to making yourself an overall better person. That is collegiate athletics. It is also the intense grind, the getting up before the sun rises to do a workout or a double, to spend extra time in the weight room to get stronger. In college athletics, you have at least 3 hours set out for you to just focus on your sport every day. My favorite times used to be preseason and the very end of the year, after classes ended and track was still going for another week. I absolutely loved that time because there was nothing but running. I could do two or three runs or workouts a day and just feel like a total badass. There was nothing in my life that mattered except running and putting the work in.
Anyway, a lot of the reason I liked this book so much is because it reminded me of Cornell and being on the team. It made me miss it so much. I miss the team, the intensity, hurting every step across campus, putting miles upon miles under my belt each week. I miss all of that. This book spurned me on to set up a new plan for my running that I will stick to. It's like how I read one book every summer about running at a specific point when motivation is low, just to get myself moving and inspired again. This was that book for me.
It was a sad book, don't get me wrong. It was horribly sad. There's death and failure and mental health problems. I didn't actually dislike any of the characters, though. They were people and they were flawed, but I loved all of them. I wanted so badly for things to go well for them, even President Affenlight, though I really didn't like him for most of the book. Overall, this book is about life and failure. It took me a long time to have confidence in myself. I still don't have it mastered completely. But that is one of my greatest achievements of college. It's about failure and having the courage to try again. Overcoming mental barriers to achieve personal excellence.
I think this was exactly the right time for me to read this. I have said goodbye to college and am moving on. I've gone through struggles similar to Henry's. Instead of an error in a game, it was a bad race. Instead of not eating because he just wants to let go, I wasn't eating because I thought it made me faster. I just loved this book because of how much I could relate to it, and how it talks about college and collegiate athletics, and a little bit of what happens after. That was always such a big question on my mind the past few years: what happens when it's over? How do you move on from college athletics, when you're no longer on a team? I'm working through those things, becoming my own coach.
Anyway, the last thing I want to say is that I loved the ending. I saw some people asking questions about it and getting angry because of it, and I wanted to offer my own opinion.
Spoiler
I think it was just perfect. I suppose a few people didn't really get what they wanted, but they ended up in the right spot for them, I think. Pella at Westish, taking her life back and becoming her own person. Schwartz as a coach, which I really always saw. Affenlight in the water (that's not funny but it's kind of funny). And Henry playing another year at Westish. I understand why people are mad. He gave up his dream and all that money for another year of college! But I think he wasn't ready. He definitely wasn't ready mentally, but he wasn't ready to leave his home at Westish. The team was his family, and they meant a lot to him. He had one more year anyway, as he was only a junior, and I definitely would have done the same thing. Baseball was his life, yes, but Westish--and that team--was his home.jcunning57's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
wintrovia's review against another edition
4.0
Char Harbach received a $650,000 advance for The Art of Fielding. An almost unheard of amount of money for a debut novel, which also meant it received a flurry of free publicity in literary circles before it came out. These high expectations perhaps would make it easy to dismiss the book as overrated trash but it's actually very good. It's a compelling story with richly drawn characters that are all muddling through their believably messed up lives.
The story focuses on the life of a baseball playing college student who is on the cusp of greatness but is risking throwing everything away just as he's about to get everything he ever wanted.
Baseball
The story revolves around a college student called Henry who's got the potential to be the greatest shortstop in baseball history. I've no interest in baseball, the tactics or the skills that the players have to learn to become great but somehow this book made me care.
Not in a way that means I'm going to go sing up to my nearest baseball team (living in England I'm guessing that it would involve a reasonably long journey). But the long descriptions of baseball games are excellently written and add an element of action to a book that might otherwise have involved a bit too much navel gazing.
Doubt
There are four main characters in the book, Henry the up and coming baseball star, Mike the inspirational leader of the baseball team, Affenlight the President of the university and Pella the daughter of the president. All four experience their own kind of crisis throughout the book.
The circumstances of these crises, though linked, are all different. The do however share a common theme of doubt. Doubt in what the future holds, doubt in their own ability, doubt in the choices they've made or are about to make. It's all very uncertain. Each character is given chance to fully explore their moments of doubt and you are offered an insight into their internal world as they wrestle their demons.
One of the strengths of the book is that you never really know how things will play out. With Hollywood films training us to expect a happy ever after at the end of every story, it's a relief to read something where you genuinely don't know how things will work out and characters are capable of behaving surprisingly without seeming unrealistic.
The Art of Fielding - HBO TV series
One thing I've spotted online is that HBO have bought the rights and plan to turn the book into a TV series. It's reasonable to worry whenever a great book is going to be turned into a TV programme or a film but if any production company would be able to this story justice it would be HBO.
A film might have been possible but it would have involved cutting vast amounts of storyline to trim it down. A full length TV series should give the story more time to breathe and I'm hopeful that in the right hands the story could be given a wider audience, it certainly deserves it.
Rating - four stars
I'm going to give the book four out of five. It's a compelling read and it had it felt like it had a real substance to it. There were a few passages were it perhaps meandered a little bit and the main character Henry had a distance that made it hard to connect. This was compensated by the rich quality of the writing and the supporting characters had plenty about them to keep the reader interested.
At 500+ pages it is possibly a bit on the long side for the story it was telling but I found that I still got through it pretty quickly and was disappointed when I finished.
The story focuses on the life of a baseball playing college student who is on the cusp of greatness but is risking throwing everything away just as he's about to get everything he ever wanted.
Baseball
The story revolves around a college student called Henry who's got the potential to be the greatest shortstop in baseball history. I've no interest in baseball, the tactics or the skills that the players have to learn to become great but somehow this book made me care.
Not in a way that means I'm going to go sing up to my nearest baseball team (living in England I'm guessing that it would involve a reasonably long journey). But the long descriptions of baseball games are excellently written and add an element of action to a book that might otherwise have involved a bit too much navel gazing.
Doubt
There are four main characters in the book, Henry the up and coming baseball star, Mike the inspirational leader of the baseball team, Affenlight the President of the university and Pella the daughter of the president. All four experience their own kind of crisis throughout the book.
The circumstances of these crises, though linked, are all different. The do however share a common theme of doubt. Doubt in what the future holds, doubt in their own ability, doubt in the choices they've made or are about to make. It's all very uncertain. Each character is given chance to fully explore their moments of doubt and you are offered an insight into their internal world as they wrestle their demons.
One of the strengths of the book is that you never really know how things will play out. With Hollywood films training us to expect a happy ever after at the end of every story, it's a relief to read something where you genuinely don't know how things will work out and characters are capable of behaving surprisingly without seeming unrealistic.
The Art of Fielding - HBO TV series
One thing I've spotted online is that HBO have bought the rights and plan to turn the book into a TV series. It's reasonable to worry whenever a great book is going to be turned into a TV programme or a film but if any production company would be able to this story justice it would be HBO.
A film might have been possible but it would have involved cutting vast amounts of storyline to trim it down. A full length TV series should give the story more time to breathe and I'm hopeful that in the right hands the story could be given a wider audience, it certainly deserves it.
Rating - four stars
I'm going to give the book four out of five. It's a compelling read and it had it felt like it had a real substance to it. There were a few passages were it perhaps meandered a little bit and the main character Henry had a distance that made it hard to connect. This was compensated by the rich quality of the writing and the supporting characters had plenty about them to keep the reader interested.
At 500+ pages it is possibly a bit on the long side for the story it was telling but I found that I still got through it pretty quickly and was disappointed when I finished.
book_concierge's review against another edition
3.0
Audio book narrated by Holter Graham.
Henry Skrimshander is a baseball phenomenon from South Dakota who has landed at tiny Westish college, a school “in the crook of the baseball glove that is Wisconsin.” His future will become entwined with that of his roommate and teammate Owen Dunne, his mentor and team captain Mike Schwartz, the school president Guert Affenlight, and Guert’s daughter Pella, who returns home after her marriage fails.
When this book came out I was not enticed by the great reviews and general hoo-hah over its release. I just didn’t have any desire to read a book about baseball. Everyone told me that it was really not a baseball book, but I just wasn’t convinced. I never even added it to my tbr list. However, it’s a book-club selection, and the woman who suggested it is someone whose opinion I value, so I decided to give it a go.
There were parts of this book that really grabbed me; Harbach wrote so poetically about Henry’s skill as a short stop that he almost made me interested in baseball. But once Henry lost his confidence, I lost confidence in the book. The storyline seemed to lose momentum, and the middle part of the book just plodded along and stretched credulity too far for me. For example, the scene where Henry swims out into Lake Michigan at night …. Really? I’ve been in Lake Michigan off the coast of Door County in August and nearly froze my tush off. In Spring, Henry would have died of hypothermia in a few minutes. I thought all the characters behaved so immaturely, including (or especially) President Affenlight. Pella really irritated me, even more so because she was the only significant female character.
Holter Graham did a very good job performing the audio version. There were a couple of times when his voices for the many male characters sounded a little too much the same, but in general his skill was up to the task. I particularly liked the way he brought Henry and President Affenlight to life.
Henry Skrimshander is a baseball phenomenon from South Dakota who has landed at tiny Westish college, a school “in the crook of the baseball glove that is Wisconsin.” His future will become entwined with that of his roommate and teammate Owen Dunne, his mentor and team captain Mike Schwartz, the school president Guert Affenlight, and Guert’s daughter Pella, who returns home after her marriage fails.
When this book came out I was not enticed by the great reviews and general hoo-hah over its release. I just didn’t have any desire to read a book about baseball. Everyone told me that it was really not a baseball book, but I just wasn’t convinced. I never even added it to my tbr list. However, it’s a book-club selection, and the woman who suggested it is someone whose opinion I value, so I decided to give it a go.
There were parts of this book that really grabbed me; Harbach wrote so poetically about Henry’s skill as a short stop that he almost made me interested in baseball. But once Henry lost his confidence, I lost confidence in the book. The storyline seemed to lose momentum, and the middle part of the book just plodded along and stretched credulity too far for me. For example, the scene where Henry swims out into Lake Michigan at night …. Really? I’ve been in Lake Michigan off the coast of Door County in August and nearly froze my tush off. In Spring, Henry would have died of hypothermia in a few minutes. I thought all the characters behaved so immaturely, including (or especially) President Affenlight. Pella really irritated me, even more so because she was the only significant female character.
Holter Graham did a very good job performing the audio version. There were a couple of times when his voices for the many male characters sounded a little too much the same, but in general his skill was up to the task. I particularly liked the way he brought Henry and President Affenlight to life.
eshatto's review against another edition
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
astrochem's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
shareen17's review against another edition
3.0
Don't be scared away by the title. It is more about characters that happen to play baseball than baseball itself. I started out loving this book - the writing, the characters, the dialogue - but it fell apart for me about half way through.
ktaylorhurley's review against another edition
5.0
When asked about my favorite books, this one is always at the top of the list. I don't even know how to describe why. It's just. so. good.
alidottie's review against another edition
3.0
3 and a half stars
I am facilitating a "Dine and Discuss" at the library for this book since the librarian in charge of it is at a conference. I had to read this during a super hectic week in my life (if any of you have had a child get married, you know it's not the week you lick up a 500+ pp book and expect to finish it!), so I had to spend every spare minute yesterday (which happened to be my 24th wedding anniversary!) reading this book. Knowing myself as I do, having to read this book under these circumstances would have made almost any book I read lose some of it's appeal, that said, I still have a feeling I wouldn't have been crazy about this book.
I think Harbach does a stand-up job developing characters, so that wasn't the problem, I think the problem was I just could not relate to any of the characters problems or feel much sympathy for them either.
I know that this is suppose to be a baseball book, but it really didn't feel like it was about baseball. We shall see if I gain some insights that make me like this book more after I participate in this discussion!
I am facilitating a "Dine and Discuss" at the library for this book since the librarian in charge of it is at a conference. I had to read this during a super hectic week in my life (if any of you have had a child get married, you know it's not the week you lick up a 500+ pp book and expect to finish it!), so I had to spend every spare minute yesterday (which happened to be my 24th wedding anniversary!) reading this book. Knowing myself as I do, having to read this book under these circumstances would have made almost any book I read lose some of it's appeal, that said, I still have a feeling I wouldn't have been crazy about this book.
I think Harbach does a stand-up job developing characters, so that wasn't the problem, I think the problem was I just could not relate to any of the characters problems or feel much sympathy for them either.
I know that this is suppose to be a baseball book, but it really didn't feel like it was about baseball. We shall see if I gain some insights that make me like this book more after I participate in this discussion!
waynediane's review against another edition
5.0
You do not have to like baseball to enjoy this book. Definitely a summertime read. A boy who idolizes a short stop the best ever and grows up to be the best NO ERRORS. That being said, his life is thrown upside down along the way. From the Midwest to having a roommate his freshman year, who is gay and other very interesting characters etc. WONDERFUL BOOK!