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rpych2's review against another edition
2.0
I really wanted to like this book more, because I’m a huge baseball fan and I love character driven stories. And I liked the idea of splitting up the novel into nine innings that would be chapters, but it felt disjointed at times and more like a short story collection set in the same setting at times. Like the 30 pages about the baseball wives that didn’t actually focus on anyone’s POV or connect to the story in the slightest, I’m still struggling to understand why that was included.
There were some good characters in the story, but for the most part they were all just bad people who had comically large flaws, because there couldn’t be a character that was just decent or dealing with smaller things in their lives. But my biggest complaint was the ending, which was horrible. There was no resolution at all, it just sort of ends. I understand that it’s more about the characters than the plot, but none of the characters had any resolution to their stories either. It made it seem like there wasn’t actually a point to anything that happened in the story, because we don’t get to see how the characters change or are affected by their actions. It’s 1.5 or 2 stars for me because I did like the spring training backdrop and some of the stories were okay, but for the most part I didn’t like this one.
There were some good characters in the story, but for the most part they were all just bad people who had comically large flaws, because there couldn’t be a character that was just decent or dealing with smaller things in their lives. But my biggest complaint was the ending, which was horrible. There was no resolution at all, it just sort of ends. I understand that it’s more about the characters than the plot, but none of the characters had any resolution to their stories either. It made it seem like there wasn’t actually a point to anything that happened in the story, because we don’t get to see how the characters change or are affected by their actions. It’s 1.5 or 2 stars for me because I did like the spring training backdrop and some of the stories were okay, but for the most part I didn’t like this one.
kimberlina82's review against another edition
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
It’s a decent book, however I was not a fan of the ending. Too abrupt and no closure.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Sexual content, and Addiction
Minor: Ableism, Grief, Blood, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Adult/minor relationship, and Death of parent
erincampbell87's review against another edition
2.0
This book crawls along like a too-hot afternoon game.
The story focuses on the pre-season decline of an aging star outfielder, told through everyone else's eyes. Yes, it's the popular structure of separate stories held together by one character or event, and here, that's Jason Goodyear, a character whom I wish had gotten more page time and been given a deeper emotional backstory in each one of the vignettes he popped through. The idea of weaving together the many people who are effected by one man's performance is fascinating enough, but the connecting thread was never strong enough and the richly drawn character studies focused mainly on appearance and setting rather than emotional motivation or revelatory backstories. The main chapters are written in the slightly outdated style of densely packed sentences filled with facts, physical descriptors, and blunt similes rather than emotional depth. The women, especially, felt superficially sketched and lacking in complexity, which I have to admit was a little bit of an extra disappointment coming from a young woman writer. There were so many characters I wanted more from, whose stories left me curious about how they ended up where they did. The splits between the chapters, written in the voice of an anonymous reporter, were the most creative and intriguing parts of the book that made me wonder what they whole thing could have been like if truly written from the bird's eye view of an obsessive veteran sports reporter.
The story focuses on the pre-season decline of an aging star outfielder, told through everyone else's eyes. Yes, it's the popular structure of separate stories held together by one character or event, and here, that's Jason Goodyear, a character whom I wish had gotten more page time and been given a deeper emotional backstory in each one of the vignettes he popped through. The idea of weaving together the many people who are effected by one man's performance is fascinating enough, but the connecting thread was never strong enough and the richly drawn character studies focused mainly on appearance and setting rather than emotional motivation or revelatory backstories. The main chapters are written in the slightly outdated style of densely packed sentences filled with facts, physical descriptors, and blunt similes rather than emotional depth. The women, especially, felt superficially sketched and lacking in complexity, which I have to admit was a little bit of an extra disappointment coming from a young woman writer. There were so many characters I wanted more from, whose stories left me curious about how they ended up where they did. The splits between the chapters, written in the voice of an anonymous reporter, were the most creative and intriguing parts of the book that made me wonder what they whole thing could have been like if truly written from the bird's eye view of an obsessive veteran sports reporter.
thereadingpotato's review against another edition
2.0
This book had a lot going for it: baseball metaphors, intertwining stories from varied perspectives, and a solid setting established within spring training in Scottsdale, Arizona. However, I felt that several of the characters lacked depth and that many sections of the novel were overly detailed. I also found the recurring narrator to be more distracting than facilitating between each chapter. The novel truly aims to capture a single moment in time with no suggestion for anything happening after, which left me feeling simultaneously interested yet unresolved.
akennedy772's review against another edition
4.0
For some reason books that use baseball as a backdrop really work for me. 4.5/5.
remlezar's review against another edition
3.0
A solid 3+ out of 5. I appreciate what this book does, which is to paint a picture of the incredibly unglamorous side of professional baseball. Nemens does this by giving you brief glimpses into a large number of characters who occasionally bump into each other: the star player, the groupie, the washed up batting coach, the struggling rookie, the big money agent. Through these glimpses you end up with both the big and small picture of what life is like as someone whose life revolves, in one way or another, around America's Pastime. Think less "Field of Dreams" and more "The Florida Project," generally speaking.
My main issue is that I felt like a lot of the characters, who I mostly found interesting, ended up underserved by the book as a whole. I guess what I really wanted was to live with some of them much more, as opposed to just popping in here and there for a day-in-the-life and then only seeing them in passing for the rest of the book. I could have lived here for twice the number of pages, and I think I would have walked away with something more emotionally rewarding.
My main issue is that I felt like a lot of the characters, who I mostly found interesting, ended up underserved by the book as a whole. I guess what I really wanted was to live with some of them much more, as opposed to just popping in here and there for a day-in-the-life and then only seeing them in passing for the rest of the book. I could have lived here for twice the number of pages, and I think I would have walked away with something more emotionally rewarding.
davygibbs's review against another edition
3.0
A smart, snappy novel that I enjoyed reading for the most part. But one not without some annoying tics and an occasionally grating narrator. One of those tics is the between-chapter interludes -- I guess narrated by a sportswriter we never really get to know? The geological metaphor was not doing it for me at all. Another was the abundance of cocksure generalizations, often regarding men and women. Nemens doesn't often give the former much credit, but then, she's hard on the latter, too. But you roll your eyes if you feel the need and you move on. I also felt like the ending was rushed -- with 20, 10 pages left, I couldn't imagine how she'd tie up all the loose ends, and, well, she didn't. She tied up two. And while that resolution was effective, and wrenching, it felt abrupt and incomplete. On the other hand, I picked the book up mainly because it's almost baseball season and I'm excited about that, and I wanted to read something that fed my excitement. As far as that goes, The Cactus League was a resounding success. The baseball-oriented perspective was a consistent highlight.
Update: Below, I read a user review suggesting that the individual stories making up the novel would've worked better as a collection of short stories, and I think that's spot-on.
Update: Below, I read a user review suggesting that the individual stories making up the novel would've worked better as a collection of short stories, and I think that's spot-on.
tonyzale's review against another edition
3.0
Baseball’s spring training: a classic American metaphor for rebirth. A chance for new beginnings; the opportunity to finally fulfill your potential. “The Cactus League” blows this fantasy up, over and over again, with a set of interlaced tales touching a fictitious Major League Baseball team during its six weeks in Scottsdale, Arizona. The promise of a new season doesn’t last long for these characters: from star outfielder Jason Goodyear’s gambling troubles, to the team organist struggling to master the stadium’s new, hi-tech sound system, spring’s optimism is crushed before the season even begins. A hammy, down-on-his-luck sportswriter ties the stories together with absurdly myopic analogies linking baseball to Arizona’s geologic and anthropologic history. Could he stretch to compare Native American tribes like the Pima or Hohokam to baseball teams? Why not: “the Maricopa seemed a good partner against the Apache (the bench-clearing brawls were getting more frequent).“
This sounds ridiculous and it is, but largely it works. These characters are stuck in baseball’s orbit, see no other way to live. Tami and her friend Deidre try to snag ballplayers in their self-admitted gold digging attempts centered around high-end local bars and restaurants. Players’ wives and girlfriends have an unspoken social hierarchy that plays out in box seats and at poolside parties. No one seems happy, but that’s baseball. Maybe next year.
This sounds ridiculous and it is, but largely it works. These characters are stuck in baseball’s orbit, see no other way to live. Tami and her friend Deidre try to snag ballplayers in their self-admitted gold digging attempts centered around high-end local bars and restaurants. Players’ wives and girlfriends have an unspoken social hierarchy that plays out in box seats and at poolside parties. No one seems happy, but that’s baseball. Maybe next year.
tsharris's review against another edition
4.0
It's hard to write a baseball novel that doesn't rely on cliches...and this one is no exception. This is a collection of character studies, and many of the characters are very familiar from other baseball books and movies, with some noteworthy exceptions. But it was a enjoyable and memorable novel -- and it's hard not to be touched by the ending.