Reviews

The Iowa Baseball Confederacy by W.P. Kinsella

el_entrenador_loco's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

jfranco77's review

4.0

It took a long time for this book to get going, but once it did, it was really enjoyable. Gideon Clarke inherited a belief from his father that the Chicago Cubs definitely, definitely came to Iowa in 1908 for an exhibition game against the best players from the Iowa Baseball Confederacy. He learned about it slowly from his father over time, until one day all of the knowledge appeared in his brain all at once when his father died. And Gideon has dedicated his life to proving that this game existed, often to his own detriment.

Then one day... Gideon travels back in time to 1908, and mysticism and magic ensue. At times this book reminded me of If I Never Get Back (Darryl Brock), and yes there are elements of Shoeless Joe (the basis for Field of Dreams). Suffice it to say, things are far wilder and magical than even Gideon could have expected.

tee_tuhm's review

2.0

What stinks is that I absolutely loved Shoeless Joe. But this book plods. The disjointed narrative style is tough to stick with, too.

Definitely read Shoeless Joe instead.

skolastic's review

4.0

An engaging, beautiful story with well-realized characters and incredible writing. I think that Kinsella sometimes hits the magical-realism-button a bit too hard, but this is otherwise one of the better books I've read this summer. Kinsella gets baseball on a level I didn't even know existed (which I really should have expected, but hey). Give it a whirl.

gracer's review

3.0

What a fun book! Also a bit confusing, however. I really loved all of the baseball + time travel + historical figures (Teddy Roosevelt, Leonardo da Vinci). But some of the other characters, such as Sunny, bothered me, and I didn't get the thing about Sarah getting stuck. The ending kind of lost me. Still, left me feeling pretty happy with it.

palefire's review

5.0

My favorite baseball novel. Indian spirits take advantage of baseball's infinite game clause to make an unending baseball game happen. Terrific!