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A review by karieh13
Calico Joe by John Grisham
2.0
I haven’t read a John Grisham book for a while…so I understand that jumping back in with a departure from his usual genre might make for a very different experience than I was used to…but I just didn’t take much away from “Calico Joe”.
I read it in one sitting – and other than being mildly offended by a sexist remark that the main character makes - “I did not want a boy, because I did not want to see him pick up a baseball and start tossing it around. Most of my friends have a boy or two, and they have all coached the game at some level. I am sure I would have felt the temptation to do likewise with a boy, so I am relieved to have all girls” - the book didn’t make me feel much of anything. As I read, I couldn’t help but compare it to “Shoeless Joe” which I read and loved, and it doesn’t measure up.
I didn’t get any real sense of anger or loss or even love of the game of baseball. The reader is told how the characters feel, but we never really experience emotion along with them. The premise could have been a powerful one if only the characters felt…more real. If only the story made me care about them. The description of the games, of the magical summer of 1973 was well done but the characters involved in the events of that summer come across as wooden.
There is a magic to the purest stories about America’s pastime as there is a magic to the game. That magic is missing from “Calico Joe”.
I read it in one sitting – and other than being mildly offended by a sexist remark that the main character makes - “I did not want a boy, because I did not want to see him pick up a baseball and start tossing it around. Most of my friends have a boy or two, and they have all coached the game at some level. I am sure I would have felt the temptation to do likewise with a boy, so I am relieved to have all girls” - the book didn’t make me feel much of anything. As I read, I couldn’t help but compare it to “Shoeless Joe” which I read and loved, and it doesn’t measure up.
I didn’t get any real sense of anger or loss or even love of the game of baseball. The reader is told how the characters feel, but we never really experience emotion along with them. The premise could have been a powerful one if only the characters felt…more real. If only the story made me care about them. The description of the games, of the magical summer of 1973 was well done but the characters involved in the events of that summer come across as wooden.
There is a magic to the purest stories about America’s pastime as there is a magic to the game. That magic is missing from “Calico Joe”.