A review by funknik
The Iowa Baseball Confederacy by W.P. Kinsella

2.0

I enjoyed this book fairly well through the first half of it - the baseball and mysticism themes intrigued me, and the premise was engaging. What a monotonous and tangled web this story became, though! By the middle of the book, Kinsella was throwing everything into the pot arbitrarily and trying to connect all of the disparate threads - ultimately without success. There is strong imagery in this novel and some good characterization, but the sheer volume of themes the author injected attempting to create a "deep and philosophical" air, coupled with some very goofy characters and plot devices, just derailed the whole thing for me - by the end of this book, I was actively disliking it. I found the novel unfocused at best, and cringeworthy at worst - the representation of Native Americans was especially off-putting, even considering it was written in the late 1970s. There was promising groundwork laid, but I wouldn't recommend this book - even to fans of Kinsella (I LOVE "Shoeless Joe") - despite having such a creative premise.