The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

This novel by Chad Harbach has caused a national stir among literary experts and has won praise of the sort a first-time offering rarely does.
by Charlie Leck

“The ability to throw a baseball was an alchemical thing, a superhero’s secret power. You could never quite tell who possessed it.”
                                [The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach]

“Well, it’s not really a baseball book,” my friend said, “though it might seem like it at first.”

As I closed it, I knew he was incorrect. This is a book about errors. It is a baseball book. There just happens to be a lot of other stuff going on also – and much of it happens to be about sex – and self-doubt – and fear of the truth – and breaking out – and dying with a broken heart. However, essentially, this is a book about baseball and how the game can jerk you around and make you half crazy with happiness in one quick moment and have you crumbling with fear and self-doubt in another.

I don’t know how many novels I’ve read in my life that seemed to be holding a mirror up for me, so that I might see myself more clearly. Only a few! This one did, but I don’t want to talk about that. I just want to forget it. Take it as a warning! I’ll get on with something else….

The Protagonist
Who is the leading character – the hero or heroine – the main person in Harbach’s book? Take your choice. The author builds a number of characters and the story is told from the mind and perspective of first this one and then that one and/or even another one. Skrimmer? Schwartz? Pella? Owen? Dr. Affenlight?

But, there’s always baseball hanging around in the background, acting as the glue that keeps the story together. Certainly, most of the story is away from the ball park, but the complexities of the game often get translated into the complications of even those characters who understand nothing about the game and how it’s played.

As Dr. Affenlight, the President of Westish College in Wisconsin, reflects near the conclusion of the book (sounding as if he could be thinking about a baseball game, though he wasn’t)…

“Most likely the string of errors was perfectly looped, without any ends at all. There were no whys in a person’s life, and very few hows. In the end, in search of useful wisdom, you could only come back to the most hackneyed concepts, like kindness, forbearance, infinite patience. Solomon and Lincoln: This too shall pass. Damn right it will. Or Chekhov: Nothing passes. Equally true.”
                                [The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach]

The ballplayer, in a moment of now or never, thinks of himself as the center of the universe…

“Each of us, deep down, believes that the whole world issues from his own precious body, like images projected from a tiny slide onto an earth sized screen. And then, deep down, each of us knows he’s wrong.”
                                [The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach]

And on the ball field friendships can be formed that last forever and are cautiously cared for; and trust can be cultivated and grown strong and true.

“...a soul isn’t something a person is born with but something that must be built, by effort and error, study and love.”
                                [The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach]

Well, perhaps, to the uninitiated, this is not a baseball book. What then is it about? Friendship? Team mates? Love? Trust? Enduring? Overcoming? Forgiving? To those of us who have been lucky enough to meet, face to face, the Great Spirit of the Game and to be humbled by it, we know! We know! This is a baseball book.

And, what a wonderful book it is – whatever it is about. The immensely talented writer, John Irving said of it…

“It’s pure fun, easy to read, as if the other Fielding had a hand in it – as if Tom Jones were about baseball and college life.” [John Irving]

I read the book in two sittings. I literally found it difficult to put down. I penciled it up a lot and put many exclamation marks in the margins to indicate wonderful sentences. When I finally closed the book, I sat way back in this very chair and realized that the character of Henry Skrimshander had become just as much a part of my life and memories as had Holden Caulfield so many years ago. I guess that’s as highly as I can praise a novel.

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Baseball Books

I recently blogged about Eric Rolfe Greenberg’s book, The Celebrant, and got a lot of email responses to that blog. Most you had never heard of the book!
by Charlie Leck

Thanks so much for all the wonderful emails and the comments about my review of The Celebrant (The Celebrant and My Old Man). I raised the question about why it was published by the University Nebraska Press. That seems strange to me and I’m sure there is a good reason. I’ve also tried to make contact with Greenberg, the author, but I can’t track him down

Well, in truth, I had never heard of The Celebrant before I got it as a gift this past Christmas – even though it was first published way back in 1983. I immediately caught the marketing blurb across the top of the book by a W.P. Kinsella:* “Simply the best baseball novel ever written!” That was interesting, but I still set the book aside for a few months and picked it up rather accidentally and began reading. Wow! It was wonderful.

Frankly, when I started thinking about it, I realized that I haven’t read all that many baseball books even though I am an enormous baseball fan and I’m terribly interested in the sport at both the small town level all the way through the professional ranks. I tried to think of the baseball books I’ve read in my life. I found the list below of books that have won “The Casey Award” since it was begun in 1983 (The Celebrant was the first winner). Moneyball is the only book on that list that I had read. My bad!

I’ve read a biography about Stan Musial (my childhood hero) and also his autobiography (co-written). What else? I racked my brain! Oh, yes, a book about Ebbets Field by the remarkable historian, Doris Kearns Goodwin. I liked the book so much that I wrote to her about it (no response!). There’s some faded memory about a book about the old “Negro Leagues” also. That’s it! Shame on me! I’ll take a look at the list below and pick out another one or two of these award winners to read.

I’ve sent my copy of the The Celebrant onto my brother and asked him to read it. I sent him Moneyball by Michael Lewis several years ago and he was nuts about that one.

In the meantime, I’m recommending The Celebrant again if you are a baseball nut who also likes to read. It’s a wonderful book. I post this blog only to answer a few of those many questions raised in the emails to me.

Here’s Wikipedia’s list of those books that have won the Casey Award since it was first given out in 1983.

·         1983 – Eric Rolfe Greenberg, for “The Celebrant”

·         1984 – Peter Golenbock, for “Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers”

·         1985 – Roger Kahn, for “Good Enough to Dream”

·         1986 – Bill James, for “The Bill James Historical Abstract”

·         1987 – Peter H. Gordon, for “Diamonds Are Forever”

·         1988 – John Holway, for “Blackball Stars”

·         1989 – Mike Sowell, for “The Pitch That Killed”

·         1990 – Harold Seymour, for “Baseball: The People’s Game”

·         1991 – Bruce Kukllick, for “To Everything a Season: Shibe Park and Urban Philadelphia, 1909-1976"

·         1992 – Phil S. Dixon, for “The Negro Baseball Leagues: A Photographic History”^[1]

·         1993 – Michael Gershman, for “Diamonds”

·         1994 – John Helyar, for “Lords of the Realm”

·         1995 – Henry W. Thomas, for “Walter Johnson”

·         1996 – Marty Appel, for “Slide, Kelly, Slide”

·         1997 – Thomas Dyja, for “Play for a Kingdom”

·         1998 – David Pietrusza, for “Judge and Jury”

·         1999 – Neal Karlen, for “Slouching Toward Fargo”

·         2000 – Reed Browning, for “Cy Young”

·         2001 – Tom Stanton, for “The Final Season”

·         2002 – Howard Bryant, for “Shut Out”

·         2003 – Michael Lewis, for Moneyball

·         2004 – Leigh Montville, for “Ted Williams”

·         2005 – Jonathan Eig, for “Luckiest Man”

·         2006 – Peter Morris,  for “Game of Inches”

·         2007 – Joe Posnanski, for “The Soul of Baseball”

·         2008 – Kadir Nelson, for "We are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball"

·         2009 – Larry Tye, for "Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend"

·         2010 – Howard Bryant, for "The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron"

I should add that I do have here on my desk a copy of the above mentioned Howard Bryant book about Hank Aaron. It is waiting to be read (and that will happen soon). It was also a gift this past Christmas.

*W. P. Kinsella is the author is Shoeless Joe (1982). He’s a Canadian writer (novelist and short stories). Shoeless Joe, I learn only now from Wikipedia, was adapted into a movie we all probably know – Field of Dreams (1989). You can see a list of his other published works at this Wikipedia reference.

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If you read my blog regularly, why not become a follower? All you have to do is click in the upper right hand corner and establish a simple means of communication. Then you'll be informed every time a new blog is posted here. If all that's confusing, here's Google's explanation of how to do it! If you don’t want to post comments on the blog, but would like to communicate with me about it, send me an email if you’d like.