The Art of Fielding is ostensibly a book about baseball, and baseball does encompass a good portion of the story, but Chad Harbach’s debut novel is much, much more than just another book about baseball.
Henry Skrimshander is small and a bit scrawny, but he’s an outstanding short stop who makes fielding and tossing the ball to first base look effortless. Mike Schwartz is Henry’s opposite – tall and bulky, he’s destroyed his knees and his back from years of playing catcher and lifting weights. When Mike and Henry play against each other in a summer league baseball game, Mike decides Henry is just what his college team needs. Henry enrolls in Westish, a small Wisconsin college on the banks of Lake Michigan whose baseball team hasn’t won the conference title in over 100 years. His roommate, Owen, is openly gay, and also makes the baseball team, though he prefers to sit in the dugout reading a book during games.
Guert Affenlight is the president of Westish. He lives alone in the president’s quarters in the dorms and enjoys his solitude, plus a bit of fame from discovering the transcript from a lecture given at Westish by Herman Melville. His daughter Pella arrives from California, toting only a wicker bag with a few personal items, having left her husband after 4 years of unhappiness. Pella’s sudden appearance is fraught with tension as father and daughter have not seen each other since she dropped out of high school to marry a man in his 30s.
Henry spends his first 3 years at Westish working with Mike to improve his batting skills and continuing his streak of collegiate baseball games without an error, a record set by Henry’s hero, the great shortstop Aparacio Rodriguez. Rodriguez is the author of the fictional shortstop’s bible, The Art of Fielding, which Henry knows by heart. When what should be a routine throw to first base goes wild and instead hits Owen in the head, Henry’s streak is threatened and his confidence is greatly shaken.
If it’s not obvious from the need for 3 paragraphs to describe the story, The Art of Fielding is very much a character-driven novel. The story is told from multiple points of view as each character’s life intertwines with the lives of the others. Ambition, confidence, love, friendship and loyalty are all explored as the Westish Harpooners win game after game.
One word of warning, The Art of Fielding contains language, sex, drinking and other behavior that some readers may not like to read about. But if you don’t mind those things in your escapist fiction, then this quirky tale of a fictional baseball team with a lot of heart should be on your list.
Nancy likes a little quirk in her baseball. She writes about her 2 boys, books and life in Colorado at Life With My Boys and Books.
I’ve heard a lot about this one. It’s been on several “best of 2011” lists.
I didn’t even notice the long summary until you mentioned it, but even so, you didn’t give anything away! Sounds like the kind of book I like.