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Audible sample Sample
Summerland: Library Edition Preloaded Digital Audio Player – January 1, 2006
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions4.86 x 1.15 x 7.78 inches
- PublisherFindaway World Llc
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 2006
- ISBN-10159895637X
- ISBN-13978-1598956375
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Product details
- Publisher : Findaway World Llc; Unabridged edition (January 1, 2006)
- Language : English
- ISBN-10 : 159895637X
- ISBN-13 : 978-1598956375
- Reading age : 9 - 12 years, from customers
- Item Weight : 5.8 ounces
- Dimensions : 4.86 x 1.15 x 7.78 inches
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Michael Chabon is the bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of seven novels – including The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and The Yiddish Policemen's Union – two collections of short stories, and one other work of non-fiction. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife and children.
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As most people know, baseball has been called “the American Pastime.” The main character in this novel is Ethan Feld, who lives on Clam Island in Washington State. He loves baseball even though he is not a very good player; however, when he gets asked by a baseball recruiter to help promote baseball on the island, he hesitates but finally accepts the offer.
I never give away too much information when reviewing any novel, but if you like baseball and reading novels by this author you may want to check out this interesting and compelling story.
Rating: 4 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Chair/Seated Taichi/Qigong/Yoga stretching for seniors and the physically challenged).
1. On p. 170, the giant Mooseknuckle John makes a wager that if Ethan can catch three of his fastballs, he will let Ethan and his friends continue on their journey (instead of eating them). On p. 188, after barely surviving the second fastball and realizing he could never handle a third, Ethan solves the dilemma by giving the giant the sign for the change-up (a much slower pitch). The book explains that the catcher's sign is inviolable in the giant's land, so that much is fine. But the terms of the wager specified THREE FASTBALLS--yet somehow, the giant doesn't eat the heroes, nobody makes any comment or observation on it, and the narrator offers no explanation.
2. On p. 231, Jennifer is being held in midair by "a firm grip on her ankles," yet "Her hair hung down in her face." Try as I might, I cannot make that picture work.
3. On p. 338, "Thor was learning to play right field, which was the position they regularly had to fill, being only eight in number, with a player from the opposite team." But in the game described in the previous chapter, the borrowed player was used at third base, and from the drills Thor is practicing, it's clear that he's preparing to play THERE. (He was probably already playing right field, since that's traditionally where the weakest player goes.)
4. On p. 390, "The Man with the Knife in His Boot led off with a slap double, stole second, ..." !!
Obviously, the first of those errors was important to the plot, and it might have worked fine if Chabon had inserted a sentence or two to explain away the inconsistency. The other three didn't need any creative fixes, just an editor reading the book while awake. (I assume the book HAD an editor; I wouldn't think any publisher would put out a 500-page novel by a best-selling author without assigning it an editor, but maybe I'm mistaken.) You can see why I titled my review with the quotation attributed to Casey Stengel, manager of the New York Mets in their first year in the 1960s.
(BTW, according to Wikipedia's entry on Stengel, he actually said "Can't anybody play this here game?" But the other version worked better for the title of Jimmy Breslin's book, and that's the one everybody 'knows.')
Those errors aside, the book's not bad, but you have to get past a little self-conscious preciousness, and swallow the premise that baseball is the universal game at the heart of cultures of giants, elves, and everybody/thing else. (I've been a read-the-box-scores-every-day baseball fan for about 50 years, and even I don't think that the designated hitter is literally the work of the Devil.)
I haven't read any of Chabon's other books, but based on his excellent reputation, my guess is that he's a better writer when he's not trying to appeal to kids. I certainly hope he's at least a more _careful_ one.
There are life lessons in this book that are usually couched in baseball terms. Some of them, like "if a thrown or batted ball frightens you, become a Catcher," or "A Catcher's first duty is to encourage and nourish his Pitcher" can be easily translated into non-baseball concepts, if one finds non-baseball concepts interesting. However, "a baseball game is nothing but a great slow contraption for getting you to pay attention to the cadence of a summer day," is rather hard to divorce from the game.
Chabon has often been praised for his use of the language and deservedly so.
The baseball in the book is combined with a multi-world adventure among concepts and creatures from Native American and Norse mythology, with a touch of Celtic myth and characters from the mythology that grew up around the North American frontier.
The major characters, from the kids who go on the adventure to the villain of the piece, Coyote, are very colorful and interesting but the people they meet are even wilder.