He taunts Henry, while Henry is batting and Henry misses but, after the game, when Henry does some fielding practice with a coach, Mike is amazed at Henry’s ability to field every ball without difficulty and fire it accurately in to the coach. He is first spotted playing in a (very) minor league competition by Mike Schwartz, who is a college baseball catcher. The individual in both cases is Henry Skrimshander. Firstly, there is the boy from the ordinary background who becomes a baseball star and secondly there is the baseball star who has doubts about his ability and falls (for a while) from baseball grace, both not uncommon themes. As in cricket, fielding usually takes third place in importance, after batting and bowling/pitching but, in this case, as the title indicates, fielding becomes all important. Harbach’s novel adds to the roster of fine baseball novels and is a very fine effort for a first novel. Baseball is an exception, often dealing with themes found in other US novels such as action heroes, poor boy makes good, sports as a philosophy of life and male bonding. Football, rugby, cricket, basketball have all had novels written about them but not many and few very good ones. Home » USA » Chad Harbach » The Art of Fielding Chad Harbach: The Art of Fieldingįew sports can boast several excellent novels about them.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |