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Jump to navigationJump to searchThe Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach (view source)
Revision as of 09:29, 15 March 2018
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{{infoboxinfobox1
|title=The Art of Fielding
|sort=Art of Fielding
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=978-0007374441
|pages=450
|publisher=Fourth Estate
|date=January 2012
|summary=US college campus-based story of friendship and ambition with a baseball centre. You certainly don't have to be a baseball fan to enjoy this, but a little appreciation of the sport will undoubtedly help.
|cover=0007374445
|aznuk=0007374445
|aznus=B005E89IJW
}}
'''Long listed for the Guardian First Book Award 2012''' ''The Art of Fielding'' is basically a US-style campus novel featuring baseball. There are similarities in style between this and many of John Irving's works, with baseball substituting for Irving's wrestling focus. This, to the UK-reader, raises the first potential barrier as we are, as a rule, largely ignorant of the US fixation with the intricacies of baseball. Certainly you don't need an in depth knowledge to appreciate this story - it is really a story of friendship, ambition and the sporting dreams of youth - but despite a loose understanding of the sport I felt that I would have benefitted from more knowledge particularly towards the end when there is a climatic climactic baseball match. You kind of get the point, but I certainly felt that I was missing out on a little of the tension, in much the same way I'd expect a US reader to be perplexed if the story had been based on say, cricket. It's a minor flaw though and it would be a shame if potential readers dismissed it for this reason.
For me, a more serious issue was that after a strong start - as a young Henry Skrimshander, a baseball fielding prodigy in the Roy of the Rovers manner (to horribly mix sports) is spotted by college über-jock Mike Schwartz and encouraged to enroll at the preppy but academically minor Westish College - the middle of the book loses its way a little and kind of drifts along for a while, before things rush to a slightly unsatisfying and unbelievable ending.
Although not one of his earlier college kid-based novels, if you enjoyed this style of writing then I have no doubt you'd enjoy [[Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving]].
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