I love uniquely American novels. Yates’ “Revolutionary Road,†Kesey’s “Sometimes a Great Notion,†Franzen’s “Freedom.â€Â Firmly grounded in time and place, its characters define the time as they’re shaped by the place.
Newly published, Chad Harbach’s “The Art of Fielding†could only take place in America. Baseball, a small town, a private college and its students, a Great Lake, Melviille. I’d add anorexia, depression and the ugly side of ambition, but those conditions are universal.
Westish College catcher Mike Schwartz comes upon a promising shortstop playing summer Legion ball. The scrawny but graceful shortstop is Henry Skrimshander, and this book is the story of Henry’s change from a sweet, wide-eyed, hard working college player and major league prospect to a mean-spirited guy who steals girlfriends, takes himself out of games, and cuts himself off from family, friends and teammates.
The agent of change is a wildly thrown baseball. On the verge of breaking a record for errorless games, Henry blows a throw to first base; the errant ball beans his roommate, Owen Dunne, who’d been reading a book in the team’s dugout.
Literature, it turns out, can be very dangerous.
From the accident the story spools out in surprising ways. The college president falls in love with a student. Mike Schwartz, this book’s gem of a human being, pursues the president’s troubled daughter. Henry spirals downward in a remarkably unpleasant fashion.
This is a book about literature, baseball, growing up and growing old, taking chances, failing, and winning. Its appeal is wide.
I found myself awed by the author’s ease with words and graceful storytelling, with his descriptions of the Midwest’s odd beauty. This is a comedy, but it’s not a happy read: like Franzen’s novels, these characters and their journeys left me unsettled.
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