What better venue for the story of two hard-luck underachievers than the baseball field, where anyone can try to attain the American dream? Sam Ward, at age 32 possibly the oldest rookie in baseball, has been called up from the minors by the Chicago Cubs to pitch against Philadelphia as the teams vie for a spot in the National League playoffs. This is the seventh time Ward has been sent to the majors for a short stint, and it may be his last chance to prove that he is of big-league caliber. The greatest obstacle to this dream is not his inconsistent knuckleball or the Phillies' line-up, but head umpire Ernie Kolacka, now calling the last game of his 38- year career. Twenty-four of those years were spent disappointingly in the minors, where he felt like an innocent man in prison, but he waited for his release with dignity and did not scab when the major league umpires went on strike. Kolacka has never even bent the rules to favor the home team, but today he must orchestrate a Phillies victory in order to repay a debt to a Korean War buddy in gambling trouble. During the fateful nine innings, Ward pitches the game of his life, but Kolacka quickly becomes a master at making crooked calls look like fair play. The field is shared by wisecracking players, umpires, and fans—all of them familiar caricatures who aren't nearly as zany as the authors think. Ward and Kolacka are the memorable characters here; they sacrificed their marriages and never signed million-dollar contracts, persevering out of love of the sport. Their story demonstrates that the man of principle is the true hero of baseball. Asinof (Eight Men Out, not reviewed) and Bouton (Ball Four, 1970) have written a pleasant diversion for an off-season Saturday afternoon. (First printing of 75,000; $75,000 ad/promo; author tour)
Pub Date: June 15, 1994
ISBN: 0-670-85214-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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