In the age-old tradition of romancers who refuse to let facts stand in the way of a great story, first-novelist Winegardner (Prophet of the Sandlots, 1990) hits the outside corner with an evocative reprise of Mexican baseball's single season in the sun. It's 1946, and sportswriter Frank Hollinger is reporting on the five Pasquel brothers' attempt to create a major-league rival south of the border. And, with access to apparently unlimited amounts of dinero, los hermanos (under the direction of free- spending Jorge, the consort of Maria Felix) give El Norte a run for its money. The brothers, in this pre-Jackie Robinson era, use generous bonuses and megabuck contracts to lure stateside professionals (Danny Gardella, Max Lanier, Sal Maglie, Mickey Owen), who have few difficulties teaming up with stars from the Negro leagues and Latin America. The problems are with the gun- toting Pasquels, who load the roster of the club representing Veracruz (their hometown) with the best talent and otherwise put paid to any notion that Mexican baseball is to be organized. Despite the best efforts of sinister jefes to fix the season's outcome, the imported players give loyal fans in several hinterland cities an unexpectedly close pennant race and a consistently high caliber of competition, while the visiting mercenaries also get to witness such mythic moments as the home run hit by Babe Ruth in his last turn at bat. Off the field, the hired hands pine for absent sweethearts, engage in torrid love affairs with local lasses, and party with the hard-living likes of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. The idyll ends abruptly as a change in the capital's political climate leaves the Pasquels out in the cold. Years later, those who were involved have mostly fond memories of their sojourns, which they share in interviews with Hollinger, the older, wiser (somewhat), and forthrightly nostalgic narrator. An absorbing, episodic account of a brief fiesta that still lights up the summer game's storied past.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-670-86636-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1995
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Spielman’s debut charms as Brett briskly careens from catastrophe to disaster to enlightenment.
Devastated by her mother’s death, Brett Bohlinger consumes a bottle of outrageously expensive Champagne and trips down the stairs at the funeral luncheon. Add embarrassed to devastated. Could things get any worse? Of course they can, and they do—at the reading of the will.
Instead of inheriting the position of CEO at the family’s cosmetics firm—a position she has been groomed for—she’s given a life list she wrote when she was 14 and an ultimatum: Complete the goals, or lose her inheritance. Luckily, her mother, Elizabeth, has crossed off some of the more whimsical goals, including running with the bulls—too risky! Having a child, buying a horse, building a relationship with her (dead) father, however, all remain. Brad, the handsome attorney charged with making sure Brett achieves her goals, doles out a letter from her mother with each success. Warmly comforting, Elizabeth’s letters uncannily—and quite humorously—predict Brett’s side of the conversations. Brett grudgingly begins by performing at a local comedy club, an experience that proves both humiliating and instructive: Perfection is overrated, and taking risks is exhilarating. Becoming an awesome teacher, however, seems impossible given her utter lack of classroom management skills. Teaching homebound children offers surprising rewards, though. Along Brett’s journey, many of the friends (and family) she thought would support her instead betray her. Luckily, Brett’s new life is populated with quirky, sharply drawn characters, including a pregnant high school student living in a homeless shelter, a psychiatrist with plenty of time to chat about troubled children, and one of her mother’s dearest, most secret companions. A 10-step program for the grief-stricken, Brett’s quest brings her back to love, the best inheritance of all.
Spielman’s debut charms as Brett briskly careens from catastrophe to disaster to enlightenment.Pub Date: July 30, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-345-54087-4
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Catch-22 is also concerned with some of war's horrors and atrocities, and it is at times painfully grim.
Catch-22 is an unusual, wildly inventive comic novel about World War II, and its publishers are planning considerable publicity for it.
Set on the tiny island of Pianosa in the Mediterranean Sea, the novel is devoted to a long series of impossible, illogical adventures engaged in by the members of the 256th bombing squadron, an unlikely combat group whose fanatical commander, Colonel Cathcart, keeps increasing the men's quota of missions until they reach the ridiculous figure of 80. The book's central character is Captain Yossarian, the squadron's lead bombardier, who is surrounded at all times by the ironic and incomprehensible and who directs all his energies towards evading his odd role in the war. His companions are an even more peculiar lot: Lieutenant Scheisskopf, who loved to win parades; Major Major Major, the victim of a life-long series of practical jokes, beginning with his name; the mess officer, Milo Minderbinder, who built a food syndicate into an international cartel; and Major de Coverley whose mission in life was to rent apartments for the officers and enlisted men during their rest leaves. Eventually, after Cathcart has exterminated nearly all of Yossarian's buddies through the suicidal missions, Yossarian decides to desert — and he succeeds.
Catch-22 is also concerned with some of war's horrors and atrocities, and it is at times painfully grim.Pub Date: Oct. 10, 1961
ISBN: 0684833395
Page Count: 468
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1961
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