A THING OR TWO ABOUT THE GAME

In Paik’s literary debut, an aimless man’s life is changed when he coaches a softball team.

Brad doesn’t have a ton going on in his life since he quit his job in biotech, taking the fall for something he didn’t do. Now he mostly gardens and tries to figure out what the future holds. While raking leaves, he gets a call from his ex-wife, Stephanie, with a strange request: Her boyfriend backed out of a commitment to coach a Little League softball team, so can Brad do it? Brad’s coaching experience extends only to a single season of his nephew’s hockey team—and he was only the assistant coach. Yet for reasons he can’t explain, he says yes. As the new coach of the Marlins, he’s responsible for a dozen tween girls of various skill levels, each looking for something different from the season. He soon finds himself invested in their success, both on and off the field. He’s forced to contend with rival coaches—including his frenemy, Mike—helicopter parents, and volunteer assistant coach Diane, the mother of Kelli, one of the players. To help his players win, Brad will have to master something he’s never been very good at: playing ball. Paik’s prose is elegantly understated, succinctly capturing not only Brad’s point of view, but those of the players, as well. Here, for example, young Meghan identifies what she likes about softball: “Nobody has been mean to her in softball. There are no bad grades. When she bats, she can hear other girls—even popular girls—yelling ‘you can do it, Meghan, let’s go Meghan, you can do it!’ ” The premise that kicks off the narrative is somewhat trite; however, the novel features rich character work as well as the earnest questions about trivial pursuits that maybe aren’t so trivial, after all. The story also manages to be moving without delving too much into the sentimental, and as a result, readers may be forgiven if their first instinct after reading it is to volunteer for a local youth softball league.

An unpretentious story of community and finding one’s purpose.