bookshelf

FIELDER'S CHOICE

Name: FIELDER'S CHOICE
Author: Rick Norman
ISBN: 0-87483-172-5

by Rick Norman ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1991

bookshelf

A debut novel with the charm of a Ring Lardner tale-the story of a backwoods boy who has a briefly notorious career as a major-leaguer before becoming a prisoner of war in Japan. Andrew Jackson ``Gooseball'' Fielder grows up in Smackover, Arkansas, with brothers Jugs and Jude. He ``lived and breathed sports from can-see to can't-see.'' Along with instances of coming-of-age in the oil patch, we see Jackson developing his ``gooseball'' in a local pipeyard with his brother Jugs-who, however, joins the Navy and, before being shipped out, marries Dixie, a woman all three brothers are sweet on. After Paw takes sick and wastes away, Jackson is discovered by the St. Louis Browns. Then, following a stint in the minors, he's brought up, in 1941, to pitch against the Yankees in a pennant-deciding game. An inveterate worrier who ``fears being the goat,'' Jackson balks home the winning run, falls apart, and joins the Army Air Corps. Later, Jugs is killed, whereupon Jude makes his move on Dixie, and Jackson-in gunnery school and helpless to interfere- eventually gets sent on a mission over downtown Tokyo. Captured, he lives through a hideous physical ordeal in a pipe before a Japanese admiral, whose son wants to play ball, rescues him for a life of relative ease until the war ends. After the war, Jackson plays ball again, but Dixie is already married, and his wartime involvement with the Admiral-as well as other incidents while he was a prisoner-cause the Army to accuse him of treason. He beats the charge, but the big leagues blacklist him; he also has a final victorious showdown with Jude, who turns out to be an abusive animal. The voice is credible, and the humor just hard-edged enough to give the story a little spin. Ball fans will enjoy it, as will devotees of southern backwoods fiction.

Pub Date: April 1, 1991

ISBN: 0-87483-172-5

Page Count: 192

Publisher: August House

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1991

Categories:

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS

bookshelf

CUTTING LOOSE

by Michael Z. Lewin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1999

bookshelf

Masquerading as a man, a young woman sets out to find her friend’s killer in New York and London at the turn of the century; disguise proves to be simultaneously liberating and imprisoning in Lewin’s big-canvas historical novel. No one is who she or he seems to be, not the gender-bending heroine Jackie who spends most of her life as Jack so she can play baseball; not her best friend, Nance, a black performer who “passes” as white, and who dies of a stab wound in the opening pages. Cleverly structured and meticulously detailed so that every piece of information neatly clicks into the jigsaw-puzzle ending, the novel runs on two tracks. One chronicles Jackie’s past history starting with her grandmother (whose incredible life both mirrors and influences her granddaughter’s); the other details her current adventures as the avenger of her best friend, along with a surprise unveiling of her father’s murderer. After a vivid trip through 19th-century America, the novel concludes in and around the music halls of London, where Jackie’s past and present converge. The derring-do climax fails to ignite, for this is a book in which the journey surpasses the destination, but overall Lewin produces a grand adventure that readers won’t soon forget. (Fiction. 12-14)