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Shoeless Joe
"If you build it, he will come." Them mysterious words of an Iowa baseball announcer lead Ray Kinsella to carve a baseball diamond in his cornfield in honor of his hero, the baseball legend Shoeless Joe Jackson. This is a book "not so much about baseball as it is about dreams, magic, life, and what is quintessentially American," said the Philadelphia Inquirer.
265 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
About the author
W.P. Kinsella
58 books236 followersWilliam Patrick Kinsella, OC, OBC was a Canadian novelist and short story writer. His work has often concerned baseball and Canada's First Nations and other Canadian issues.
William Patrick Kinsella was born to John Matthew Kinsella and Olive Kinsella in Edmonton, Alberta. Kinsella was raised until he was 10 years-old at a homestead near Darwell, Alberta, 60 km west of the city, home-schooled by his mother and taking correspondence courses. "I'm one of these people who woke up at age five knowing how to read and write," he says. When he was ten, the family moved to Edmonton.
As an adult, he held a variety of jobs in Edmonton, including as a clerk for the Government of Alberta and managing a credit bureau. In 1967, he moved to Victoria, British Columbia, running a pizza restaurant called Caesar's Italian Village and driving a taxi.
Though he had been writing since he was a child (winning a YMCA contest at age 14), he began taking writing courses at the University of Victoria in 1970, receiving his Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing there in 1974. He travelled down to Iowa and earned a Master of Fine Arts in English degree through the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1978. In 1991, he was presented with an honorary Doctor of Literature degree from the University of Victoria.
Kinsella's most famous work is Shoeless Joe, upon which the movie Field of Dreams was based. A short story by Kinsella, Lieberman in Love, was the basis for a short film that won the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film – the Oscar win came as a surprise to the author, who, watching the award telecast from home, had no idea the film had been made and released. He had not been listed in the film's credits, and was not acknowledged by director Christine Lahti in her acceptance speech – a full-page advertisement was later placed in Variety apologizing to Kinsella for the error. Kinsella's eight books of short stories about life on a First Nations reserve were the basis for the movie Dance Me Outside and CBC television series The Rez, both of which Kinsella considers very poor quality. The collection Fencepost Chronicles won the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour in 1987.
Before becoming a professional author, he was a professor of English at the University of Calgary in Alberta. Kinsella suffered a car accident in 1997 which resulted in a long hiatus in his fiction-writing career until the publication of the novel, Butterfly Winter. He is a noted tournament Scrabble player, becoming more involved with the game after being disillusioned by the 1994 Major League Baseball strike. Near the end of his life he lived in Yale, British Columbia with his fourth wife, Barbara (d. 2012), and occasionally wrote articles for various newspapers.
In the year 1993, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2005, he was awarded the Order of British Columbia.
W.P. Kinsella elected to die on September 16, 2016 with the assistance of a physician.
William Patrick Kinsella was born to John Matthew Kinsella and Olive Kinsella in Edmonton, Alberta. Kinsella was raised until he was 10 years-old at a homestead near Darwell, Alberta, 60 km west of the city, home-schooled by his mother and taking correspondence courses. "I'm one of these people who woke up at age five knowing how to read and write," he says. When he was ten, the family moved to Edmonton.
As an adult, he held a variety of jobs in Edmonton, including as a clerk for the Government of Alberta and managing a credit bureau. In 1967, he moved to Victoria, British Columbia, running a pizza restaurant called Caesar's Italian Village and driving a taxi.
Though he had been writing since he was a child (winning a YMCA contest at age 14), he began taking writing courses at the University of Victoria in 1970, receiving his Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing there in 1974. He travelled down to Iowa and earned a Master of Fine Arts in English degree through the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1978. In 1991, he was presented with an honorary Doctor of Literature degree from the University of Victoria.
Kinsella's most famous work is Shoeless Joe, upon which the movie Field of Dreams was based. A short story by Kinsella, Lieberman in Love, was the basis for a short film that won the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film – the Oscar win came as a surprise to the author, who, watching the award telecast from home, had no idea the film had been made and released. He had not been listed in the film's credits, and was not acknowledged by director Christine Lahti in her acceptance speech – a full-page advertisement was later placed in Variety apologizing to Kinsella for the error. Kinsella's eight books of short stories about life on a First Nations reserve were the basis for the movie Dance Me Outside and CBC television series The Rez, both of which Kinsella considers very poor quality. The collection Fencepost Chronicles won the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour in 1987.
Before becoming a professional author, he was a professor of English at the University of Calgary in Alberta. Kinsella suffered a car accident in 1997 which resulted in a long hiatus in his fiction-writing career until the publication of the novel, Butterfly Winter. He is a noted tournament Scrabble player, becoming more involved with the game after being disillusioned by the 1994 Major League Baseball strike. Near the end of his life he lived in Yale, British Columbia with his fourth wife, Barbara (d. 2012), and occasionally wrote articles for various newspapers.
In the year 1993, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2005, he was awarded the Order of British Columbia.
W.P. Kinsella elected to die on September 16, 2016 with the assistance of a physician.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,362 reviews
January 27, 2024
W. P. Kinsella passed away this weekend. Fittingly, we have selected his novel Shoeless Joe, the basis of the movie Field of Dreams, as our fiction selection for the baseball book club for October 2016. Featuring the characters who star in the film as well as additional personae and locations, it was a joy for me to reread this novel filled with examples of magical realism on and off of the baseball diamond. Although Kinsella hails from western Canada, at the time of this novel's publication he and his wife spent their summers driving through the United States to view America's pastime. He was a gem of a writer and a true fan of the game, and his love of baseball shines through the pages.
The year is 1979. Ray Kinsella lives in a farm house outside of Iowa City with his wife Annie and their daughter Karin. One day he hears a voice telling him, "If you build it, he will come." Ray believes the voice refers to Shoeless Joe Jackson and the other eight members of the 1919 Chicago Black Sox scandal who had been banned from the game for life. Jackson was also the favorite player of Ray's father, and instead of being brought up with stories of nursery rhymes, Ray heard stories of Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and, of course, Shoeless Joe. Upon hearing the voice, Ray decides to plow under his corn and build a baseball field, deeming him crazy to all but his wife and daughter.
After constructing a gleaming field and meeting Jackson, the voice speaks to Ray again, telling him to "Ease his pain." After wracking their brains, Ray and Annie realize that Ray must drive over 1000 miles and take reclusive author J. D. Salinger to a Red Sox game. Unlike the movie which skips directly to Boston, in this printed version Ray attends games in Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and New York on his journey east. The scene in a Cleveland Greek diner contains magical symbolism that would have been enjoyable to see on screen but wouldn't have leant itself to the flow of the film. Frank and Wandalie the waitress were memorable characters all the same.
The novel moves from Boston to Moonlight Graham in Chisolm, Minnesota and back to Iowa City. We meet Eddie Scissons the oldest living Chicago Cub and find out that Ray has a twin brother named Richard who has worked for a traveling circus for the past fifteen years. Both play pivotal roles in the book but were also kept out of the film version. Additionally, having attended college in Iowa City, I found the landmarks Kinsella the author mentions to be reminiscent of a simpler time, which is the imagery he created with his magical field.
Kinsella ends with the same speech by Salinger that he recites on screen: "I don't have to tell you that the one constant through all the years has been baseball.." As a fan of the game, this soliloquy resonates to me as to why I eagerly await spring training each winter. Baseball is the one presence in many of our lives that gives us hope each spring and moves on cyclically through the years. W. P. Kinsella has penned what I feel is the definitive baseball novel. His field is magical for all who view it live as I have, in print, or on screen. It was a pure joy to reread and I look forward to revisiting Kinsella's other work as well. As always, 5 delightful stars.
The year is 1979. Ray Kinsella lives in a farm house outside of Iowa City with his wife Annie and their daughter Karin. One day he hears a voice telling him, "If you build it, he will come." Ray believes the voice refers to Shoeless Joe Jackson and the other eight members of the 1919 Chicago Black Sox scandal who had been banned from the game for life. Jackson was also the favorite player of Ray's father, and instead of being brought up with stories of nursery rhymes, Ray heard stories of Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and, of course, Shoeless Joe. Upon hearing the voice, Ray decides to plow under his corn and build a baseball field, deeming him crazy to all but his wife and daughter.
After constructing a gleaming field and meeting Jackson, the voice speaks to Ray again, telling him to "Ease his pain." After wracking their brains, Ray and Annie realize that Ray must drive over 1000 miles and take reclusive author J. D. Salinger to a Red Sox game. Unlike the movie which skips directly to Boston, in this printed version Ray attends games in Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and New York on his journey east. The scene in a Cleveland Greek diner contains magical symbolism that would have been enjoyable to see on screen but wouldn't have leant itself to the flow of the film. Frank and Wandalie the waitress were memorable characters all the same.
The novel moves from Boston to Moonlight Graham in Chisolm, Minnesota and back to Iowa City. We meet Eddie Scissons the oldest living Chicago Cub and find out that Ray has a twin brother named Richard who has worked for a traveling circus for the past fifteen years. Both play pivotal roles in the book but were also kept out of the film version. Additionally, having attended college in Iowa City, I found the landmarks Kinsella the author mentions to be reminiscent of a simpler time, which is the imagery he created with his magical field.
Kinsella ends with the same speech by Salinger that he recites on screen: "I don't have to tell you that the one constant through all the years has been baseball.." As a fan of the game, this soliloquy resonates to me as to why I eagerly await spring training each winter. Baseball is the one presence in many of our lives that gives us hope each spring and moves on cyclically through the years. W. P. Kinsella has penned what I feel is the definitive baseball novel. His field is magical for all who view it live as I have, in print, or on screen. It was a pure joy to reread and I look forward to revisiting Kinsella's other work as well. As always, 5 delightful stars.
December 4, 2020
3.5 to 4 Stars
Usually the book is better, in this case I think it was the movie.
Shoeless Joe was made into the movie Field of Dreams. While the book was pretty good, the movie tidied up the narrative quite a bit, streamlined the messy parts, and hit the high emotional moments just right to hit home. In fact, if you remember the movie and all the key tear-jerking moments . . . they are all there in the book, just kind of glossed over.
Also, this is 100% a book about baseball for people who like baseball. If you do not like baseball, there is no point in reading it. Back to the movie; they did a fairly good job at making it accessible to people who do not like baseball even though that is a key plot point. The book, however, is in-your-face baseball lore, baseball statistics, baseball gameplay, etc. I can’t even say give it a try even if you don’t care for baseball. Nope . . . if you don’t have a passion for baseball, do not waste your time.
I do like baseball and overall I enjoyed the book. But now I need to go do a re-watch of the movie because of all the fond memories I now have of it being better than the book. And, I better get my tissues ready!
Usually the book is better, in this case I think it was the movie.
Shoeless Joe was made into the movie Field of Dreams. While the book was pretty good, the movie tidied up the narrative quite a bit, streamlined the messy parts, and hit the high emotional moments just right to hit home. In fact, if you remember the movie and all the key tear-jerking moments . . . they are all there in the book, just kind of glossed over.
Also, this is 100% a book about baseball for people who like baseball. If you do not like baseball, there is no point in reading it. Back to the movie; they did a fairly good job at making it accessible to people who do not like baseball even though that is a key plot point. The book, however, is in-your-face baseball lore, baseball statistics, baseball gameplay, etc. I can’t even say give it a try even if you don’t care for baseball. Nope . . . if you don’t have a passion for baseball, do not waste your time.
I do like baseball and overall I enjoyed the book. But now I need to go do a re-watch of the movie because of all the fond memories I now have of it being better than the book. And, I better get my tissues ready!
October 25, 2022
Let me explain why I only gave this one star: although I didn't hate this book I did fail to finish it (I got about half way) and I always give only one star to any book that forces me to abandon it before the last page is read. I actually enjoyed bits of it, but in the end it was just too fractured, too American, too baseball and too surreal for me. English don't do baseball well but I have successfully read stories based on this sport before, so that alone wasn't a show stopper. I'm a self confessed Americanophile, so it wasn't just that. I'm also a big fan of Murakami so surreal, in itself, is fine. But the fragmentation and the combination of the elements I've mentioned, that's what did it for me.
I loved the film Field of Dreams and I therefore assumed I'd feel similarly about the book that spawned the movie. I'd been fascinated by the story of Shoeless Joe since, many years ago, I bought an album by an English singer called Joe Jackson which featured a pair of shoes as the only image on its cover - it persuaded me to delve into the history of this famous baseball player, renowned for his hitting as well as (of course) the Black Sox Scandal.
J D Salinger - who features strongly in this book, as a result of a imaginary meeting - wrote only one significant offering to literature, but it remains remains one of the few books I've read more than once. Surely, all this added up to this book being a perfect fit for me. Alas not. I just couldn't follow it, even though I knew where it was going I couldn't 'feel' where it was going. It didn't convince - on any level. And the depiction of Salinger was just weird. Does anyone feel this description of the famous writer rings true? Surely not. So, not one for me I'm afraid.
I loved the film Field of Dreams and I therefore assumed I'd feel similarly about the book that spawned the movie. I'd been fascinated by the story of Shoeless Joe since, many years ago, I bought an album by an English singer called Joe Jackson which featured a pair of shoes as the only image on its cover - it persuaded me to delve into the history of this famous baseball player, renowned for his hitting as well as (of course) the Black Sox Scandal.
J D Salinger - who features strongly in this book, as a result of a imaginary meeting - wrote only one significant offering to literature, but it remains remains one of the few books I've read more than once. Surely, all this added up to this book being a perfect fit for me. Alas not. I just couldn't follow it, even though I knew where it was going I couldn't 'feel' where it was going. It didn't convince - on any level. And the depiction of Salinger was just weird. Does anyone feel this description of the famous writer rings true? Surely not. So, not one for me I'm afraid.
April 4, 2016
Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/
“Is this some kind of religion?”
“It may be.”
If you are a fan of America’s pastime, there’s a good chance you believe the same. My Sunday “church” is the Little League fields of flyover country and I couldn’t think of a better book to read on opening weekend . . . .
Unless you’ve been living in a box (♫♪♫living in a cardboard box♫♪♫) you have probably heard of Shoeless Joe, at least in its movie format Field of Dreams. In case you haven’t, this is the story of Ray, an Iowa farmer who hears a mysterious voice one day telling him . . . .
“If you build it, he will come.”
Ray immediately knows what he needs to build and the “he” who will be coming. When he hears the voice a second . . .
“Ease his pain”
And then a third time . . . .
“Go the distance.”
He has an awareness of the next steps he needs to take as well in order to . . .
“Fulfill the dream.”
This is the quintessential story about the love of the game. . . .
.
It’s a story about faith and family and finding inner peace and it might just make you believe that a little cornfield in Iowa might really be heaven . . . .
The film version is near perfection. I’m knocking off 1 Star here for the scene that was not included in the book, which was the one that made my robot heart melt and rain fall out of my face . . .
Highly recommended to anyone who believes that:
“I suppose that wouldn’t be a bad epitaph for me: ‘He was a fan of the game.’”
Now PLAY BALL!
Oh and to my beloved boys in blue . . .
“Is this some kind of religion?”
“It may be.”
If you are a fan of America’s pastime, there’s a good chance you believe the same. My Sunday “church” is the Little League fields of flyover country and I couldn’t think of a better book to read on opening weekend . . . .
Unless you’ve been living in a box (♫♪♫living in a cardboard box♫♪♫) you have probably heard of Shoeless Joe, at least in its movie format Field of Dreams. In case you haven’t, this is the story of Ray, an Iowa farmer who hears a mysterious voice one day telling him . . . .
“If you build it, he will come.”
Ray immediately knows what he needs to build and the “he” who will be coming. When he hears the voice a second . . .
“Ease his pain”
And then a third time . . . .
“Go the distance.”
He has an awareness of the next steps he needs to take as well in order to . . .
“Fulfill the dream.”
This is the quintessential story about the love of the game. . . .
. It’s a story about faith and family and finding inner peace and it might just make you believe that a little cornfield in Iowa might really be heaven . . . .
The film version is near perfection. I’m knocking off 1 Star here for the scene that was not included in the book, which was the one that made my robot heart melt and rain fall out of my face . . .
Highly recommended to anyone who believes that:
“I suppose that wouldn’t be a bad epitaph for me: ‘He was a fan of the game.’”
Now PLAY BALL!
Oh and to my beloved boys in blue . . .
March 11, 2019
Somewhere in Chisholm, at that moment, a boy, a bat on his right shoulder, cap pulled down over his eyes, his glove hung on the end of the bat, walks off in search of summer.
W.P. Kinsella was a Canadian novelist of serious acclaim who is best known for his writings on baseball and indigenous peoples of Canada. This book, ‘Shoeless Joe’, was by far Kinsella’s most famous novel. It was published in 1983 and later adapted into the blockbuster film ‘Field of Dreams
Shoeless Joe turned out to be a surprisingly poignant and vivid read for me. I was skeptical that I would grow to love the story however. As a baseball fan, I saw the movie years ago and had a hard time buying in to the magic realism. With the novel it is easier to accept the fantastical, much in the same way that good science fiction writing allows one to make the leap. Kinsella’s writing style is not one of flowery sentences but is effective. “You’re crazy,” Bluestein rages. “You’re all crazy. You build baseball fields in the middle of nowhere. You… you dress funny… and you sit around with your weird friends and stare at… nothing.”
Kinsella’s real genius is how he draws the reader into his universe of thoughts and musings. The story is written in the 1st person from the perspective of a fictional ‘Ray’ Kinsella. Ray hits a mid-life crisis ruminating about his recently deceased father who was a huge White Sox fan. Ray now owns a farm near Iowa City, living there with his wife Annie and young daughter Karin. After some dreams he decides to build a baseball diamond in the cornfields of Iowa. Through his astral connections, he rounds up past players including Shoeless Joe and others who were banned from the game as well as some players like Doc Graham who only played a handful of games in the majors.
In parallel to the fantasy narrative, we learn that shady real estate characters, including Ray’s brother-in-law, are working to get title to his property. They even want to tear down the field before evicting the family. Comically transparent villains, but effective.
Now what is the story with JD Salinger as a character in this book? Salinger, who had expressed in his own writings a love for baseball, was of course already famous for ‘Catcher in the Rye’ and for his decision to wall himself off from the public and his fans. So by inserting Salinger directly into the story as a companion who travels with Ray everywhere, perhaps in Kinsella’s view he was reincarnating Salinger. It is an odd literary device but works because of the magical nature of the story. I heard myself say “why not”. In the movie the character of Salinger is replaced by a more anonymous writer played by James Earl Jones. This was done because Salinger threatened to sue Kinsella and the producers of Field of Dreams if they used his likeness.
So to conclude before giving away the ending, I enjoy “vivid sense of place” books like the ‘Outsiders’ or ‘The Bridges of Madison County’ and books with copious doses of Americana. ‘Shoeless Joe’ has these attributes in spades. One doesn’t really need to like baseball to get this book, the BlackSox players and the Field of Dreams are just vehicles to explore relationships with the past and the wonderment of life.
Five stars. One of the most original books that I have read.
W.P. Kinsella was a Canadian novelist of serious acclaim who is best known for his writings on baseball and indigenous peoples of Canada. This book, ‘Shoeless Joe’, was by far Kinsella’s most famous novel. It was published in 1983 and later adapted into the blockbuster film ‘Field of Dreams
Shoeless Joe turned out to be a surprisingly poignant and vivid read for me. I was skeptical that I would grow to love the story however. As a baseball fan, I saw the movie years ago and had a hard time buying in to the magic realism. With the novel it is easier to accept the fantastical, much in the same way that good science fiction writing allows one to make the leap. Kinsella’s writing style is not one of flowery sentences but is effective. “You’re crazy,” Bluestein rages. “You’re all crazy. You build baseball fields in the middle of nowhere. You… you dress funny… and you sit around with your weird friends and stare at… nothing.”
Kinsella’s real genius is how he draws the reader into his universe of thoughts and musings. The story is written in the 1st person from the perspective of a fictional ‘Ray’ Kinsella. Ray hits a mid-life crisis ruminating about his recently deceased father who was a huge White Sox fan. Ray now owns a farm near Iowa City, living there with his wife Annie and young daughter Karin. After some dreams he decides to build a baseball diamond in the cornfields of Iowa. Through his astral connections, he rounds up past players including Shoeless Joe and others who were banned from the game as well as some players like Doc Graham who only played a handful of games in the majors.
In parallel to the fantasy narrative, we learn that shady real estate characters, including Ray’s brother-in-law, are working to get title to his property. They even want to tear down the field before evicting the family. Comically transparent villains, but effective.
Now what is the story with JD Salinger as a character in this book? Salinger, who had expressed in his own writings a love for baseball, was of course already famous for ‘Catcher in the Rye’ and for his decision to wall himself off from the public and his fans. So by inserting Salinger directly into the story as a companion who travels with Ray everywhere, perhaps in Kinsella’s view he was reincarnating Salinger. It is an odd literary device but works because of the magical nature of the story. I heard myself say “why not”. In the movie the character of Salinger is replaced by a more anonymous writer played by James Earl Jones. This was done because Salinger threatened to sue Kinsella and the producers of Field of Dreams if they used his likeness.
So to conclude before giving away the ending, I enjoy “vivid sense of place” books like the ‘Outsiders’ or ‘The Bridges of Madison County’ and books with copious doses of Americana. ‘Shoeless Joe’ has these attributes in spades. One doesn’t really need to like baseball to get this book, the BlackSox players and the Field of Dreams are just vehicles to explore relationships with the past and the wonderment of life.
Five stars. One of the most original books that I have read.
May 25, 2021
Round 2
I haven’t tired of the story of a man named Ray Kinsella who builds a baseball park in an Iowa cornfield in the hope that Shoeless Joe Jackson will come there to play.
Ray needs his wife, Annie, and his daughter, Karin, to anchor his life that drifts with his vocations. His small farm, in a good year, can hardly keep him above his debts, and his intense focus on building that ballpark threatens to leave him and his family with no place of their own. Yet Ray presses on, and Annie is there for him with her emotional stability, physical presence and encouragement, despite the risks.
"The process is all so slow, as dreams are slow, as dreams suspend time like a balloon hung in midair. I want it all to happen now."
“Open up your senses!” I shout. “I’ve come fifteen hundred miles to drag you to a baseball game. Stretch the skin back from your eyes! Take in everything! Look at Yaz there in the on-deck circle. Look at the angle he holds his bat. There isn’t another player in the majors can duplicate that stance. Look at that left-field fence, half as high as the sky. The Green Monster. Think of the men who patrol that field, the shadow of that giant behind them, dwarfing them.”
I mourn the loss of Kinsella who is one of the most prominent of the North American authors of magical realism. His books on baseball have a fan’s love of the sport and appreciation of the skills that need to be amassed for greatness.
I have gone beyond Shoeless Joe, but don’t regret coming back to the story. Someday, I will review The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, a more intense take on Iowa and the love of the stars of early 20th century baseball, and, The Essential W.P. Kinsella, a collection many shorter pieces.
Round 1
So I am admitting that I am influenced by the movie, Field of Dreams, and the timing of my reading (while I was recently in Iowa). And, I know that if you don't already feel strongly about the "national pastime" of the 20th Century, you will be deducting a star or two.
Having said all that, it was easy to join this odyssey that makes Ray Kinsella turn some of his cornfield into a ballpark and set out in search of J.D. Salinger to fulfill the wishes of the voice he hears:
"If you build it, he will come."
"Ease his pain."
"Go the distance."
The journey is about baseball, family and renewal with plenty of comments about what a spectator can get out of the game and what ails the condition of the modern American.
I was sorry when I knew this story was winding up because it brought a lot of "feel good" to the reader.
I haven’t tired of the story of a man named Ray Kinsella who builds a baseball park in an Iowa cornfield in the hope that Shoeless Joe Jackson will come there to play.
Ray needs his wife, Annie, and his daughter, Karin, to anchor his life that drifts with his vocations. His small farm, in a good year, can hardly keep him above his debts, and his intense focus on building that ballpark threatens to leave him and his family with no place of their own. Yet Ray presses on, and Annie is there for him with her emotional stability, physical presence and encouragement, despite the risks.
"The process is all so slow, as dreams are slow, as dreams suspend time like a balloon hung in midair. I want it all to happen now."
“Open up your senses!” I shout. “I’ve come fifteen hundred miles to drag you to a baseball game. Stretch the skin back from your eyes! Take in everything! Look at Yaz there in the on-deck circle. Look at the angle he holds his bat. There isn’t another player in the majors can duplicate that stance. Look at that left-field fence, half as high as the sky. The Green Monster. Think of the men who patrol that field, the shadow of that giant behind them, dwarfing them.”
I mourn the loss of Kinsella who is one of the most prominent of the North American authors of magical realism. His books on baseball have a fan’s love of the sport and appreciation of the skills that need to be amassed for greatness.
I have gone beyond Shoeless Joe, but don’t regret coming back to the story. Someday, I will review The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, a more intense take on Iowa and the love of the stars of early 20th century baseball, and, The Essential W.P. Kinsella, a collection many shorter pieces.
Round 1
So I am admitting that I am influenced by the movie, Field of Dreams, and the timing of my reading (while I was recently in Iowa). And, I know that if you don't already feel strongly about the "national pastime" of the 20th Century, you will be deducting a star or two.
Having said all that, it was easy to join this odyssey that makes Ray Kinsella turn some of his cornfield into a ballpark and set out in search of J.D. Salinger to fulfill the wishes of the voice he hears:
"If you build it, he will come."
"Ease his pain."
"Go the distance."
The journey is about baseball, family and renewal with plenty of comments about what a spectator can get out of the game and what ails the condition of the modern American.
I was sorry when I knew this story was winding up because it brought a lot of "feel good" to the reader.
August 19, 2022
If you enjoyed the movie Field of Dreams, you owe it to yourself to read Shoeless Joe. What makes this book such a joy to read is Kinsella’s powers of description. He creates characters that you love or hate - sometimes both in the course of the story - but to whom you just can’t remain indifferent. His metaphors are common things employed in such uncommon literary ways that one hears, smells, and feels all that the characters do. These are the tools that Kinsella uses to frame his central message of striving for what we believe in and that is what makes this an important novel. The protagonist faces the potential loss of the physical means of achieving his dream as well as the scorn and ridicule of those who can’t or wont understand the importance of “silly” or impossible dreams in making us who we are. This is also a book about how vital those who believe in us are to our dream-chasing. I challenge any dreamer to not be in love with Annie by the end of the first chapter.
April 29, 2026
⚾️ For some reason I’ve always enjoyed baseball stories above those of other sports and have any number of books about baseball in the 40s 50s 70s etcetera ⚾️ I’ve read Ball Four by Jim Bouton - “my muscles not Jesus” - I’ve read Halberstam’s baseball tales Summer of ‘49 October’64 - love Field of Dreams ⚾️
Kinsella is an incredible storyteller not just a writer. He weaves and winds and binds magic with his words. You don’t have to be a baseball aficionado to fall under the spell. These are stories that are about all of us.
⚾️ ⚾️ ⚾️
Kinsella is an incredible storyteller not just a writer. He weaves and winds and binds magic with his words. You don’t have to be a baseball aficionado to fall under the spell. These are stories that are about all of us.
⚾️ ⚾️ ⚾️
April 15, 2019
Shortly before the season started, I (re)watched the movie Eight Men Out. When the movie was over, still anticipating the season I guess, I pulled out this novel and dipped into it when I felt like it.
It’s amazing what I’d forgotten, all things not in its movie version (Field of Dreams), so not reinforced by it: Ray’s twin brother, Richard; Eddie Scissons (and he's a big part of the novel). I’d also forgotten that other ‘real’ people besides J.D. Salinger were used in this fictional story, though not as fictionally as he was: the Cooperstown historian and the Chisholm newspaper publisher. Besides the author using his own surname for his main character, there are other sort of metafictional elements, such as Ray talking to Jerry about writing and the life of writers (and getting it wrong); and how whenever anyone waxes poetic about baseball—Ray, Doc, Eddie—they speak with the same voice.
Unlike the previous novel I just finished I was moved by this story, especially at the same point I always am and even though I know what's coming. It’s not the scene you might be thinking of: if you're thinking of that one, that one's not in the book. I once wondered if the English Neil Gaiman had written a quintessential American novel; I think the Canadian Kinsella certainly has.
It’s amazing what I’d forgotten, all things not in its movie version (Field of Dreams), so not reinforced by it: Ray’s twin brother, Richard; Eddie Scissons (and he's a big part of the novel). I’d also forgotten that other ‘real’ people besides J.D. Salinger were used in this fictional story, though not as fictionally as he was: the Cooperstown historian and the Chisholm newspaper publisher. Besides the author using his own surname for his main character, there are other sort of metafictional elements, such as Ray talking to Jerry about writing and the life of writers (and getting it wrong); and how whenever anyone waxes poetic about baseball—Ray, Doc, Eddie—they speak with the same voice.
Unlike the previous novel I just finished I was moved by this story, especially at the same point I always am and even though I know what's coming. It’s not the scene you might be thinking of: if you're thinking of that one, that one's not in the book. I once wondered if the English Neil Gaiman had written a quintessential American novel; I think the Canadian Kinsella certainly has.
August 22, 2016
I don't have enough words to say how much I loved this book. I've waited a long time to read it. It has never been the right time until this weekend. I know that sounds cryptic, but there was a reason.
If you have ever watched the movie, Field of Dreams and love baseball, this book is a must read. Go buy it. "When you need it, it will be there." I promise, you will not be disappointed.
The text is as magic as the story line. Kinsella's text can transport you. He can paint a masterpiece with words. They are sprinkled throughout the story, like crows in a field after it has been mowed. (My words, not his.)
"April arrives, tender and personal as the breath of animals in a barn; snow shrinks from the sun. The fields puddle. The sun drinks away the standing water, and the land is ready for seeding."
My favorite:
"Behind our house a hundred yards or so is a collapsed building, its unpainted wood aged to the softness of owl feathers... It was perhaps a granary or a henhouse once, but stood abandoned for years, until, as if nature had given it a gentle karate chop, the roof collapsed in the middle, sinking slowly downward like an old camel attempting to kneel. It rots with dignity into the earth. A window is now at ground level, and the strangle grass, bent by evening breezes, peers inside."
If you have ever watched the movie, Field of Dreams and love baseball, this book is a must read. Go buy it. "When you need it, it will be there." I promise, you will not be disappointed.
The text is as magic as the story line. Kinsella's text can transport you. He can paint a masterpiece with words. They are sprinkled throughout the story, like crows in a field after it has been mowed. (My words, not his.)
"April arrives, tender and personal as the breath of animals in a barn; snow shrinks from the sun. The fields puddle. The sun drinks away the standing water, and the land is ready for seeding."
My favorite:
"Behind our house a hundred yards or so is a collapsed building, its unpainted wood aged to the softness of owl feathers... It was perhaps a granary or a henhouse once, but stood abandoned for years, until, as if nature had given it a gentle karate chop, the roof collapsed in the middle, sinking slowly downward like an old camel attempting to kneel. It rots with dignity into the earth. A window is now at ground level, and the strangle grass, bent by evening breezes, peers inside."
December 23, 2019
Now indeed, I honestly absolutely and utterly do adore the movie based on W.P. Kinsella's Shoeless Joe novel, I completely love love love Field of Dreams (starring Kevin Costner as the main baseball diamond building protagonist and Ray Liotta as Shoeless Joe Jackson), that delightful sense of magical realism and of healing painfully gaping and generational family wounds, dysfunction and misunderstandings through the power and sustaining, nurturing mythology of baseball (and this even though I am actually not in any way a huge baseball fan and more than likely never will be). Therefore, I was of course both very much intrigued by Shoeless Joe and yes, since I usually do end up liking the novels on which a given movie has been based considerably more than any cinematic adaptations, I was also fondly expecting to very much enjoy and appreciate Shoeless Joe and perhaps even more so than Field of Dreams.
However, and this is indeed a very painful however, Shoeless Joe has really and truly not AT ALL been my proverbial cup of reading pleasure tea. For indeed (and very much surprising to and for me at that), I have actually found the movie adaptation, I have found Field of Dreams absolutely and totally superior, more personally approachable and definitely one thousand percent more enjoyable than Shoeless Joe, which I if truth be told have utterly despised with every fibre of my being from page one, considering W.P. Kinsella's presented narrative tedious, dragging and so much of a slog and a pain to peruse with regard to especially the author's style of narrational expression and in particular his constant and annoyingly extreme overuse of one metaphor and simile after another, that I actually ended up not finishing, returning Shoeless Joe to the library with relief and (yes) very much gladly and appreciatively revisiting Field of Dreams instead. Combined with the fact that I also do NOT in any manner think that the author, that W.P. Kinsella using J.D. Salinger as a literary character in Shoeless Joe (which was thankfully also changed in Field of Dreams) is either acceptable or respectful of and to in particular the latter's wish for privacy and wanting to be left alone, and although I do I guess feel a trifle guilty rating a novel that I have not actually been able to finish, I will indeed be granting only one measly star to Shoeless Joe, as I really have not been able to even remotely stomach W.P. Kinsella's way of verbally expressing himself on paper (and yes, the older I get, the less patient I seem to become with novels, with any books I personally find cringeworthy with regard to narrational, verbal flow and stylistics, and the literal barrage of similes parading through Shoeless Joe, this does leave much if not everything to be personally desired).
However, and this is indeed a very painful however, Shoeless Joe has really and truly not AT ALL been my proverbial cup of reading pleasure tea. For indeed (and very much surprising to and for me at that), I have actually found the movie adaptation, I have found Field of Dreams absolutely and totally superior, more personally approachable and definitely one thousand percent more enjoyable than Shoeless Joe, which I if truth be told have utterly despised with every fibre of my being from page one, considering W.P. Kinsella's presented narrative tedious, dragging and so much of a slog and a pain to peruse with regard to especially the author's style of narrational expression and in particular his constant and annoyingly extreme overuse of one metaphor and simile after another, that I actually ended up not finishing, returning Shoeless Joe to the library with relief and (yes) very much gladly and appreciatively revisiting Field of Dreams instead. Combined with the fact that I also do NOT in any manner think that the author, that W.P. Kinsella using J.D. Salinger as a literary character in Shoeless Joe (which was thankfully also changed in Field of Dreams) is either acceptable or respectful of and to in particular the latter's wish for privacy and wanting to be left alone, and although I do I guess feel a trifle guilty rating a novel that I have not actually been able to finish, I will indeed be granting only one measly star to Shoeless Joe, as I really have not been able to even remotely stomach W.P. Kinsella's way of verbally expressing himself on paper (and yes, the older I get, the less patient I seem to become with novels, with any books I personally find cringeworthy with regard to narrational, verbal flow and stylistics, and the literal barrage of similes parading through Shoeless Joe, this does leave much if not everything to be personally desired).
June 2, 2019
The movie Field Of Dreams came from this book.
I have seen that film enough that I could practically recite the dialogue all the way through, and of course it was playing in my head as I read here.
But there are some differences: a couple of extra characters that didn't make it into the movie, and a real gun which surprised the heck out of me and seemed more than a little out of place.
But....quit comparing the two! What about the book....just the book?!
An Iowa farmer, his vision, what he does to achieve it, and how his actions affect the world.
That's about it. Seems so simple doesn't it. But there is so much depth here, so much love, and the very true notion that if we all just listen we will know what to do. Of course we have to be able to hear first, right?
Well, I guess this isn't a proper review. But it will have to do. And as for the author, I have just ordered a few of his other titles and cannot wait for them to arrive. How had I missed him all these years?!
And now, I need to go find a baseball game somewhere.
I have seen that film enough that I could practically recite the dialogue all the way through, and of course it was playing in my head as I read here.
But there are some differences: a couple of extra characters that didn't make it into the movie, and a real gun which surprised the heck out of me and seemed more than a little out of place.
But....quit comparing the two! What about the book....just the book?!
An Iowa farmer, his vision, what he does to achieve it, and how his actions affect the world.
That's about it. Seems so simple doesn't it. But there is so much depth here, so much love, and the very true notion that if we all just listen we will know what to do. Of course we have to be able to hear first, right?
Well, I guess this isn't a proper review. But it will have to do. And as for the author, I have just ordered a few of his other titles and cannot wait for them to arrive. How had I missed him all these years?!
And now, I need to go find a baseball game somewhere.
April 28, 2024
Unless you live in a cave or another planet, the Oscar winning film, "Field of Dreams" is familiar. The story of a Iowa corn farmer who 'hears' God speaking to him, its themes of hope, joy, love and family are heart warming and inspirational. This is the book the film was based upon and similar to most adaptations, differs.
One morning Ray Kinsella, a lifelong baseball fan due to his father John, sits on the porch gazing at the cornfields. Of all ball players, Shoeless Joe Jackson was the favorite. The next thing he knows a the voice of a sportscaster whispers, "If you build it he will come". Several hours later it repeats and launches details of how the baseball park will be constructed in his mind. The park is so vivid and clear, Ray can see it as he looks across the haggard lawn that borders the cornfield.
Ray is married to his lifelong love and friend Annie, and has a two year old daughter Karin of which both love him dearly. When Ray tells Annie about the voice, her first reaction is "You should build it". As he walks out to the lawn area, a figure appears in the cornfield and slowly approaches. As he nears, Ray rubs his eyes. Dressed in an original White Sox uniform and barefooted, its none other than Shoeless Joe. As they talk, Ray tells him he knows catcher to which Joe says, 'we'll give him a try once you build the ballpark'.
As Ray goes about building the field, news spreads rapidly in the small town who all feel Ray has lost his mind, Annie's brother among them. When the ballpark is nearly done, Joe and the rest of the team take to the field while Ray and the family cheer them. Soon after, Ray hears the sports announcer again only this time he says 'Ease his pain' and immediately knows he's referring to J.D. Salinger, author of "Catcher in the Rye". When he comes across editorials Salinger has written about his love for baseball, Ray realizes he must drive to New England and take him to a game. As one would imagine, a stranger showing up at the home of the introverted award winning author is anything but typical. But for unknown reasons, Jerry Salinger 'understands' and accompanies Ray to a Boston Red Sox ballgame. During the seventh inning stretch, Ray sees ball player stats for Archibald Moonlight Graham posted on the scoreboard. "Did you see that?" he asks Jerry. Sitting in awe, Jerry tells Ray they must travel to MN and find Graham.
A long trip from Boston to Chisholm, MN, Ray and Salinger bond. Taking a room in a motel, they go about researching Graham and learn he was the local doctor who was revered and had passed away years previous. "Doc Graham and his wife Alicia were a local treasure" Several nights later, Ray can't sleep and wanders through Chisholm perplexed. He notices a figure approaching in a cloud of mist. Tall and gray haired the figure walks with an umbrella as it it were a cane and Ray immediately recognizes him. "Are you Moonlight Graham?" Ray sits with Doc in his office and listens to talks his experience decades previous with the NY Giants. Inspired, Ray asks Graham whether he'd like another shot at it. "Are you someone that could make that dream happen?" the Doc asks.
The following day as Jerry and Ray head out of Chisholm, they come across a young guy hitchhiking carrying a duffel. As they pick him up, he introduces himself, "I'm Archie Graham and I'm a baseball player"
For those that have seen 'Field of Dreams', you know that Ray, Graham and the author return to Iowa. What's unique is the ballplayers can only be seen by those who 'believe' which embodies the theme of the story.
Unlike the film, th book tells how Ray acquired the farm from Eddie Scissons, an elderly man he meets in town during his arrival in Iowa. In addition, we meet Ray's twin brother Richard, who's been a traveling with a carnival for years. It's interesting how the studio substituted James Earl Jones for J.D. Salinger but it works nonetheless.
An engaging, inspirational well crafted story of hope, joy and love, this is wonderful whether you enjoy baseball or not. Truth be told, I've never been a fan, but watched the movie countless times. Kinsella is a gifted author and a die hard baseball fan too.
One morning Ray Kinsella, a lifelong baseball fan due to his father John, sits on the porch gazing at the cornfields. Of all ball players, Shoeless Joe Jackson was the favorite. The next thing he knows a the voice of a sportscaster whispers, "If you build it he will come". Several hours later it repeats and launches details of how the baseball park will be constructed in his mind. The park is so vivid and clear, Ray can see it as he looks across the haggard lawn that borders the cornfield.
Ray is married to his lifelong love and friend Annie, and has a two year old daughter Karin of which both love him dearly. When Ray tells Annie about the voice, her first reaction is "You should build it". As he walks out to the lawn area, a figure appears in the cornfield and slowly approaches. As he nears, Ray rubs his eyes. Dressed in an original White Sox uniform and barefooted, its none other than Shoeless Joe. As they talk, Ray tells him he knows catcher to which Joe says, 'we'll give him a try once you build the ballpark'.
As Ray goes about building the field, news spreads rapidly in the small town who all feel Ray has lost his mind, Annie's brother among them. When the ballpark is nearly done, Joe and the rest of the team take to the field while Ray and the family cheer them. Soon after, Ray hears the sports announcer again only this time he says 'Ease his pain' and immediately knows he's referring to J.D. Salinger, author of "Catcher in the Rye". When he comes across editorials Salinger has written about his love for baseball, Ray realizes he must drive to New England and take him to a game. As one would imagine, a stranger showing up at the home of the introverted award winning author is anything but typical. But for unknown reasons, Jerry Salinger 'understands' and accompanies Ray to a Boston Red Sox ballgame. During the seventh inning stretch, Ray sees ball player stats for Archibald Moonlight Graham posted on the scoreboard. "Did you see that?" he asks Jerry. Sitting in awe, Jerry tells Ray they must travel to MN and find Graham.
A long trip from Boston to Chisholm, MN, Ray and Salinger bond. Taking a room in a motel, they go about researching Graham and learn he was the local doctor who was revered and had passed away years previous. "Doc Graham and his wife Alicia were a local treasure" Several nights later, Ray can't sleep and wanders through Chisholm perplexed. He notices a figure approaching in a cloud of mist. Tall and gray haired the figure walks with an umbrella as it it were a cane and Ray immediately recognizes him. "Are you Moonlight Graham?" Ray sits with Doc in his office and listens to talks his experience decades previous with the NY Giants. Inspired, Ray asks Graham whether he'd like another shot at it. "Are you someone that could make that dream happen?" the Doc asks.
The following day as Jerry and Ray head out of Chisholm, they come across a young guy hitchhiking carrying a duffel. As they pick him up, he introduces himself, "I'm Archie Graham and I'm a baseball player"
For those that have seen 'Field of Dreams', you know that Ray, Graham and the author return to Iowa. What's unique is the ballplayers can only be seen by those who 'believe' which embodies the theme of the story.
Unlike the film, th book tells how Ray acquired the farm from Eddie Scissons, an elderly man he meets in town during his arrival in Iowa. In addition, we meet Ray's twin brother Richard, who's been a traveling with a carnival for years. It's interesting how the studio substituted James Earl Jones for J.D. Salinger but it works nonetheless.
An engaging, inspirational well crafted story of hope, joy and love, this is wonderful whether you enjoy baseball or not. Truth be told, I've never been a fan, but watched the movie countless times. Kinsella is a gifted author and a die hard baseball fan too.
June 27, 2008
Wow! I saw the movie years ago and I just picked this book up to have something to read at the beach. I was blown away. Kinsella has a beautiful way with language. As the cover says, this is not just a book about baseball. It is a book about love and memories, about the truth of our lives, and, in the end, like so many other great works, it is about fathers and sons and the heart rending distance between them that is filled with longing and love and the inability to express it. It left me in tears.
June 11, 2025
”This must be heaven,” he says.
“No, it’s Iowa, I reply automatically.”
”I count the loves in my life: Annie, Karen, Iowa, baseball. The Great God Baseball. My birthstone is a diamond. When asked I say my astrological sign is hit and run.”
”For I have always been a little eccentric where baseball is concerned.”
More so than other sports, baseball has always appealed to poets, to dreamers and to mystics. There is just something about its aesthetics, its timelessness (the only sport not governed by a clock), or perhaps even its fundamental contradictions — a bucolic, pastoral game developed and played primarily in urban centers, that encourages this.
Whatever the reason for baseball’s unique appeal to poetic, mystical dreamers, W.P. Kinsella doubled down in Shoeless Joe, applying his gentle magical realism to create a baseball myth that is downright Biblical. His protagonist, Ray Kinsella, while sitting on his Iowa farm, clearly hears a voice, as of the Baseball Gods speaking to him, saying:
”If you build it, he will come.”
Ray, like the prophets of old, never questions this cryptic message. He immediately grasps its import. He must create a baseball field in his cornfield, and the long dead, disgraced baseball superstar, Shoeless Joe Jackson, will appear in it to play. Without hesitation, Ray commences to do just that, despite the fact that he lacks skills, that the project threatens to destroy his already tenuous financial situation, or that, frankly, it’s simply crazy. But like the Biblical prophets, Ray obeys the voice, and is rewarded. Not just Shoeless Joe, but all eight of the 1919 Chicago Black Sox appear in his field to play phantom baseball in the Iowan summer twilight.
This would seem to be enough for an entire story, yet it is only chapter one. The Baseball Gods keep speaking to Ray, and Ray continues to obey. He sets out on a cross country quest, stopping in Chicago, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh to see games, before kidnapping reclusive author J.D. Salinger and taking him to a ballgame in Boston’s Fenway Park, obeying the voice that simply said to him, ”Ease his pain.” From there it’s back across the country (and out of time), Salinger now in tow, to search out another, far less famous baseball ghost in Minnesota. And so it goes.
W.P. Kinsella is telling a bigger story, (with ample digressions). He is weaving a comforting myth about an ideal America standing against an uglier reality. Ray’s wife, Annie, is part of the myth, supernaturally loyal and supportive of her prophet-husband against all better sense, sane practicalities, and threats of financial ruin. Ray’s open minded dreaminess is pitted against the severe fundamentalism of his in-laws. His impractical American baseball dreams stand toe to toe with his aggressive brother-in-law’s rapacious predatory capitalism. The family farm stares down the corporate combine. And unlike how we know this story would normally end, in Kinsella’s magical realism, American baseball myth, the dreamers triumph.
Sometimes, in a dark world, we need a little magic. We need an improbable walk off home run against the Yankees to win the series. We need to see the past redeemed and the good guys win. Sometimes we just need a little comfort for our dreaming souls. With Shoeless Joe Kinsella gave us just that.
“No, it’s Iowa, I reply automatically.”
”I count the loves in my life: Annie, Karen, Iowa, baseball. The Great God Baseball. My birthstone is a diamond. When asked I say my astrological sign is hit and run.”
”For I have always been a little eccentric where baseball is concerned.”
More so than other sports, baseball has always appealed to poets, to dreamers and to mystics. There is just something about its aesthetics, its timelessness (the only sport not governed by a clock), or perhaps even its fundamental contradictions — a bucolic, pastoral game developed and played primarily in urban centers, that encourages this.
Whatever the reason for baseball’s unique appeal to poetic, mystical dreamers, W.P. Kinsella doubled down in Shoeless Joe, applying his gentle magical realism to create a baseball myth that is downright Biblical. His protagonist, Ray Kinsella, while sitting on his Iowa farm, clearly hears a voice, as of the Baseball Gods speaking to him, saying:
”If you build it, he will come.”
Ray, like the prophets of old, never questions this cryptic message. He immediately grasps its import. He must create a baseball field in his cornfield, and the long dead, disgraced baseball superstar, Shoeless Joe Jackson, will appear in it to play. Without hesitation, Ray commences to do just that, despite the fact that he lacks skills, that the project threatens to destroy his already tenuous financial situation, or that, frankly, it’s simply crazy. But like the Biblical prophets, Ray obeys the voice, and is rewarded. Not just Shoeless Joe, but all eight of the 1919 Chicago Black Sox appear in his field to play phantom baseball in the Iowan summer twilight.
This would seem to be enough for an entire story, yet it is only chapter one. The Baseball Gods keep speaking to Ray, and Ray continues to obey. He sets out on a cross country quest, stopping in Chicago, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh to see games, before kidnapping reclusive author J.D. Salinger and taking him to a ballgame in Boston’s Fenway Park, obeying the voice that simply said to him, ”Ease his pain.” From there it’s back across the country (and out of time), Salinger now in tow, to search out another, far less famous baseball ghost in Minnesota. And so it goes.
W.P. Kinsella is telling a bigger story, (with ample digressions). He is weaving a comforting myth about an ideal America standing against an uglier reality. Ray’s wife, Annie, is part of the myth, supernaturally loyal and supportive of her prophet-husband against all better sense, sane practicalities, and threats of financial ruin. Ray’s open minded dreaminess is pitted against the severe fundamentalism of his in-laws. His impractical American baseball dreams stand toe to toe with his aggressive brother-in-law’s rapacious predatory capitalism. The family farm stares down the corporate combine. And unlike how we know this story would normally end, in Kinsella’s magical realism, American baseball myth, the dreamers triumph.
Sometimes, in a dark world, we need a little magic. We need an improbable walk off home run against the Yankees to win the series. We need to see the past redeemed and the good guys win. Sometimes we just need a little comfort for our dreaming souls. With Shoeless Joe Kinsella gave us just that.
August 14, 2020
And what's really strange is that Kinsella took his own life (doctor assisted) on Sept. 16th 2016 just a few weeks away from the historic 100-plus year drought, a 'Goat' -busting curse lifted, the Chicago Cubs were cruising towards that epic World Series win - why the hell would choose to checkout before seeing what happens?!
2020 review: Yesterday the 13th was when the real Chicago White Sox and the St Louis Cardinals were supposed to play a regular season game at the Iowa "Field of Dreams" ballpark (they actually built another one suitable for big league play) but alas and drat Covid-19 confounds yet again no game. So I reread the book and ... not good as it was. After having read keenly about Salinger some few books back makes me cringe for him by being thugged into this novel - who was Kinsella's Kinsella to put the snach on ol' JD who would have NEVER chased after some phantom hallucination with some lunatic psycho-fan and an off-to-see-the-wizard trek to an Iowa cornfield picking up ghosts from the past on the way and well .... Ray is a self absorbed dick and his wife Annie is a dip for love loveable little Karin innocent. Their farm would have gone totally broke in those times when truly one section or 160 acres was simply not enough to support a stand alone farm [family] a real sense of community way of life eroding within the story - but this is so magical and so less realism; who the hell started all these balls to motion these voices in the corn? With all the philosophizing an eeh gads Jerry himself doing much of it but in the end he flits out with the 'eight men out' crowd to leave us and numbnuts Ray still blabbering bunk about baseball. Ah, 'the boys of summer' indeed! The movie worked better.
2017 review: "Baseball is a ceremony, a ritual, as surely as sacrificing a goat beneath the full moon is a ritual." Ray Kinsella speaking to J. D. Salinger at Fenway Park during a Red Sox game explaining or trying to at this point 84 pages into "Shoeless Joe" why he has driven over a thousand miles to sort of kidnap him and drag him to this game and, hopefully, find out what that voice means by 'ease his pain' - Salinger is noncommittal, skeptical and befuddled at these Quixotic circumstances that has him listening to this babbling baseball nut who seems rabid for his involvement. There's a ball diamond carved out of a cornfield back outside Iowa City, Iowa, where Ray as a small, struggling, one-section farmer and ex-life insurance salesman met a geezer on the street one day who claimed to be the oldest living ex-Chicago Cub turned farmer and who convinced Ray to rent then buy his farm. Ray's redheaded wife Annie and their daughter Karin are in on the magic that's been taking place out on the field as ballplayers from the 1919 Chicago White Sox appear out of center field led by "say it ain't so" Joe Jackson. They're ghosts of themselves playing the game they love for an audience of three, but that will change.
"Field of Dreams" is a favorite for any baseball fan and being set in an Iowa cornfield just adds to the pleasure of us mid-westerner's who growing up in what seems like a never ending sea of corn usually thought only of boredom attached to that uniform green standing tasseled forever waves of grain. What I didn't know about the book was that Salinger was the writer character and that there was so much of the Chicago Cubs by way of Eddie Scissons (the geezer) wrapped up into the story. Even though my first baseball game was to Comisky Park in '64 where Mickey Mantle hit a home run I've mostly been a Cub's fan, and they last year after a hundred's year drought finally won the World Series and Chicago threw the biggest parade and celebration in it's history. But back to this book and these characters. Besides the players who just appear out of corn and Ray who with J. D. in tow and now buying into the celestial mission of sorts (think "Blues Bros") are "Moonlight Graham" another baseball ghost with unfinished business, Eddie Scissons, Annie/Karin, and well others who fill out the nuances of the conflict and final resolution of this magical realism lovefest for Americana as it was in a Rockwell painting.
The movie did a fabulous job of bringing all this to life, but the book as it always does fills in the blanks and adds substance to the easy pleasure of the screen. Even a non baseball fan will get some schooling of the fervor and passion the game with its rich history provides against the bluster and pace of change in a world gone fast. It's a game simple enough for anyone to play but complex in getting good at. It's played on grass, on streets and just about anywhere you can scratch out a set of bases and outfield. Ray Kinsella is a loveable hero for having open soul to hear a call from beyond and the courage to follow his dreams and that unknown voice. His wife and daughter are hero's for loving boldly and supporting their shared belief. Doc Graham and Eddie Scissons are hero's for loving their dreams enough to let go and still be vibrant and contributing individuals. J. D. (Jerry) Salinger gets a chance to come out of hiding and become his own hero too and it was so good to have him back among us. So I'm awful biased in loving this book 'cause baseball and cornfields and Chicago Cubs/Sox and redheaded loving woman are parts of my own field of dreams which got played out for real with this magical game of a story!
2020 review: Yesterday the 13th was when the real Chicago White Sox and the St Louis Cardinals were supposed to play a regular season game at the Iowa "Field of Dreams" ballpark (they actually built another one suitable for big league play) but alas and drat Covid-19 confounds yet again no game. So I reread the book and ... not good as it was. After having read keenly about Salinger some few books back makes me cringe for him by being thugged into this novel - who was Kinsella's Kinsella to put the snach on ol' JD who would have NEVER chased after some phantom hallucination with some lunatic psycho-fan and an off-to-see-the-wizard trek to an Iowa cornfield picking up ghosts from the past on the way and well .... Ray is a self absorbed dick and his wife Annie is a dip for love loveable little Karin innocent. Their farm would have gone totally broke in those times when truly one section or 160 acres was simply not enough to support a stand alone farm [family] a real sense of community way of life eroding within the story - but this is so magical and so less realism; who the hell started all these balls to motion these voices in the corn? With all the philosophizing an eeh gads Jerry himself doing much of it but in the end he flits out with the 'eight men out' crowd to leave us and numbnuts Ray still blabbering bunk about baseball. Ah, 'the boys of summer' indeed! The movie worked better.
2017 review: "Baseball is a ceremony, a ritual, as surely as sacrificing a goat beneath the full moon is a ritual." Ray Kinsella speaking to J. D. Salinger at Fenway Park during a Red Sox game explaining or trying to at this point 84 pages into "Shoeless Joe" why he has driven over a thousand miles to sort of kidnap him and drag him to this game and, hopefully, find out what that voice means by 'ease his pain' - Salinger is noncommittal, skeptical and befuddled at these Quixotic circumstances that has him listening to this babbling baseball nut who seems rabid for his involvement. There's a ball diamond carved out of a cornfield back outside Iowa City, Iowa, where Ray as a small, struggling, one-section farmer and ex-life insurance salesman met a geezer on the street one day who claimed to be the oldest living ex-Chicago Cub turned farmer and who convinced Ray to rent then buy his farm. Ray's redheaded wife Annie and their daughter Karin are in on the magic that's been taking place out on the field as ballplayers from the 1919 Chicago White Sox appear out of center field led by "say it ain't so" Joe Jackson. They're ghosts of themselves playing the game they love for an audience of three, but that will change.
"Field of Dreams" is a favorite for any baseball fan and being set in an Iowa cornfield just adds to the pleasure of us mid-westerner's who growing up in what seems like a never ending sea of corn usually thought only of boredom attached to that uniform green standing tasseled forever waves of grain. What I didn't know about the book was that Salinger was the writer character and that there was so much of the Chicago Cubs by way of Eddie Scissons (the geezer) wrapped up into the story. Even though my first baseball game was to Comisky Park in '64 where Mickey Mantle hit a home run I've mostly been a Cub's fan, and they last year after a hundred's year drought finally won the World Series and Chicago threw the biggest parade and celebration in it's history. But back to this book and these characters. Besides the players who just appear out of corn and Ray who with J. D. in tow and now buying into the celestial mission of sorts (think "Blues Bros") are "Moonlight Graham" another baseball ghost with unfinished business, Eddie Scissons, Annie/Karin, and well others who fill out the nuances of the conflict and final resolution of this magical realism lovefest for Americana as it was in a Rockwell painting.
The movie did a fabulous job of bringing all this to life, but the book as it always does fills in the blanks and adds substance to the easy pleasure of the screen. Even a non baseball fan will get some schooling of the fervor and passion the game with its rich history provides against the bluster and pace of change in a world gone fast. It's a game simple enough for anyone to play but complex in getting good at. It's played on grass, on streets and just about anywhere you can scratch out a set of bases and outfield. Ray Kinsella is a loveable hero for having open soul to hear a call from beyond and the courage to follow his dreams and that unknown voice. His wife and daughter are hero's for loving boldly and supporting their shared belief. Doc Graham and Eddie Scissons are hero's for loving their dreams enough to let go and still be vibrant and contributing individuals. J. D. (Jerry) Salinger gets a chance to come out of hiding and become his own hero too and it was so good to have him back among us. So I'm awful biased in loving this book 'cause baseball and cornfields and Chicago Cubs/Sox and redheaded loving woman are parts of my own field of dreams which got played out for real with this magical game of a story!
November 23, 2018
Magical realism done right! I read this years ago but was recently reminded of it and recalled how much I enjoyed it. The book is a bit different from the movie, and I liked them both. If you like baseball or magical realism, check it out.
October 19, 2016
October 2016 read with the Baseball Book Club
This book, I discovered, is an extremely visceral one. It touches all of your senses as you read: you can feel the grass and dirt under your feet, smell the worn leather of a baseball glove, see the lights come on in the stadium, and barely make out Shoeless Joe as he walks toward you from that door by the cornfield. All just by reading.
And what a read it was. Normally, a book this size (224 pages) I should've finished in two days. Took a bit longer than planned because a) real life and b) I really enjoyed taking my time and savoring it. I think the phrase 'magical realism' was invented to describe this book. If you haven't read it (or at least watched Field of Dreams), even if you're not a baseball or sports person, please give it a shot. It's such a beautiful story.
This book, I discovered, is an extremely visceral one. It touches all of your senses as you read: you can feel the grass and dirt under your feet, smell the worn leather of a baseball glove, see the lights come on in the stadium, and barely make out Shoeless Joe as he walks toward you from that door by the cornfield. All just by reading.
And what a read it was. Normally, a book this size (224 pages) I should've finished in two days. Took a bit longer than planned because a) real life and b) I really enjoyed taking my time and savoring it. I think the phrase 'magical realism' was invented to describe this book. If you haven't read it (or at least watched Field of Dreams), even if you're not a baseball or sports person, please give it a shot. It's such a beautiful story.
April 1, 2018
دبليو كينسيلا رغم أنّني للمرة الأولى أسمع باسمه لكنه
روائي عظيم وقدير ومتمكّن جدًا
ذكّرني بالروائية م.ل.ستيدمان ورائعتها "نور بين محيطين"
وقد كان تعليقي الأوّل على رواية ستيدمان:
"كيف لها أن تكون هذه روايتها الأولى !؟
كل هذه العبقرية والحبكات والواقعية وروعة السرد دفعة واحدة!"
جو الحافي
رواية من تأليف دبليو بي كينسيلا نال عليها جائزة زمالة هاوغنون ميفيلين الأدبية
واتحاد أيوا للبيسبول
وهي أساس الفيلم العالمي "ملعب الأحلام"
أو "حقل الأحلام".
تتحدث الرواية عن رياضة البيسبول وحلم بطل الرواية بتحويل حقل للذرة خاص به إلى ملعب كبير لتلك الرياضة
حيث يسمع مزارع بسيط صوتا مجهولا يطلب منه بناء
ملعب بيسبول في منتصف حقل الذرة
ويقف ضده أهل زوجته
لكن زوجته تتضامن معه تضامناً كبيراً
ويكون لدى البطل أصدقاء يضعف أحدهم ويخونه
كما يصر على المواجهة رغم جميع المعوقات التي تعترض حلمه
وعندما يستجيب ويقيم الملعب تتوافد أرواح اللاعبين العظماء من الماضي ل اللعب على أرض الملعب
وهذا يعني أن الثبات والإصرار هما الحافز الأساسي للتقدم والنجاح
قالوا عن الرواية:
"إنه كتاب مراوغ مدهش، وهو ليس عن البيسبول إلى حد
كبير جداً قدر ما هو عن الأحلام، السحر، الحياة، وما هو
أمريكي على نحو جوهري...
محتويات الكتاب:
١_ جو جاكسون الحافي يأتي إلى أيوا
٢_لقد هدموا ملاعب الـ بولو في عام ١٩٦٤
٣_حياة وأيام مونلايت غراهام
٤_أقدم أحياء في شيكاغو
٥_نشوة جي. دي. سالينجر.
الفيلم:
field of dreams 1989
اقتباسات:
_بعض الرجال يروم الأشياء كما هي،
ويقولون: لماذا؟
وأنا أحلم بأشياء لم تتحقق أبداً،
وأقول: لمَ لا؟
عنوان الكتاب: جو الحافي "رواية"
اسم المؤلّف: دبليو.بي.كينسيلا
سنة النشر للنسخة الأصلية:
سنة النشر لهذه النسخة العربية: ٢٠١١
الطبعة : الأولى
الناشر: النسر للنشر والتوزيع
اسم المترجم: محمد ناصر
عدد الصفحات:٣٤٩
نادية أحمد
١ ابريل ٢٠١٨
روائي عظيم وقدير ومتمكّن جدًا
ذكّرني بالروائية م.ل.ستيدمان ورائعتها "نور بين محيطين"
وقد كان تعليقي الأوّل على رواية ستيدمان:
"كيف لها أن تكون هذه روايتها الأولى !؟
كل هذه العبقرية والحبكات والواقعية وروعة السرد دفعة واحدة!"
جو الحافي
رواية من تأليف دبليو بي كينسيلا نال عليها جائزة زمالة هاوغنون ميفيلين الأدبية
واتحاد أيوا للبيسبول
وهي أساس الفيلم العالمي "ملعب الأحلام"
أو "حقل الأحلام".
تتحدث الرواية عن رياضة البيسبول وحلم بطل الرواية بتحويل حقل للذرة خاص به إلى ملعب كبير لتلك الرياضة
حيث يسمع مزارع بسيط صوتا مجهولا يطلب منه بناء
ملعب بيسبول في منتصف حقل الذرة
ويقف ضده أهل زوجته
لكن زوجته تتضامن معه تضامناً كبيراً
ويكون لدى البطل أصدقاء يضعف أحدهم ويخونه
كما يصر على المواجهة رغم جميع المعوقات التي تعترض حلمه
وعندما يستجيب ويقيم الملعب تتوافد أرواح اللاعبين العظماء من الماضي ل اللعب على أرض الملعب
وهذا يعني أن الثبات والإصرار هما الحافز الأساسي للتقدم والنجاح
قالوا عن الرواية:
"إنه كتاب مراوغ مدهش، وهو ليس عن البيسبول إلى حد
كبير جداً قدر ما هو عن الأحلام، السحر، الحياة، وما هو
أمريكي على نحو جوهري...
محتويات الكتاب:
١_ جو جاكسون الحافي يأتي إلى أيوا
٢_لقد هدموا ملاعب الـ بولو في عام ١٩٦٤
٣_حياة وأيام مونلايت غراهام
٤_أقدم أحياء في شيكاغو
٥_نشوة جي. دي. سالينجر.
الفيلم:
field of dreams 1989
اقتباسات:
_بعض الرجال يروم الأشياء كما هي،
ويقولون: لماذا؟
وأنا أحلم بأشياء لم تتحقق أبداً،
وأقول: لمَ لا؟
عنوان الكتاب: جو الحافي "رواية"
اسم المؤلّف: دبليو.بي.كينسيلا
سنة النشر للنسخة الأصلية:
سنة النشر لهذه النسخة العربية: ٢٠١١
الطبعة : الأولى
الناشر: النسر للنشر والتوزيع
اسم المترجم: محمد ناصر
عدد الصفحات:٣٤٩
نادية أحمد
١ ابريل ٢٠١٨
November 17, 2012
There isn't much I can add to what others have said about this book. It was great. I "buddy" read the book with my husband and since he has been working a lot of OT it took up a while to get through it. If you watched the movie and haven't read the book, there are some differences of course, but to me they enhanced the story. What a great story!
June 29, 2013
It is so nice to read a book like this one.
I admit that I approached it with apprehension. I had been wanting to read it for a very long time, but the movie Field of Dreams was already so beloved to me that I worried the book might somehow lessen its appeal in my eyes.
This is not a book that is meant to be skimmed through for plot details, or main ideas. This book is meant to be savored. The prose reads like poetry and breeds fantasy and wonder. The author puts his reader right in the moment with present-tense, stream-of-consciousness-style narration. Even better, the narrator is an engaging one, whose language is filled with the wisdom of an old man, but the imagination and enthusiasm of an eternal child.
While, yes, the language does seem overly flowery, or perhaps even too descriptive, I think it has a positive overall effect. I never felt that it took away from the beauty of the dreamy prose or the progression of the truly unique and compelling story. It is able to inspire emotion in its readers - fear, awe, reverence, anticipation, and even giddy excitement.
For someone like me, who grew up with the movie, it is impossible not to hear Kevin Costner's voice as I read, and to see the imposing figure and hear the booming voice of James Earl Jones, despite the fact that I know it is the fictional version of J. D. Salinger I am meeting in these pages.
More than anything else, I love the emphasis this book places on faith. It shows that idealism to the point of foolishness still exists, and can be rewarded. It provides hope for those of us who want to believe in the impossible without being disillusioned.
I am thrilled to have read this book.
I admit that I approached it with apprehension. I had been wanting to read it for a very long time, but the movie Field of Dreams was already so beloved to me that I worried the book might somehow lessen its appeal in my eyes.
This is not a book that is meant to be skimmed through for plot details, or main ideas. This book is meant to be savored. The prose reads like poetry and breeds fantasy and wonder. The author puts his reader right in the moment with present-tense, stream-of-consciousness-style narration. Even better, the narrator is an engaging one, whose language is filled with the wisdom of an old man, but the imagination and enthusiasm of an eternal child.
While, yes, the language does seem overly flowery, or perhaps even too descriptive, I think it has a positive overall effect. I never felt that it took away from the beauty of the dreamy prose or the progression of the truly unique and compelling story. It is able to inspire emotion in its readers - fear, awe, reverence, anticipation, and even giddy excitement.
For someone like me, who grew up with the movie, it is impossible not to hear Kevin Costner's voice as I read, and to see the imposing figure and hear the booming voice of James Earl Jones, despite the fact that I know it is the fictional version of J. D. Salinger I am meeting in these pages.
More than anything else, I love the emphasis this book places on faith. It shows that idealism to the point of foolishness still exists, and can be rewarded. It provides hope for those of us who want to believe in the impossible without being disillusioned.
I am thrilled to have read this book.
January 21, 2015
This is one of those rare books that it's impossible not to compare to the movie. I enjoyed them both very much, and they are more similar that I expected; I suppose the biggest difference is that the character James Earl Jones played in the film was originally J.D. Salinger in the book. The novel has been reviewed and analyzed almost endlessly in the last thirty-five years, and I certainly don't have any unique perspective to add. I think it's cool that a book that's become known as one of the most representative American novels of modern times was written by a Canadian. I don't know how I missed reading it until now. It's a fantasy book; it's a magic-realism novel. It's a book about family, particularly the relationship between fathers and sons. It's about tradition, faith, and I suppose it can be about any number of things when you think about it and apply your own perspectives, but one always runs the risk of losing the magic when you over-think it. Most importantly, I believe, it's about baseball, too, of course... deus ex baseball.
November 7, 2023
Proving my theory that some books need to happen for the reader at just the right time, Shoeless Joe finally happened on my clock. So, you have to know that whenever I fly I have a tradition of stopping at the airport bookstore and wandering through their offerings until some book title strikes me. I buy it and read it on my trip, starting there at the gate. It’s way fun. Usually. I bought this book on a trip like that. I started it, but never finished. There were lots of reasons for that, but in the end it just came down to it not being the right time.
Well, you also need to know that I almost NEVER DNF a book. It runs counter to the whole of my being. So, eventually I picked it back up again and this time, it was right. Everything about it was right. I love this story. Yes, I do love baseball. And yes, I did love the movie - so much so, in fact, that if I get pressed to choose my favorite movie of all time, this is the one I will pick. And yes, I live in Iowa and I have set my feet on the Field of Dreams diamond, run the bases and have the pictures to prove it. It is hard to separate the book from the movie looking back on it from this place in history. And I suppose I bought and started the book way back then because of all of that. But I can say now that the book stands on its own.
The theme that has always struck me from the moment I saw the movie for the first time to now, having turned the last page of the book, is that of having the courage to listen to the voice that speaks to you - as unexpected, unreasonable and inexplicable as it may be - and following its call on your life. Maybe with questions. Maybe with no idea what the outcome will be. But being willing to follow anyway. There is no escaping the spiritual implications of that, at least not in my life. Ray Kinsella heard it, took a step in the direction it took him and then invested himself in it to its completion. That is the definition of being called. The fact that it took him on a journey that was just a little “outside” of this world just adds to the spiritual nature of the story. With that foundation, the story’s subject could have been about anything. But, happily, it was about baseball.
Not being a person who ordinarily dwells in the surreal comfortably, I probably would have struggled with that aspect of the book if I had not already seen it set in film. And on the page it worked for me. Only near the end did it’s magical elements get a little over the top and disjointed for me, but it all came together well. I was also happily surprised by the depth of the love story here. Everyone knows about Ray Kinsella’s deep love for baseball, rooted in the unexplored depths of his love for his father. But the love story between Ray and his wife, Annie, is quite simply beautiful. It is loving with wisdom, with trust, with abandon. And the Epilogue made any rough places in the writing worth it. It was my favorite section (of many favorites). Reading that last bit of the story made me feel like I was standing there in the twilight, feet in the grass, under the lights, watching the players take their walk through the right center field fence and out into the late summer Iowa corn. It was so good that I did what I almost never do. I read it out loud to myself…if the writing can make me do that, then the time for this book was perfect.
Well, you also need to know that I almost NEVER DNF a book. It runs counter to the whole of my being. So, eventually I picked it back up again and this time, it was right. Everything about it was right. I love this story. Yes, I do love baseball. And yes, I did love the movie - so much so, in fact, that if I get pressed to choose my favorite movie of all time, this is the one I will pick. And yes, I live in Iowa and I have set my feet on the Field of Dreams diamond, run the bases and have the pictures to prove it. It is hard to separate the book from the movie looking back on it from this place in history. And I suppose I bought and started the book way back then because of all of that. But I can say now that the book stands on its own.
The theme that has always struck me from the moment I saw the movie for the first time to now, having turned the last page of the book, is that of having the courage to listen to the voice that speaks to you - as unexpected, unreasonable and inexplicable as it may be - and following its call on your life. Maybe with questions. Maybe with no idea what the outcome will be. But being willing to follow anyway. There is no escaping the spiritual implications of that, at least not in my life. Ray Kinsella heard it, took a step in the direction it took him and then invested himself in it to its completion. That is the definition of being called. The fact that it took him on a journey that was just a little “outside” of this world just adds to the spiritual nature of the story. With that foundation, the story’s subject could have been about anything. But, happily, it was about baseball.
Not being a person who ordinarily dwells in the surreal comfortably, I probably would have struggled with that aspect of the book if I had not already seen it set in film. And on the page it worked for me. Only near the end did it’s magical elements get a little over the top and disjointed for me, but it all came together well. I was also happily surprised by the depth of the love story here. Everyone knows about Ray Kinsella’s deep love for baseball, rooted in the unexplored depths of his love for his father. But the love story between Ray and his wife, Annie, is quite simply beautiful. It is loving with wisdom, with trust, with abandon. And the Epilogue made any rough places in the writing worth it. It was my favorite section (of many favorites). Reading that last bit of the story made me feel like I was standing there in the twilight, feet in the grass, under the lights, watching the players take their walk through the right center field fence and out into the late summer Iowa corn. It was so good that I did what I almost never do. I read it out loud to myself…if the writing can make me do that, then the time for this book was perfect.
July 19, 2011
I have a feeling I would've liked the movie better even if I'd read the book first. From a style standpoint, the author pumps out metaphors like a coke machine (IRONY ALERT!). He's in love with describing one thing as being like something else, which is fine when done sparingly.
The story's great, though. Annie sounds like the most perfect woman/wife ever created by a writer, Canadian or otherwise. And I spent a fair amount of time wanting to punch J.D. Salinger, which seems about right given my previous experience with his "character's" work. Casting James Earl Jones as a reclusive counter-culture writer in the movie instead of Salinger was a great choice, IMO (as if casting Darth Vader is ever wrong). It's rare in my experience that a movie seems to improve upon a book, but in this case I think Field of Dreams managed to translate the story into something much more emotional and memorable.
The story's great, though. Annie sounds like the most perfect woman/wife ever created by a writer, Canadian or otherwise. And I spent a fair amount of time wanting to punch J.D. Salinger, which seems about right given my previous experience with his "character's" work. Casting James Earl Jones as a reclusive counter-culture writer in the movie instead of Salinger was a great choice, IMO (as if casting Darth Vader is ever wrong). It's rare in my experience that a movie seems to improve upon a book, but in this case I think Field of Dreams managed to translate the story into something much more emotional and memorable.
July 27, 2020
It’s not often that I’ll champion a movie being way better than the book. But that’s definitely the case for Field of Dreams. I grew up watching it with my family. I think it’s a beautiful, nostalgic, magical story. So I was curious to read the book it was based on… I shouldn’t have bothered.
This is one of those situations where the movie really improved upon the source material. The writing was so repetitive and used way too many similes. Annie, the main character’s wife, was incredibly bland and was essentially just there to be agreeable and sexy and prop up what Ray was doing. Basically the only Black characters featured were negatively stereotyped people when Ray walked through ~the bad side of town.~ UGH
In the movie Annie gets way more of a personality and contributes more to the story. Instead of the author character being JD Salinger like in the book, it’s a fictional author played by James Earl Jones so there’s an improvement on the representation of Black characters.
I think it was interesting to see more of the different characters that Ray meets along his journey… But that’s not enough.
I think some of my dislike for the book is just that I’ve had such an emotional connection to the movie that I think the book pales in comparison. It doesn’t capture the same sense of magic. And THAT scene at the end that makes most middle aged men cry didn’t have the same impact in the book. But the major problem is how there’s a lack of depth for any characters that aren’t white dudes. And the awful writing. Good god enough with all the fucking similes.
This is one of those situations where the movie really improved upon the source material. The writing was so repetitive and used way too many similes. Annie, the main character’s wife, was incredibly bland and was essentially just there to be agreeable and sexy and prop up what Ray was doing. Basically the only Black characters featured were negatively stereotyped people when Ray walked through ~the bad side of town.~ UGH
In the movie Annie gets way more of a personality and contributes more to the story. Instead of the author character being JD Salinger like in the book, it’s a fictional author played by James Earl Jones so there’s an improvement on the representation of Black characters.
I think it was interesting to see more of the different characters that Ray meets along his journey… But that’s not enough.
I think some of my dislike for the book is just that I’ve had such an emotional connection to the movie that I think the book pales in comparison. It doesn’t capture the same sense of magic. And THAT scene at the end that makes most middle aged men cry didn’t have the same impact in the book. But the major problem is how there’s a lack of depth for any characters that aren’t white dudes. And the awful writing. Good god enough with all the fucking similes.
September 25, 2016
This story is so inspiring and yet so down to earth and simple, it just seems too good to have been written. But it was, and the prose to describe the journey Ray takes because a voice told him to build "it" (a baseball field) is great. Definitely a five star read. Instead of a full review, I am saving some comments for the discussion on this book that will start October 1 in the Baseball Book Club.
December 23, 2019
Here I am reading one of the great books about baseball--with the football season going on. But, first, as was said of the film ( "Field of Dreams") which is based on this book, it's about a lot more than baseball. And, second, I've always preferred baseball to football and believe baseball is still the true national sport! Anyway, I like to read the books upon which movies that I've seen are based. And "Field of Dreams" was a wonderful movie, with two fine actors, Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones. The book is wonderful too and a blurb on the cover calls it "lyrical"-and that fits.
While I feel book and movie are close, the movie is, of course, basically, a condensed version. One change is that in the book, Ray Kinsella takes the author J.D. Salinger to Fenway Park to see the Red Sox--and then takes him finally to his baseball diamond in the Iowa cornfields. In the book, it's not Salinger but Terence Mann, played by Jones. Salinger had threatened to sue if he was used in the film. But I prefer the character of Terence Mann, as shown in the movie! Overall, while I think the book is excellent, I still prefer the movie, which I think enhances the book. I think it is still worthwhile to read the book!
W.P. Kinsella died in 2016, age 81. He was a Canadian, not from "heaven," or rather Iowa. And I just heard on TV that there are plans to have the White Sox play the Yankees at "the field of dreams" in Iowa next year (2020)!
While I feel book and movie are close, the movie is, of course, basically, a condensed version. One change is that in the book, Ray Kinsella takes the author J.D. Salinger to Fenway Park to see the Red Sox--and then takes him finally to his baseball diamond in the Iowa cornfields. In the book, it's not Salinger but Terence Mann, played by Jones. Salinger had threatened to sue if he was used in the film. But I prefer the character of Terence Mann, as shown in the movie! Overall, while I think the book is excellent, I still prefer the movie, which I think enhances the book. I think it is still worthwhile to read the book!
W.P. Kinsella died in 2016, age 81. He was a Canadian, not from "heaven," or rather Iowa. And I just heard on TV that there are plans to have the White Sox play the Yankees at "the field of dreams" in Iowa next year (2020)!
March 23, 2017
This book captures the poetry and renewing worth of baseball. It is the perfect book to read in late February or early March as the baseball fan is resetting his mind to the coming again of the game. It speaks to America and to families as well as to the game itself. It is clearer in this work then any I can remember that this is a narrator who REALLY and gladly loves his wife and child. They are his renewal at least as much as his baseball.
The downside of this work is that The author is SO good at using analogies, mostly homespun, to convey his message that he does not select the best ones. Instead, he crowds his text with so many "likes" and "as's"that they sometimes crowd out building tension or intimacy with the characters.
SECOND READING: Nevermind the critique at the end, this book is magical. I wouldn't remove a single analogy. I can find my linear plot in the upcoming box scores. Leave this book as it is. It is perfect preparation for the mind and the imagination for both the transcendence and the tedium of the upcoming season.
The downside of this work is that The author is SO good at using analogies, mostly homespun, to convey his message that he does not select the best ones. Instead, he crowds his text with so many "likes" and "as's"that they sometimes crowd out building tension or intimacy with the characters.
SECOND READING: Nevermind the critique at the end, this book is magical. I wouldn't remove a single analogy. I can find my linear plot in the upcoming box scores. Leave this book as it is. It is perfect preparation for the mind and the imagination for both the transcendence and the tedium of the upcoming season.
September 16, 2023
I don't remember when I first read this. Probably shortly after Field of Dreams came out. I loved that movie, and the book was damn good. Baseball, magic, love... someone or other called this a male romance novel, and they're not far off, really.
Ray Kinsella is prompted by a Voice that comes from nowhere to build a baseball field in the middle of his farmland. Like most farmers, he's barely making it and can't really afford to lose the acreage. But he does it.
Strange and wonderful things happen, bringing magic to a small corner of Iowa. Ray connects with a legendary author and gets some surprises about his own family. It's a great story that, if it doesn't touch you at all, I truly feel sorry for you.
Edit: This book gets more magical with each read, and a bit more tragic when you learn the real story behind the author's later life.
Ray Kinsella is prompted by a Voice that comes from nowhere to build a baseball field in the middle of his farmland. Like most farmers, he's barely making it and can't really afford to lose the acreage. But he does it.
Strange and wonderful things happen, bringing magic to a small corner of Iowa. Ray connects with a legendary author and gets some surprises about his own family. It's a great story that, if it doesn't touch you at all, I truly feel sorry for you.
Edit: This book gets more magical with each read, and a bit more tragic when you learn the real story behind the author's later life.
February 21, 2021
Okay, so my dad is a huge baseball fan so anything that has to deal with baseball - we've probably seen it already. If not, I'm sure he will find it and we will watch. Having said that, I've probably seen the movie 'Field of Dreams' a thousand times. Maybe more. So when I saw that the movie was based on this? Well, shit - I just had to dive into it.
It also doesn't hurt that Shoeless Joe worked for a challenge either.
After diving into this book, well, I will say that it had it's interesting moments. Yet, I feel like the movie did more justice for me. Which is kind of weird to say. It was still entertaining but since I've seen the movie so many times - I just kept going back to that and comparing the book to the movie.
It also doesn't hurt that Shoeless Joe worked for a challenge either.
After diving into this book, well, I will say that it had it's interesting moments. Yet, I feel like the movie did more justice for me. Which is kind of weird to say. It was still entertaining but since I've seen the movie so many times - I just kept going back to that and comparing the book to the movie.
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