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Diminished Capacity
Rollie Zerbs--LaPorte, Missouri's most eccentric man--travels to Chicago to learn about his rare baseball card
246 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
11 people are currently reading
78 people want to read
About the author
Sherwood Kiraly
5 books6 followersAuthor of four novels, screenwriter of Diminished Capacity, and professor of creative writing and writer-in-residence at Knox College.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
January 18, 2009
This is one of the funniest books I have read. The author sparks non sequitars left and right. The story is a rousing, feel good adventure that had me laughing out loud and cheering for the good guys. One important theme of the book was that we are all lacking in something; we all have some "diminished capacity," but it doesn't need to be in caring or courage. Great book.
January 18, 2012
This book was a great quick read. I read it in about two days and can easily see why it was made into a movie. The characters were likeable and the book read smoothly. I really admired Uncle Rollie and his ablilty to block out the noise of his naysayers. I think we would all be happier if we each had our own fish authors.
December 31, 2022
I picked this up at a used bookstore based on the cover and am glad I did. It ended up being the perfect lighthearted and entertaining book to round out 2022
January 24, 2022
ITA Sì la settimana scorsa ho davvero letto un libro a sera, per 3 sere consecutive.
Cooper vive a Chicago e fa il redattore di fumetti, qualche mese prima durante uno scontro batte la testa contro il davanzale di una finestra e la sua capacità di concentrazione e memoria ne risente.
Un giorno la mamma al telefono gli dice di andare un po’ di tempo da suo zio Rollie perché è preoccupata: lui vive da solo, non ha soldi e inoltre soffre di Alzheimer.
Lo zio Rollie è una figura pittoresca: la cosa che più lo contraddistingue è il fatto di aver installato una macchina da scrivere al pontile vicino a casa, ad ogni tasto della macchina da scrivere sono collegate delle lenze con degli ami, i pesci abboccando fanno scattare i tasti e scrivono poesie, ovviamente vanno interpretate.
Il nipote lo raggiunge, dandosi una vacanza, e scopre che lo zio da una parte è sempre lo stesso, dall’altra la sua memoria davvero gli gioca brutti scherzi.
Una sera mentre sono al pontile sentono che qualcuno sta cercando di entrare in casa dello zio per rubargli LA figurina: una figurina del 1909 dei Cubs di Frank Schulte, lo zio è convinto che valga parecchio, vorrebbe venderla e con i soldi pagare qualcuno che si prenda cura di lui e rimanere nella casa con i suoi pesci e le loro poesie.
E così tra avventure rocambolesche partono in viaggio verso Chicago per cercare di vendere la figurina, durante il viaggio incontrano personaggi altrettanto caratteristici e gliene succedono di tutti i colori.
Libro acquistato da Libraccio perché mi piaceva la copertina e anche il titolo era interessante.
Date una speranza ai libri di seconda mano!
Mi è piaciuto molto, l’ho trovata una storia divertente ma con anche significati importanti uno tra quali, cito la battuta di uno dei personaggi, “Quanto valgono i suoi ricordi?”.
Quindi vi consiglio molto questo libro, davvero molto, penso che andrò da libraccio, di questa casa editrice ho visto che hanno altri titoli.
.
ENG Last week for three evenings in a row I started and finished a book, so this is the second one. The title of this book in English should be “Diminished capacity”.
Cooper lives in Chicago and after an accident where he hurts his head and his capacity of remembering things or staying concentrated diminishes.
One day his mom asks him to go and stay with his uncle Rollie. She is worried because he has Alzheimer's and little by little he starts forgetting things, he lives alone and has no money.
Uncle Rollie is a funny character: I adored him all the time. He lives near a river and he installed a typewriter, to each key is attached a line so that fish can catch the hook, activate the typewriter and write poetry. The poetry must be interpreted because they can’t write and they are underwater.
So Cooper decides to have a vacation by his uncle’s and one night while they were checking on fishes someone tried to enter in Rollie’s house trying to steal THE baseball card: a Cubs’ baseball bard from 1909 of the player Frank Schulte, uncle Rollie is convinced he can sell it have money enough to pay someone to take care of him while he stays in his house checking on fishes.
And like this they decide to make a really funny journey to Chicago meeting other really funny characters to try to sell the baseball card.
I purchased this book at a second hand library because I liked the cover and the title too, so please give a chance to second hand books.
I really loved the story, I enjoyed it, it was funny and also had inside quite important meanings such as, I try to quote in english one of the characters' sentence “How much do you value your memories?”.
I highly highly recommend this book, I hope there will be others talking about it.
Cooper vive a Chicago e fa il redattore di fumetti, qualche mese prima durante uno scontro batte la testa contro il davanzale di una finestra e la sua capacità di concentrazione e memoria ne risente.
Un giorno la mamma al telefono gli dice di andare un po’ di tempo da suo zio Rollie perché è preoccupata: lui vive da solo, non ha soldi e inoltre soffre di Alzheimer.
Lo zio Rollie è una figura pittoresca: la cosa che più lo contraddistingue è il fatto di aver installato una macchina da scrivere al pontile vicino a casa, ad ogni tasto della macchina da scrivere sono collegate delle lenze con degli ami, i pesci abboccando fanno scattare i tasti e scrivono poesie, ovviamente vanno interpretate.
Il nipote lo raggiunge, dandosi una vacanza, e scopre che lo zio da una parte è sempre lo stesso, dall’altra la sua memoria davvero gli gioca brutti scherzi.
Una sera mentre sono al pontile sentono che qualcuno sta cercando di entrare in casa dello zio per rubargli LA figurina: una figurina del 1909 dei Cubs di Frank Schulte, lo zio è convinto che valga parecchio, vorrebbe venderla e con i soldi pagare qualcuno che si prenda cura di lui e rimanere nella casa con i suoi pesci e le loro poesie.
E così tra avventure rocambolesche partono in viaggio verso Chicago per cercare di vendere la figurina, durante il viaggio incontrano personaggi altrettanto caratteristici e gliene succedono di tutti i colori.
Libro acquistato da Libraccio perché mi piaceva la copertina e anche il titolo era interessante.
Date una speranza ai libri di seconda mano!
Mi è piaciuto molto, l’ho trovata una storia divertente ma con anche significati importanti uno tra quali, cito la battuta di uno dei personaggi, “Quanto valgono i suoi ricordi?”.
Quindi vi consiglio molto questo libro, davvero molto, penso che andrò da libraccio, di questa casa editrice ho visto che hanno altri titoli.
.
ENG Last week for three evenings in a row I started and finished a book, so this is the second one. The title of this book in English should be “Diminished capacity”.
Cooper lives in Chicago and after an accident where he hurts his head and his capacity of remembering things or staying concentrated diminishes.
One day his mom asks him to go and stay with his uncle Rollie. She is worried because he has Alzheimer's and little by little he starts forgetting things, he lives alone and has no money.
Uncle Rollie is a funny character: I adored him all the time. He lives near a river and he installed a typewriter, to each key is attached a line so that fish can catch the hook, activate the typewriter and write poetry. The poetry must be interpreted because they can’t write and they are underwater.
So Cooper decides to have a vacation by his uncle’s and one night while they were checking on fishes someone tried to enter in Rollie’s house trying to steal THE baseball card: a Cubs’ baseball bard from 1909 of the player Frank Schulte, uncle Rollie is convinced he can sell it have money enough to pay someone to take care of him while he stays in his house checking on fishes.
And like this they decide to make a really funny journey to Chicago meeting other really funny characters to try to sell the baseball card.
I purchased this book at a second hand library because I liked the cover and the title too, so please give a chance to second hand books.
I really loved the story, I enjoyed it, it was funny and also had inside quite important meanings such as, I try to quote in english one of the characters' sentence “How much do you value your memories?”.
I highly highly recommend this book, I hope there will be others talking about it.
December 31, 2022
I read this in a day of air travel. It was a little silly, funny, and had lots of references to baseball and baseball cards, plus it takes place in my region of the country. Very enjoyable.
January 20, 2023
iconic. show stopping. imaginative. made me think about life in new ways. the fish poetry truly changed me.
March 15, 2014
Sherwood Kiraly reminded me of what I have.
Kiraly is the author of Diminished Capacity (2005), which in 2008 became a major motion picture of the same name, starring Mathew Broderick, Alan Alda and Virginia Madsen. The movie I haven’t seen. It didn’t last long at the theatres, which doesn’t surprise me, since it’s not the kind of story that usually even gets made into a movie.
Critics were not all that kind to the movie, directed by Terry Kinney, a founder of the Steppenwolf Theater Company in Chicago. Manohla Dargis of the New York Times wrote that although it “touches earnestly on heart-heavy issues of loss: loss of memory, of love and, perhaps because of the local angle, of (or rather by) the Chicago Cubs,” but that the movie lacks “a sustained pace” and that there is “no sense that this was a movie that absolutely, passionately had to be made.” Though Dargis does give a nod to a “short, frenzied scene about an especially masochistic Cub fan,” played by Dylan Baker. Even the local critics were not impressed. The Chicago Tribune’s Michael Philips found any charm the movie evokes to be lost to faux whimsy.
If it hadn’t been for Roger Ebert’s 2-star review, in which he described it as a “mild pleasure…but not much more,” I would never have heard of Kiraly’s book and would never have sought it out.
The movie, and the book on which it is based, as Michael Philips wrote in his review, “rests on the fate of a small item of great value, a Chicago Cubs baseball card – Frank “Wildfire” Schulte, 100 years old, near-mint condition.” The same card I own.
Okay, I admit it. My initial curiosity was piqued by the idea that my card might be of greater value than I thought it to be. Had I unknowingly been sitting on a pot of gold all these years? That flight of whimsy was dashed after a little online research turned up an interview with Kiraly, in which he clarifies that the story is purely fiction and that the fictional elements extend to the actual value of a T206 Wildfire Schulte card.
Oh, well, so I’m not going to be able to take that early retirement I’d wistfully dreamt of. I am a little bit richer, though, by having read Kiraly’s book, which is about memories, the ones we hold on to and the ones we’ve lost. Few books I’ve read have better captured the essence of baseball cards and the hearts of Cubs fans.
In one scene the story’s brain-injured narrator, Cooper Zerbs, has brought his Uncle Rollie, who has early Alzheimer’s, to a sports card trading show in Chicago to try to sell his uncle’s valuable card and he begins to reminisce about baseball cards:
“A baseball card of, say, Ron Santo calls up images that radiate out from Santo himself to include his teammates, his opponents, Cubs past and present, and the circumstances under which the fan saw him. It reminds you not just of Santo and his baseball connections; it reminds you of you.”
Moments later, when he comes upon a 1966 Jose Cardenal, Cooper becomes nostalgic:
“It gave me a tingle, I’ll tell you. I became a kid again instantly. I was back in that exact moment when I’d opened the first pack I ever got. ”
The “masochistic Cub fan” that the New York Times critic wrote of is a card trader named Mad Dog McClure. Cooper sees that being a Cubs fan has taken a toll on him.
“A lot of people say they’re ‘die-hard’ Cub fans. It seemed to me that Mad Dog McClure was of the type who dies again and again. ”
If you are either a baseball card collector or a Cubs fan, or, like me, both, then this story about memories, treasured, faded or lost, is one that you won’t soon forget.
Kiraly is the author of Diminished Capacity (2005), which in 2008 became a major motion picture of the same name, starring Mathew Broderick, Alan Alda and Virginia Madsen. The movie I haven’t seen. It didn’t last long at the theatres, which doesn’t surprise me, since it’s not the kind of story that usually even gets made into a movie.
Critics were not all that kind to the movie, directed by Terry Kinney, a founder of the Steppenwolf Theater Company in Chicago. Manohla Dargis of the New York Times wrote that although it “touches earnestly on heart-heavy issues of loss: loss of memory, of love and, perhaps because of the local angle, of (or rather by) the Chicago Cubs,” but that the movie lacks “a sustained pace” and that there is “no sense that this was a movie that absolutely, passionately had to be made.” Though Dargis does give a nod to a “short, frenzied scene about an especially masochistic Cub fan,” played by Dylan Baker. Even the local critics were not impressed. The Chicago Tribune’s Michael Philips found any charm the movie evokes to be lost to faux whimsy.
If it hadn’t been for Roger Ebert’s 2-star review, in which he described it as a “mild pleasure…but not much more,” I would never have heard of Kiraly’s book and would never have sought it out.
The movie, and the book on which it is based, as Michael Philips wrote in his review, “rests on the fate of a small item of great value, a Chicago Cubs baseball card – Frank “Wildfire” Schulte, 100 years old, near-mint condition.” The same card I own.
Okay, I admit it. My initial curiosity was piqued by the idea that my card might be of greater value than I thought it to be. Had I unknowingly been sitting on a pot of gold all these years? That flight of whimsy was dashed after a little online research turned up an interview with Kiraly, in which he clarifies that the story is purely fiction and that the fictional elements extend to the actual value of a T206 Wildfire Schulte card.
Oh, well, so I’m not going to be able to take that early retirement I’d wistfully dreamt of. I am a little bit richer, though, by having read Kiraly’s book, which is about memories, the ones we hold on to and the ones we’ve lost. Few books I’ve read have better captured the essence of baseball cards and the hearts of Cubs fans.
In one scene the story’s brain-injured narrator, Cooper Zerbs, has brought his Uncle Rollie, who has early Alzheimer’s, to a sports card trading show in Chicago to try to sell his uncle’s valuable card and he begins to reminisce about baseball cards:
“A baseball card of, say, Ron Santo calls up images that radiate out from Santo himself to include his teammates, his opponents, Cubs past and present, and the circumstances under which the fan saw him. It reminds you not just of Santo and his baseball connections; it reminds you of you.”
Moments later, when he comes upon a 1966 Jose Cardenal, Cooper becomes nostalgic:
“It gave me a tingle, I’ll tell you. I became a kid again instantly. I was back in that exact moment when I’d opened the first pack I ever got. ”
The “masochistic Cub fan” that the New York Times critic wrote of is a card trader named Mad Dog McClure. Cooper sees that being a Cubs fan has taken a toll on him.
“A lot of people say they’re ‘die-hard’ Cub fans. It seemed to me that Mad Dog McClure was of the type who dies again and again. ”
If you are either a baseball card collector or a Cubs fan, or, like me, both, then this story about memories, treasured, faded or lost, is one that you won’t soon forget.
October 9, 2012
Adorabile! Uno non pensa che una storia che gira intorno a una figurina possa coinvolgere così tanto, e poi invece incontri zio Rollie e gli altri stralunati personaggi di questo romanzo e cambi idea all'istante.
Zio Rollie è ormai anziano, e l'Alzheimer certo non aiuta la sua memoria disastrosa. La sua unica speranza per non farsi sbattere in casa di riposo è vendere una vecchia figurina di baseball che gli ha lasciato il padre, in modo da poter pagare qualcuno che si occupi di lui. Al momento l'unica sua occupazione è trascrivere le poesie composte dai pesci del Mississippi: ha attaccato una serie di lenze ai tasti di una macchina da scrivere ed è convinto che prima o poi riveleranno tutto il loro genio.
Ma la cognata minaccia di farlo ricoverare, quindi lo zio Rollie chiama in suo aiuto il nipote Cooper, il narratore della storia, che soffre anche lui di vuoti di memoria in seguito a un pugno ricevuto tempo prima. Fra l'uno e l'altro, la figurina non è certo in mani sicure!
I due bislacchi personaggi partono per Chicago insieme a Charlotte, una vecchia fiamma di Cooper, e suo figlio Dillon, per cercare un acquirente per la preziosa figurina. Ma troveranno una serie di personaggi divertentissimi e di situazioni spassose e tragiche insieme, in un rocambolesco capovolgersi degli eventi che incolla il lettore alle pagine.
Lo stile di Sherwood Kiraly è fresco e vivace, e malgrado io non sia mai stata una collezionista sono riuscita ad appassionarmi alla vicenda e non ho potuto fare a meno di tifare per gli strambi protagonisti quando si trovavano in difficoltà. Una commedia degli equivoci piacevole e tenera, da leggere per rilassarsi e, perché no, per ridere un bel po'.
Zio Rollie è ormai anziano, e l'Alzheimer certo non aiuta la sua memoria disastrosa. La sua unica speranza per non farsi sbattere in casa di riposo è vendere una vecchia figurina di baseball che gli ha lasciato il padre, in modo da poter pagare qualcuno che si occupi di lui. Al momento l'unica sua occupazione è trascrivere le poesie composte dai pesci del Mississippi: ha attaccato una serie di lenze ai tasti di una macchina da scrivere ed è convinto che prima o poi riveleranno tutto il loro genio.
Ma la cognata minaccia di farlo ricoverare, quindi lo zio Rollie chiama in suo aiuto il nipote Cooper, il narratore della storia, che soffre anche lui di vuoti di memoria in seguito a un pugno ricevuto tempo prima. Fra l'uno e l'altro, la figurina non è certo in mani sicure!
I due bislacchi personaggi partono per Chicago insieme a Charlotte, una vecchia fiamma di Cooper, e suo figlio Dillon, per cercare un acquirente per la preziosa figurina. Ma troveranno una serie di personaggi divertentissimi e di situazioni spassose e tragiche insieme, in un rocambolesco capovolgersi degli eventi che incolla il lettore alle pagine.
Lo stile di Sherwood Kiraly è fresco e vivace, e malgrado io non sia mai stata una collezionista sono riuscita ad appassionarmi alla vicenda e non ho potuto fare a meno di tifare per gli strambi protagonisti quando si trovavano in difficoltà. Una commedia degli equivoci piacevole e tenera, da leggere per rilassarsi e, perché no, per ridere un bel po'.
April 27, 2010
I'd picked this book up off the shelf at the bookstore because I thought it looked quirky. It's been sitting on my shelf for a while because I expected to be disappointed and thought it was going to be melodramatic and sappy. I've rarely been so pleasantly wrong. This is a wonderfully imaginative, yet simple story. No sap at all. Not only are the characters concretely presented, they are delightful to read about. I should have read this one much sooner. Maybe I would have if they hadn't put Matthew Broderick on the cover.
October 13, 2009
Uncle Rollie baits hooks connected to the keys of an old typewriter by the side of the Mississippi, so that the local fish can write poetry. He leaves the oven on, his trousers undone and newspapers piled up to the ceiling. His sister-in-law wants him to go into care. His nephew wants him to have a fulfilling life. The rather dated slapstick plotting detracts a bit from the book but it's an easy-read and an up-beat look at dementia and memory loss.
May 4, 2015
Diminished Capacity kept me interested well enough, which was good. Although I've not yet decided whether or not i like the style of Kiraly's writing.
I wish that i had picked up a copy of the book that didn't have the movie image on it though, as I'm not a fan of Mathew Broderick and this made for no sympathy or connection with Cooper Zerbes.
I did however enjoy the way the book flowed, and although a main theme was memory lose, it wasn't repetitive.
I wish that i had picked up a copy of the book that didn't have the movie image on it though, as I'm not a fan of Mathew Broderick and this made for no sympathy or connection with Cooper Zerbes.
I did however enjoy the way the book flowed, and although a main theme was memory lose, it wasn't repetitive.
May 9, 2012
A book about baseball, fish who *may* be able to type, and a man���s love for his uncle with Alzheimer���s. Sometimes, when I need to hold tight to an idea, belief, or dream, I remember the scene where the main character almost loses consciousness fighting over a baseball card. Read it to see what I mean.
May 19, 2009
This is a genuinely funny book. It strays a little too outlandish at times, but it's carried through by the good amount of absurd humor and comedy-of-errors segments arising from the two memory-challenged main characters. I always remember this book as "the one with the fish poetry".
January 6, 2008
This book was just odd to me. Very different from my usual reads. It intrigued me, lured me in even, no pun intended!
February 11, 2008
I love the story, the characters and his way of writing but it does have a little language in it.
July 14, 2008
So far I have been enjoying it very much!
October 22, 2008
Great read. Read before watching movie (book is better) - them fish keep writing poetry
November 9, 2010
I can very honestly say that I have never read a book that caused me to actually laugh out loud so often before. This is really a delightful book.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews