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Dean Duffy
Dean Duffy, a Seattle high schooler who has always been brilliant at baseball, desperately struggles to put his life and his potential career back on track after his pitching goes bad and his batting slumps.
- GenresSportsYoung AdultFiction
176 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
4 people are currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
Randy Powell
19 books7 followersI've lived in Seattle all my life -- since 1956. I live here now with my wife, Judy, and our two sons, Eli and Drew. I like the outdoors, books, fresh crab and raw oysters, and rain.
As a kid, I was crazy about sports. All sports. When I wasn't playing the real thing, I was playing some imaginary form of it. I wasn't a great athlete, just obsessed. I peaked when I was eleven. Our little league football team won the city championship, and the coach gave me the game ball. I lost that ball a few years later. I'm still looking for it.
I had fun reading and writing. When I found a book I liked, I threw myself into it, into the main character's skin. I'd try to write in the author's style. Writing was hard work, but what a rush it gave me, coming up with the right phrase, finishing a piece and feeling it click, reading it to the class and getting some laughs.
In high school, in the early 1970s, my hero was Arthur Ashe, the tennis pro. I concentrated on tennis and worked hard at it, but not hard enough. Today it's still my game of choice, and I still don't work hard enough.
High school is also where I became serious about writing. I became even more so in college, at the University of Washington. I made two trips to Europe, worked summers in Alaska as a deckhand on a fishing boat, and wrote short stories, novels, and even formula romances.
After college, I got a job teaching at an alternative school for junior high and high school dropouts. I taught for four years and loved it, but finally left because it ate up my writing time.
My breakthrough in writing came when I learned to look inside myself and write about the things I cared and felt deeply about. I guess it was only natural that my first published novel, "My Underrated Year", should be about a high school football and tennis player. Yes, there's a lot of myself in that book, although hardly any of the incidents actually happened. That's true of my other books as well.
I enjoy visiting schools and talking to students about writing. I also love hearing from readers. You can write to me in care of my publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux. I promise I'll write back!
As a kid, I was crazy about sports. All sports. When I wasn't playing the real thing, I was playing some imaginary form of it. I wasn't a great athlete, just obsessed. I peaked when I was eleven. Our little league football team won the city championship, and the coach gave me the game ball. I lost that ball a few years later. I'm still looking for it.
I had fun reading and writing. When I found a book I liked, I threw myself into it, into the main character's skin. I'd try to write in the author's style. Writing was hard work, but what a rush it gave me, coming up with the right phrase, finishing a piece and feeling it click, reading it to the class and getting some laughs.
In high school, in the early 1970s, my hero was Arthur Ashe, the tennis pro. I concentrated on tennis and worked hard at it, but not hard enough. Today it's still my game of choice, and I still don't work hard enough.
High school is also where I became serious about writing. I became even more so in college, at the University of Washington. I made two trips to Europe, worked summers in Alaska as a deckhand on a fishing boat, and wrote short stories, novels, and even formula romances.
After college, I got a job teaching at an alternative school for junior high and high school dropouts. I taught for four years and loved it, but finally left because it ate up my writing time.
My breakthrough in writing came when I learned to look inside myself and write about the things I cared and felt deeply about. I guess it was only natural that my first published novel, "My Underrated Year", should be about a high school football and tennis player. Yes, there's a lot of myself in that book, although hardly any of the incidents actually happened. That's true of my other books as well.
I enjoy visiting schools and talking to students about writing. I also love hearing from readers. You can write to me in care of my publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux. I promise I'll write back!
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 28, 2011
Plot: Powell (Is Kissing a Girl Who Smokes Like Licking an Ashtray?) wraps up this nifty coming-of-age tale in a baseball story-yet not a single game is played. Although he's only just graduated from high school, Dean Duffy thinks of himself as a has-been. An agonizing and inexplicable slump has cut short his promising career as a ballplayer; once considered a shoo-in for any number of athletic scholarships, he is at loose ends until a longtime mentor arranges a baseball scholarship to an exclusive private college, to begin the following spring. Dean spends the autumn mulling over the offer: he takes a lot of long drives in his '63 Volvo, embarks on a wryly recounted romance with the strong-minded waitress at his favorite coffee shop and wonders if he has the nerve to play ball again. Like a string of firecrackers, a series of epiphanies explodes as the deadline for Dean's decision draws near. The ambiguous yet upbeat ending provides a fitting climax. With his effortless-seeming writing, Powell creates a recognizable world and peoples it with characters who are remarkably sympathetic and complex. Ages 12-up.
OMG, I don't remember this plot at all! But I know I read it, and I really liked it. :)
OMG, I don't remember this plot at all! But I know I read it, and I really liked it. :)
February 11, 2012
There’s a good story here, but a lot of “meaning of life” too, and that doesn’t work so well. The meanings aren’t unique or powerful enough to stand on their own, and they take up enough space to derail the plot.
I want to know what becomes of Karin, Pitts and Van, and whether Dean really aims to rediscover his perfect swing. Then again, given how this game played out, I probably won’t invest the time in any possible sequel, just for closure’s sake.
I want to know what becomes of Karin, Pitts and Van, and whether Dean really aims to rediscover his perfect swing. Then again, given how this game played out, I probably won’t invest the time in any possible sequel, just for closure’s sake.
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June 3, 2010This book was about a boy who even after so much pain and drama ended up playing the game he loved so much, baseball. this book reflects on the stories of formal ball players and dean duffy into one.
April 27, 2012
I didn't enjoy this book. It has a slow plot, and is hard to keep reading. There is little to no moments of intensity. i rate this 3 stars.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews