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Things Invisible to See
The first novel by Newbery Award-winning author Nancy Willard: A stunning story of magic and miracles, and a testament to the enduring power of faith and love Ben and Willie Harkissian are twin brothers (think Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau) growing up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on the eve of World War II. A baseball launched into the October sky sets in motion a series of events that transforms many lives. Ben leaves for the front and faces death--figuratively as well as literally. Left behind is Clare Bishop, who has been paralyzed from the waist down. But in exchange she receives some very special gifts. She can see the future, be at one with animals, and chat with Death. Willie Harkissian remains in Michigan as well, though his relationship with his brother will never be the same.A love story interrupted by war, this is also a novel about discovering the ordinary in the extraordinary and finding the miraculous in everyday life.
354 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
18 people are currently reading
437 people want to read
About the author
Nancy Willard
101 books42 followersNANCY WILLARD was an award-winning children's author, poet, and essayist who received the Newbery Medal in 1982 for A Visit to William Blake's Inn. She wrote dozens of volumes of children's fiction and poetry, including The Flying Bed, Sweep Dreams, and Cinderella's Dress. She also authored two novels for adults, Things Invisible to See and Sister Water, and twelve books of poetry, including Swimming Lessons: New and Selected Poems. She lived with her husband, photographer Eric Lindbloom, and taught at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
May 8, 2020
I should have loved this book—baseball, magical realism—but it was really strange.
May 18, 2011
Nancy Willard is best known as a poet and author of children's stories. Along the way, however, she also has written two novels for adults, the first of which is Things Invisible to See. I still have the copy my best friend gave me in 1985 when she passed through my hometown on her move from eastern Pennsylvania to Oregon (where she has remained for the 25+ years since), so my fondness for the book may be partially tied to my fondness for her :).
Things Invisible to See tells the story of Ben, who one summer evening casually belts a baseball out of sight, only later to discover that the wayward ball struck and seriously injured a young woman named Clare. Compelled to help her in any way he can before he goes off to fight in World War II, Ben quickly falls in love with Clare and her eccentric family (which includes a cat named "Cinnamon Monkeyshines".) It is the thought of returning to her that sustains him when the naval ship on which he serves sinks, and he finds himself adrift in a lifeboat with a single strange companion. With his future with Clare at stake, Ben makes a wager with Death: a game of baseball that will pit the young lovers and their families against the best players of all time, with Ben's life as the prize.
Things Invisible is magical realism at its finest, and I re-read it every few years purely for the lovely flow of the writing. You will be enchanted.
Things Invisible to See tells the story of Ben, who one summer evening casually belts a baseball out of sight, only later to discover that the wayward ball struck and seriously injured a young woman named Clare. Compelled to help her in any way he can before he goes off to fight in World War II, Ben quickly falls in love with Clare and her eccentric family (which includes a cat named "Cinnamon Monkeyshines".) It is the thought of returning to her that sustains him when the naval ship on which he serves sinks, and he finds himself adrift in a lifeboat with a single strange companion. With his future with Clare at stake, Ben makes a wager with Death: a game of baseball that will pit the young lovers and their families against the best players of all time, with Ben's life as the prize.
Things Invisible is magical realism at its finest, and I re-read it every few years purely for the lovely flow of the writing. You will be enchanted.
November 9, 2012
This is an old favorite book of mine, one that I read the moment it was published in 1984, and have read again several times since. My first edition copy is signed by the author. Baseball, brothers, love, and some magic realism make for a very entertaining read.
The listing of a Cowley edition of the book is obsolete. I worked for that publisher and acquired the rights to publish a new edition, but the company owners shut the house down before the book could happen. I commissioned the watercolor cover image--with the left-hander's baseball mitt and crutches--from the incomparable Barry Moser. Unfortunately it never appeared on the book.
Highly recommended--if you can get your hands on a copy!
The listing of a Cowley edition of the book is obsolete. I worked for that publisher and acquired the rights to publish a new edition, but the company owners shut the house down before the book could happen. I commissioned the watercolor cover image--with the left-hander's baseball mitt and crutches--from the incomparable Barry Moser. Unfortunately it never appeared on the book.
Highly recommended--if you can get your hands on a copy!
May 9, 2020
Three and a half stars. In a mystical take on magical realism, this novel set primarily in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1941 and 1942 tells the story of fraternal twin brother Willie and Ben Harkissian. While Willie has the brains, Ben is easygoing and athletically talented. Shortly after their high school graduation, the course of Ben’s life changes when, goofing around with his baseball buddies, he hits a ball that accidentally hits his classmate Clare Bishop. Altho Clare recovers from her concussion, she is unable to walk. Interspersed with the happenings of the Ann Arbor locals are brief scenes of God and the angels playing baseball, Clare’s encounter with the Ancestress, who leads her on journeys across space in the bodies of birds, and Death walking among mortals and trying to retrieve a talisman that has fallen into Ben’s hand. Kudos to Willard for balancing the real-world details of working-class Midwesterners at the beginning of America’s entry into World War II and the supernatural details of the story. The book combines romance, mystery, history and the supernatural well.
May 11, 2020
I'll say this book is very Gaiman-like, and hope that isn't taken in the wrong way as I think he is now a genre in his own right and that comparison could draw readers in. The story has a beautiful blend of history with rural America in it's early WWII/baseball setting but also a lots of supernatural elements as well. Also, interesting, complex, and likable characters made me excited to see how it all worked out/didn't work out for them, which made it a book I was excited to return to, despite a busy schedule. I love when I stumble on a random old read that leaves me pondering after it's closed. A pure and lovely book that reminded me of simplier/more magical times as well why I enjoy reading.
April 8, 2019
This is a magical book in every sense of the word. A collection of characters from a small Midwestern town during WWII all seem to be living on the seam between what we usually think of as reality and the spirit world. This begins with a deal done in the womb by two brothers, one who gets all the brains and the other who gets everything else. Brains in this case was a losing proposition. A character named Death moves in and out of the story, offering deals of his own. An accidental concussion -- the dominant event in this convoluted tale -- leads to a great passion that transcends all comprehension in an epic final baseball game that cannot be summarized. The language is poetry that captures perfectly the mood of shifting realities. A uniquely beautiful book.
October 11, 2025
There is a LOT of beautiful, amazing-written prose in this book, and because of that I considered this a contender for 4 stars. That was until about halfway through and what were relatively (though somewhat awkwardly) interwoven strands of the story came undone and then by the end the plot was unhinged. Some tougher talks by a better editor would have really helped. But I enjoyed the Michigan connection and the descriptive imagery and the magical realism. It just isn’t a very cohesive work.
November 18, 2021
I don't know what to think or say about this one. Set in Ann Arbor, Michigan, just before and during WWII, the magical elements get more and more outrageous as the narrative develops (disjointedly), and there are lots of characters to try to keep track of. But it definitely has its moments.
September 27, 2024
Magical. Magnificent.
A woman I worked with more than thirty years ago gave this book to me, and it sat in a stack on a shelf with other mass market paperbacks—many read, some not. I am so glad I finally picked it up.
A woman I worked with more than thirty years ago gave this book to me, and it sat in a stack on a shelf with other mass market paperbacks—many read, some not. I am so glad I finally picked it up.
July 2, 2017
beautiful prose, a lovely read.
May 26, 2018
This book had promise but in the end I can't recommend it. A mess of a story. Might have been more groundbreaking when it was originally published but has not aged well.
January 20, 2019
The novel was a bit odd but I found it interesting and enjoyed getting to know the different characters.
July 12, 2019
Mystical and very perceptive an interesting read.
May 6, 2020
I found this book to be fun and amusing, with likable, sympathetic characters and an intriguing plot. It doesn’t hurt that baseball is at the heart of the story.
December 23, 2023
I enjoyed this in the beginning and then it got weirder and weirder and I had to laugh as I skimmed and thought what the actual hell is this? Weird weird weird!
August 23, 2015
“(In the jungle it shone on Papa’s outstretched )” (7).
“...and he could make a cheap suit look expensive just by wearing it” (9).
“On the pale green Monopoly board of his future, he bought the house they lived in and the lot behind…” (11-12)
“...and Henry Schoonmaker, his parakeet perched on his shoulder like a sky-blue epaulet, and Stilts Moser, who galloped around the bases in such a way as to suggest that God, who winds and watches the footage of humanity, speeded up the reel when Stilts picked up a bat and swung” (14).
“...and a vase in the guise of a white cat. Pink carnations rose from its ceramic head like bright ideas” (17).
“‘God broke the mold when he made you,’ said Ben.
“‘Mold!’ exclaimed God. I never repeat myself’” (67).
“To keep from forgetting, she say severely to her ring, ‘I am putting you on the sill,’ or she would remind her watch she was putting in on the china cabinet…” (91).
“Having dibs on the sled was almost as good as having the real sled if you were sick and couldn’t use it” (92).
“...under which a tiger cat slept like an exhibit, offering its belly to the fire” (113).
“The Oriental rug underfoot gave Ben the feeling that all these wonders were precariously balanced on an island of flowers” (113).
“Snow added its cubits to the stature of the roof, the trees, the picnic tables spread as if with that hidden fabric called ‘the silence cloth’ by housewives who keep it under the finer damask one, to absorb the clatter of dishes and silver” (125).
“Under its roof of ice, the river sent up bubbles: the telegraphed laments of the fish” (125).
“...and crumpled April into a ball, which he threw with great dexterity into a basket on the other side of the room” (230)
“The sea was as still as if someone had turned it off, and the silence as deep as if someone had turned it on” (252).
“...in the twilight of the pulled blinds…” (266).
“She did not put Davy back to bed right away but let him stay up to see the stars. With the shortages, he was surprised to see so many” (275).
“...content to watch her hands twinkle the yarn off the needles” (276).
“That night, eating supper with his mother, Willie rearranged the universe in his head” (296).
“‘Some things you never forget,’ said Death. ‘Baseball is one of them.’
“What were the others? Father Legg wondered. Once he would have said ‘love.’ Now it did not seem that simple” (333).
“The stuff of being alive. Morning, evening, the first snow and the last snow, bells, daisies, hubcaps, silver dollars, ice cream, hummingbirds, love” (337).
“‘They remember how it was. All the pain, all the trouble--they’d choose it again--they’d go extra innings into infinity for the chance to be alive again’” (341).
“She had not heard any sound that far off since the last snowfall. All spring she’d heard the usual sounds, the chirp of crickets but not the silence of crickets; the drumming of rain on the roof but not the plotting of rain in the clouds” (342).
“...and he could make a cheap suit look expensive just by wearing it” (9).
“On the pale green Monopoly board of his future, he bought the house they lived in and the lot behind…” (11-12)
“...and Henry Schoonmaker, his parakeet perched on his shoulder like a sky-blue epaulet, and Stilts Moser, who galloped around the bases in such a way as to suggest that God, who winds and watches the footage of humanity, speeded up the reel when Stilts picked up a bat and swung” (14).
“...and a vase in the guise of a white cat. Pink carnations rose from its ceramic head like bright ideas” (17).
“‘God broke the mold when he made you,’ said Ben.
“‘Mold!’ exclaimed God. I never repeat myself’” (67).
“To keep from forgetting, she say severely to her ring, ‘I am putting you on the sill,’ or she would remind her watch she was putting in on the china cabinet…” (91).
“Having dibs on the sled was almost as good as having the real sled if you were sick and couldn’t use it” (92).
“...under which a tiger cat slept like an exhibit, offering its belly to the fire” (113).
“The Oriental rug underfoot gave Ben the feeling that all these wonders were precariously balanced on an island of flowers” (113).
“Snow added its cubits to the stature of the roof, the trees, the picnic tables spread as if with that hidden fabric called ‘the silence cloth’ by housewives who keep it under the finer damask one, to absorb the clatter of dishes and silver” (125).
“Under its roof of ice, the river sent up bubbles: the telegraphed laments of the fish” (125).
“...and crumpled April into a ball, which he threw with great dexterity into a basket on the other side of the room” (230)
“The sea was as still as if someone had turned it off, and the silence as deep as if someone had turned it on” (252).
“...in the twilight of the pulled blinds…” (266).
“She did not put Davy back to bed right away but let him stay up to see the stars. With the shortages, he was surprised to see so many” (275).
“...content to watch her hands twinkle the yarn off the needles” (276).
“That night, eating supper with his mother, Willie rearranged the universe in his head” (296).
“‘Some things you never forget,’ said Death. ‘Baseball is one of them.’
“What were the others? Father Legg wondered. Once he would have said ‘love.’ Now it did not seem that simple” (333).
“The stuff of being alive. Morning, evening, the first snow and the last snow, bells, daisies, hubcaps, silver dollars, ice cream, hummingbirds, love” (337).
“‘They remember how it was. All the pain, all the trouble--they’d choose it again--they’d go extra innings into infinity for the chance to be alive again’” (341).
“She had not heard any sound that far off since the last snowfall. All spring she’d heard the usual sounds, the chirp of crickets but not the silence of crickets; the drumming of rain on the roof but not the plotting of rain in the clouds” (342).
August 19, 2014
Sometimes when I receive a review copy from a publisher, I start reading with enthusiasm and after a while my heart sinks at the thought of writing a review..And sometimes the book is an absolute joy and makes reviewing those other books worthwhile. This is such a book and I will be recommending it to friends and family.
This is magic realism at its best. A deceptively simple fable that works on all sorts of levels, it is a love story and a metaphysical novel. Nancy Willard is a wonderful craftswoman, weaving references into the story without allowing them to overwhelm the tale.
Willard is a poet and it shows.,She writes some beautiful prose, which is nevertheless simple and unflowery. Sometimes I think poets are particularly in tune with magic realism - understanding metaphor and the concept of "things invisible to see". The title is, by the way, a quote from John Donne's poem Go and Catch a Falling Star.
On one level you have the well-drawn world of a small American town in the late 1930s and the two families at the centre of the story and on another you have the universal. The book opens: In Paradise, on the banks of the River of Time, the Lord of the Universe is playing ball with His archangels. Then it moves to the smallest of human worlds: In the damp night of the womb, when millions of chromosomes are gearing up for the game of life, the soul of Willie says to the soul of Ben, 'Listen, you can be firstborn and get out of this cave first if you'll give me everything else. Brains, charm, and good looks.' The story then moves into the material world of the boys' parents: Their mother worked at the front desk of Goldberg's Cleaners and Tailors.
Despite this movement between worlds, the story arc works so well that I found it impossible to put the book down, finishing it in the early hours of the morning. I was genuinely interested in the love story between Ben and Clare, whether Ben will survive the Second World War and whether Clare would overcome her paralysis. For this book is about life and death as a game, but a very serious one. It culminates in a scene in which elderly mothers are playing baseball for the lives of their sons against a team chosen by Death. The referee is a childhood friend of Ben's who has already died in the War. I will not tell you the game's outcome.
One of the things I loved about this book was that Nancy Willard does not hold back in presenting the world as she sees it. There is no writer's irony to hide behind, no fancy tricks, and some people will not like the book as a result. I loved it.
I am very grateful for the publishers Open Road Media for giving me my copy in return for a fair review.
This review first appeared on the Magic Realism Books Blog http://magic-realim-books.blogspot.com
This is magic realism at its best. A deceptively simple fable that works on all sorts of levels, it is a love story and a metaphysical novel. Nancy Willard is a wonderful craftswoman, weaving references into the story without allowing them to overwhelm the tale.
Willard is a poet and it shows.,She writes some beautiful prose, which is nevertheless simple and unflowery. Sometimes I think poets are particularly in tune with magic realism - understanding metaphor and the concept of "things invisible to see". The title is, by the way, a quote from John Donne's poem Go and Catch a Falling Star.
On one level you have the well-drawn world of a small American town in the late 1930s and the two families at the centre of the story and on another you have the universal. The book opens: In Paradise, on the banks of the River of Time, the Lord of the Universe is playing ball with His archangels. Then it moves to the smallest of human worlds: In the damp night of the womb, when millions of chromosomes are gearing up for the game of life, the soul of Willie says to the soul of Ben, 'Listen, you can be firstborn and get out of this cave first if you'll give me everything else. Brains, charm, and good looks.' The story then moves into the material world of the boys' parents: Their mother worked at the front desk of Goldberg's Cleaners and Tailors.
Despite this movement between worlds, the story arc works so well that I found it impossible to put the book down, finishing it in the early hours of the morning. I was genuinely interested in the love story between Ben and Clare, whether Ben will survive the Second World War and whether Clare would overcome her paralysis. For this book is about life and death as a game, but a very serious one. It culminates in a scene in which elderly mothers are playing baseball for the lives of their sons against a team chosen by Death. The referee is a childhood friend of Ben's who has already died in the War. I will not tell you the game's outcome.
One of the things I loved about this book was that Nancy Willard does not hold back in presenting the world as she sees it. There is no writer's irony to hide behind, no fancy tricks, and some people will not like the book as a result. I loved it.
I am very grateful for the publishers Open Road Media for giving me my copy in return for a fair review.
This review first appeared on the Magic Realism Books Blog http://magic-realim-books.blogspot.com
May 29, 2014
I unfortunately am not able to say that I loved this book. While quite possibly the intent, it felt like several short stories brought together haphazardly. The flow, or lack thereof, of the writing and story made it very hard to identify and make a connection with any one character and the story as a whole. I hoped that the story would be brought to a close and the disconnect I felt resolved. This, however, was not the case in my experience with this book.
I can appreciate the author as talented and recognize that she deserves respect accordingly. My own preferences of what I like to read, do not, unfortunately, match up with the authors writing style. I would describe the writing style as lyrical and poetic, showing lots of deep undertones and undisclosed meaning-very poetry like.
This book does, certainly, have the potential of being loved by those with other preferences, so please do not discount this book on my personal review, and take into consideration your own likes and dislikes.
*I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley.
I can appreciate the author as talented and recognize that she deserves respect accordingly. My own preferences of what I like to read, do not, unfortunately, match up with the authors writing style. I would describe the writing style as lyrical and poetic, showing lots of deep undertones and undisclosed meaning-very poetry like.
This book does, certainly, have the potential of being loved by those with other preferences, so please do not discount this book on my personal review, and take into consideration your own likes and dislikes.
*I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley.
August 11, 2023
Things Invisible To See by Nancy Willard is a book that's been on my to-read list for sometime. I finally found a copy at Powell's in Portland a few months back. It's hard for me to explain this one to y'all. Above all else, it's just beautifully written. The plot is two-fold. First, there's an incident where a young woman (Clare) is hit with a baseball in a freak moment. She falls in love with the hitter (Ben), but doesn't immediately know he's the reason she is seriously injured and must now use a wheelchair. The later plot involves a brush with Death where Ben makes a deal involving him assembling a team to play a baseball team of legends. That said, there are a lot of moving parts, but it's so well-told that I found I wanted to keep reading.
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November 27, 2021This is a book that just...works. A great tale, magical realism, third-best baseball book I've read. It reminds me of Michael Chabon's Summerland, with a baseball game set up as a proxy for good and evil forces outside of time. It also reminds me a little bit of The Art of Fielding, in which a light moment of a summer game goes horribly wrong with spiraling consequences. And, partly because it is set in nearly the same time and place, it reminds me of Middlesex, with the Detroit riots and the family and community life of mid-Michigan all part of the atmosphere. It's well-written; I think it would be a great summer porch read, though I read it in late November.
July 21, 2014
Picked this book up because Leah Hager Cohen said in her NYT interview, "Why, oh why, is Nancy Willard’s 'Things Invisible to See' out of print? The novel, set in Ann Arbor in the 1930s and ’40s, manages to be about life, death, love, hate, innocence, experience and baseball. It begins with casual verve: 'In Paradise, on the banks of the River of Time, the Lord of the Universe is playing ball with His archangels.' Willard is well known as a children’s book author, but her 1985 adult novel remains very wrongly obscure." Have to disagree with Ms. Cohen on this one. Wacky story, but not in a good way.
May 3, 2013
This is one of my favourite books ever. Why aren't there 10 stars to give it? It is a love story between Clare and Ben. It's about baseball- the beauty and joy and Americanness of it. It's a story of a slower time and place. It takes place in Ann Arbor, Michigan and revolves around a wager with the devil based on a baseball game. If you know baseball and Michigan there is so much here of it. The ultimate message is one of believing in yourself and believing that right and good will triumph in the end. But can they triumph when the devil can stack the deck?
September 21, 2014
It's a shame this lovely book is out of print. It's about a young man named Ben who, goofing around with friends, bats a baseball into the night sky and hits a young woman named Clare, sending her to the hospital. He finds out about the accident, and that Clare now can't walk, and seeks her out to try to help. (That's just the beginning.) Magic appears in many forms throughout this story - the end is a baseball game between Ben's team and Death's. It's a quirky, funny, hopeful book, and well worth the trouble of finding it
March 9, 2016
3 3/4 Stars: A strange little book about death and baseball and war and accidents. It was written in a very lyrical way. At times the leaps didn't make sense. But the characters eventually became well drawn and interesting. Reminded me of The Book Thief but not as compelling.
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June 4, 2010it was an interesting novel that included sports and religion. takes unexpected twists and turns but has a feel good end.
August 19, 2010
Great, lyrical, mystical book about brothers and baseball.
June 2, 2014
This is an old fashioned love story that was written in the 1955. It includes baseball, love and war which combine for an interesting story.
July 18, 2014
Finally a magical realism book that I could understand. I liked this novel. Gentle, some baseball, pleasant to read.
June 19, 2014
The best blend of myth, surrealism, and the quotidian all wrapped up in gorgeous prose. Highly recommended.
August 13, 2014
An odd but compelling book, with a bit of fantasy rolled into an interesting story set mostly during WWII in the US.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews