American Past Time: After the Cheering Stops

by Len Joy

He's a baseball player with dreams of pitching in the major leagues, but he also needs to make ends meet and take care of his family. It's America in the 50s and change is coming fast.1st Place Top Shelf Book Awards Fiction - GeneralGold Medal Winner - Readers' Favorite Sports FictionFinalist - Beverly Hills Book AwardsSeptember 1953...Dancer Stonemason is three days from his major league debut. With his wife and son cheering him on, he pitches the greatest game of his life. And then loses everything.

Told against the backdrop of America's postwar challenges from Little Rock to the Bay of Pigs to Viet Nam, American Past Time is the story of what happens to a man and his family after the cheering stops.

Order your copy now and read a heartfelt story during an intriguing period in American history.What readers are

"Darkly nostalgic story of an American family through good times and bad. A well-crafted novel that will appeal to sports and history aficionados." - Kirkus Review

"Len Joy has an eye for the humble, utterly convincing details of family life. This is 20th-century America seen neither through the gauze of nostalgia nor with easy cynicism, but rather with clear-eyed tenderness." - Pamela Erens - author of The Virgins

"An all-American story that goes beyond the scope of the domestic and into the realm of history. A very engaging read." - Chinelo Okparanta - author of Happiness, Like Water

"America Past Time is not only a baseball lovers' novel, but one that history buffs will enjoy as well. Men of all ages will love this book." - Eileen Cronin - author of A Memory of Resilience.

"Here is a 'baseball novel' that transcends sport and offers an in-depth portrait of a family and an era. For me the most poignant moment happens near the end when a scene related to the end of the Viet Nam war echoes against our present moment. Len Joy does write about a Past Time in America's history, but everything he details feels prescient now." - Kristiana Kahakauwila - author of This is Paradise

"...a timeless classic." - Jersey Girl Book Reviews

"In this impressive debut, Joy deftly emotionally explores the many ways in which our relationships, hopes and dreams can alter the course of our lives." - Mary Akers - author of Bones of an Inland Sea

"Don't miss this book. Easy to buy, easy to read. You'll finish it fast because to you won't want to leave these characters." - Debbie Ann Ice - author of Find Sam

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Book Club, Baseball

434 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 7, 2014

About the author

Len Joy had an idyllic childhood, growing up in the gem of the Finger Lakes, Canandaigua, New York. As a typical small-town boy, he had a wide range of interests, most involving sports. He lettered in four sports in high school and went off to the University of Rochester with dreams of becoming a football hero and world-famous novelist.

When he awoke from those dreams, he switched his major from English to Finance and quit the football team, but started dating one of the cheerleaders – Suzanne Sawada. Three years later they were married, and four decades later, they still are.

They moved to Chicago where Suzanne became a corporate lawyer and Len, with his MBA and CPA, became the auditing manager for U. S. Gypsum. Despite the thrill of auditing gypsum plants, Len found himself wanting a different challenge.

He bought an engine remanufacturing company in Arizona and for fifteen years commuted to Phoenix. Despite the travel, he managed to stay married and have three kids. While flying, he read hundreds of novels, which renewed his dream of becoming a world-famous author.

In 2004 he wound down his engine business and started taking writing courses and participating in triathlons.

While world fame remains elusive, Len has made advances in his writing career.

His third novel, EVERYONE DIES FAMOUS, was published by BQB Publishing in August 2020. KIRKUS described it as a “…a striking depiction of small-town America at the dawn of the 21st century.” It won 1st Prize in the 2020 Top Shelf Book Awards for Southern Fiction and a Silver Medal in the IBPA Ben Franklin Awards for Midwest Region fiction. It was also a Book Excellence Award winner in the category of Aging.

Kevin Wilson, NY Times bestselling author of Nothing to See Here and The Family Fang had this to say: “Len Joy's Everyone Dies Famous is a clear-eyed examination of how we live in an uncertain world. By creating imminently understandable characters and skillfully linking them to a specific landscape, one that is so evocatively described, he shows us all the ways in which we're connected, how fragile those threads are. In clear prose, Joy does real work here. I'm grateful for it.”

Joy’s first novel, AMERICAN PAST TIME was published in 2014. KIRKUS praised it as a “darkly nostalgic study of an American family through good times and bad, engagingly set against major events from the ‘50s to the ‘70s as issues of race simmer in the background…expertly written and well-crafted.” It was the 2019 Readers’ Favorite gold medal award winner for Fiction – Sports and took 1st Prize in the Top Shelf Book Awards contest for Fiction – General.

His second novel, BETTER DAYS (2018) was described by FOREWORD Reviews as “a bighearted, wry, and tender novel that focuses on love and loyalty.” KIRKUS called it “a character-rich skillfully plotted Midwestern drama.” It was the 2019 Readers’ Favorite silver medal award winner for Fiction – Sports and was a finalist in the Indie Excellence Book Awards in the category of Fiction: Midwest.

Today, Len is a nationally ranked triathlete and competes internationally representing the United States as part of TEAM USA. His three kids (a son and two daughters) have grown up and moved away, although the daughters return frequently to Evanston to do their laundry and get legal advice from their mother.

Reviews

[Claudia Putnam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished this book some weeks ago and wanted to wait to review it, to see if the story stayed with me. So many books I initially love I don't remember much about weeks or even days later.

This book held up. I've been thinking about why. It's not a hurtling read, nor is the writing so innovative your mind shatters. It's got baseball in it, and I hate baseball. However, the story is so clearly and simply told--the book doesn't get in the way of itself at all, and what you're left with is a clean-lined beauty. There's nothing extraneous, nothing sentimental, even though there are emotional moments. This book follows a family through the 50s and into near-contemporary times. One review I saw said that it was a good book for "history buffs," but I disagree. Okay, it might be fine for history buffs, but really it's a clear and poignant portrait of a time not only in American life, but in the life of a certain class of people. Working class people, lower middle class people. Many people of my parents' generation, who grew up with relatively simple aspirations. Dancer Stonemason, the father in this family, is the most ambitious of anyone we see closely, in that he has long-shot career goals... to pitch in the major leagues. Otherwise, it's a matter of raising a family, paying a mortgage on a modest house, getting your kids through high school and maybe college. These are humble but dignified people living through a period of enormous social and economic change, including the Civil Rights movement. Even though my parents aren't midwesterners or southerners, I felt I gained a window into their pre-me lives and expectations of their futures. None of which went the way people of that generation expected. This is about regular people, living in a small town yet nonetheless immersed in a larger social context that causes challenges for their daily lives. They work through it, over the course of decades, and so the book has a nice resolution without the reader having to feel hit over the head with THIS IS A RESOLUTION.

Some of the drawbacks, slight, for me, were that there was almost no interiority--the book is nearly all show instead of tell. It's an interesting achievement, and a nice counterpoint to the prevailing trend toward exposition, but sometimes i wanted more of the characters' inner lives and reflections. Also, even though causality is threaded through the narrative, to some extent the book was a chronicle--this happened, and then this happened. This is hard to address when you're covering such a long time line and exploring different points of view. But the book might have had more tension and felt less "quiet" if consequence had been more of a theme.

I'd recommend this lovely book highly in any case.


I received a free copy of this book in return for an honest review. Len Joy is a member of an online forum in which I frequently participate, but we don't know each other personally.

[Donald · Rating 5 out of 5]

American Past Time is a sweeping novel that spans two decades in the life of one southern family. It begins in 1953 with the pivotal moment in the story—Dancer Stonemason, one step away from making the Major Leagues, is pitching in what should be his final minor league game—he’s due to pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals in three days. So, he should limit his amount of pitches and not stay in the game too long, and save himself for the big club. Of course, fate has a twisted sense of humor: Dancer is pitching a perfect game. He’s determined to go the distance, even if that jeopardizes his chance at starting for the Cards.

Dancer’s plan was to support his young family (wife, one son, another on the way) as a big league pitcher. But, as John Lennon sang, life is what happens to us while we’re busy making other plans. The injury that results from pitching too long in the perfect game alters the course of his life. The real world intrudes on his dream and throws yet another curve ball at him—an accident at the foundry where he winds up working squashes any hope of reviving his baseball career. Dancer is in a downward spiral at this point; he can’t help himself (in fact, he makes things worse) and his wife Dede can’t do much for him either. His eldest son, Clayton, who once idolized Dancer, now feels let down by him. He’s lost all respect for his father. Jimmy, the youngest in the family, is more forgiving and loves his father; of course he wasn’t around for the highlight of the Stonemason family—the perfect game. He didn’t witness the downfall of Dancer, so he accepts Dancer for who he is without disappointment clouding his emotions. In this way, Jimmy is the moral compass of the story. It takes the rest of the family years to forgive Dancer for being human.

The time frame of this novel (’53-’73) is not only significant to the Stonemason family, but to the nation as well. The author, Len Joy, does an excellent job switching POVs to show how the Civil Rights movement affects Dede, the growth of suburbia affects Jimmy and Dancer, and the Viet Nam War affects Clayton. Ultimately, though, the Stonemason’s tale is one of regret, forgiveness, and finally, redemption.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Len Joy writes with great compassion for his characters. As they struggle to care for each other, Dancer, Dede, Clayton, and Jimmy emerge as fully realized individuals trying to make sense of their imperfect lives. It's sometimes difficult to read about the choices they make that drive them deeper into brokenness, but throughout the struggle there is a thread of resilience that drives the story forward and gives the characters what they need to keep striving toward a life worth living. Joy sets the story amid a broad sweep of American history, but he also grounds the events in the details of everyday life. Above all, the dialogue brings each scene alive as each character's distinctive voice comes through. This is a story of hard living and the desperate search for transcendence in the face of great challenges. It left me sober but full of hope, and grateful to be along for this journey of hard-fought, unconventional redemption.

[Debbie Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life is a series of choices, a series of dreams, each impacting the dynamics of relationships in complex ways.

Set in the 1950s--1970s, this historical novel about a complicated family impacted by the father’s decisions and dreams is fast paced, clearly written and quite relevant. Bits of history are ambient reminders of what era the reader has been submerged into. The civil rights movement, memorable baseball names and moments, pop culture of the 1960s, Vietnam war. Len gets under the skin of his characters and succeeds in placing the reader right there-- in the small town world of high school games and minor league baseball, the heated drudgery of the foundry, the smokey filled bars, the blue collar culture. I felt that I was right there in the middle of it all.

Don’t miss this book. Easy to buy, easy to read. You’ll finish it fast because you won’t want to leave these characters.

[Gretchen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book. I didn't want the story to end! I was a member of the Minnesota Twins player Gary Gaetti fanclub ("Dr. Crank") when I lived in Wisconsin in the early 1980's, and I played APBA ball, too, but I never knew the descriptions of what a pitcher does or feels until reading this book.

This was a family of the 1950's in small-town America. I live in the same small town the author grew up in and went to high school with him. His sister Chris and I were good friends K-12. That knowledge and history was a filter for me as I read. There were 9 names I recognized as being from my growing-up time in Canandaigua, NY. I was so engrossed in the story though, it didn't come to me right away.I enjoyed the feeling of being an "insider", of course!

Well-developed characters, easily-visualized scenes, real lives...a very enJOYable read!

[Avital · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a delightful read, flowing and intriguing. The theme of baseball is taken to illustrate what, for me, is the real theme: people from a humble origins, their expectations from life, their relationships and struggles. The story introduces several generations in the mid-twentieth , overviewing the way the USA was during this years, economically and culturally, beyond the way individuals felt them (or survived them). The story telling is well-handled, opening the story toward a change as an organic part of the development in the characters’ experiences. The author relates small and big events, revealing that this combination of private and public history is unavoidable. We depend on our time and place for the way we will understand and deal with our lives.

[Pamela]

I recently blurbed this book, to wit:

"Len Joy has an eye for the humble, utterly convincing details of family life: the look, feel, taste, and smell of work and school, meals and sport. This is mid-twentieth-century America seen neither through the gauze of nostalgia nor with easy cynicism but rather with a clear-eyed tenderness. Readers will care deeply, as I did, about the Stonemasons’s inextricable triumphs and failures."

[Grant Leishman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reviewed For Readers' Favorite by Grant Leishman

American Past Time by Len Joy is a delve into the world of family and family dynamics across several crucial decades in America’s growth as a world power and the incredible social change that was being felt across the country during that period. The author tells his story through the eyes of Dancer Stonemason, a semi-professional ball player who is just a few days from his potential major league call-up. It is September 1953 and playing in what could be the last game for his team, Dancer finds himself on the cusp of pitching a “perfect” game. The dilemma for Dancer is does he pursue the perfect game and risk his upcoming major league debut or does he put his future and his family’s future first and foremost. From the dizzying heights of adulation and fame, as a small-town hero, Dancer’s life and that of his family take a downward spiral. We follow them through the “bucolic” fifties, as life seemed to improve for all Americans, through the social change of the sixties and into the seventies, with the backdrop of that war that polarized Americans, the Vietnam War. Through all of this turmoil, Dancer seeks to find the path that will give him the life he so clearly wants.

Author Len Joy has given us a simple story, with a powerful message. In American Past Time, using the game of baseball as a metaphor for life, he portrays the rise and fall of a simple, working-man in rural America. What I particularly liked about this story was the corollaries that can been drawn between today’s rhetoric and that time in American, seen by many as the “golden age”. It’s well worth noting from this narrative that despite the “rose-tinted” glasses there was much that was not great about the America of the fifties, sixties, and seventies, particularly for groups of marginalized Americans, especially people of colour and those who did not conform to the strict societal and evangelical rules of the time, such as the LGBTQ community. I think the author did an excellent job at highlighting the immense social injustices of the wealth equality gap and the race gap, particularly as it applied to southern, rural, America of the time. Dancer, as a character was exceptionally well drawn, with recognisable flaws but with a heart for his family and his beloved game. The read is easy, the language simple and the story compelling. For me, I just wish, given the span of the time-frame, that the story had been longer. The time jumps were a little too large for my liking and more in-depth development of, say, Dancer’s son’s growing up and other interesting characters, would have been nice. That aside, this is an excellent read on the social, economic and familial dynamic of a period of American history often hailed as “the good old days”. For many, they weren’t.

[Constance Groh · Rating 5 out of 5]

American Past Time chronicles the struggles and triumphs of the Stonemason family, a working class Missouri couple and their two sons, over a 20-year period beginning in 1953 and ending shortly after their eldest son returns from Viet Nam.

As the story begins, Dancer Stonemason is a young minor league baseball player about to pitch a potentially final game for his team before being called up to the major leagues – realizing his life’s dream. Not knowing the news of the promotion that awaits him, Dancer drives past an Esso gas station, past a graveyard that briefly calls to mind the deceased mother whom he remembers not quite as well as his father’s junked Buick that now lies at rest in the auto parts yard down the road. The team takes the field, and Dancer is faced with a decision. It becomes clear that if he stays on the field, he will pitch a perfect game – a game that will live in his home town’s memory, but will render him in no condition to report to the majors in two days’ time. Dancer’s decision will shape his own life and forever alter the trajectory of his family’s future.

Len Joy’s saga of the Stonemasons is replete with allusions to features of small town mid-twentieth century life – the aforementioned Esso gas station, convertibles, home milk deliveries, playgrounds with jungle gyms, girls named “Candy” and “Trudy,” bobby pins, Kentucky Fried Chicken as special treat.

But the world Joy reconstructs is not an idealized world, not a time to long for in sweet nostalgic dreams. The Ku Klux Klan is alive and well, and those who resist pressure to participate must pay a heavy price. There is no Occupational Safety & Health Administration (formed in 1971 to protect workers from disastrously unsafe workplaces). Education is hard to come by – Dancer and his wife Dede marry at age 19 and 16, respectively; Dede, when asked whether she prefers Kennedy or Nixon in 1960, can say only that Kennedy is better looking. Education (or lack thereof) aside, these are people of few words, people who appreciate silent strength and direct speech. Even Jimmy, Dancer and Dede’s youngest son, when voted “most likely to succeed” by his high school and assigned to make a commencement speech, tells the appreciative audience that he intended to make three points, but has narrowed it down to one. Jimmy took Dancer’s advice – “It’s Missouri. It’s June. Keep it short.”

American Past Time tells a riveting story, one that draws readers “of a certain age” into sharp and ambivalent memories of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. For those of us who passed through these decades in America, the book rings true to our memories. The past is neither romanticized nor reduced to a “simpler time” of relative innocence. The characters face the challenges of the day with courage and, at times, with the sardonic humor that lives on in my own memories – “Candy” throws a “Draft Lottery Party,” while my own friends, in 1968, threw for our graduating senior men a party we called “Viet Nam À Go-Go.” This is a compelling book, faithful to its subject and evocative of its time. For those who did not know the mid-twentieth century first-hand, this book provides insight not only on the struggles of their parents’ generation, but also on the evolution of the world in which Americans live today.

[Joseph Ferguson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dancer Stonemason, a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals’ minor league Rolla Rebels, is three days from attaining his major league dreams. After giving his all to pitch a perfect game for the Rebels, however, his trip to the majors is postponed, life gets in the way, and he falls into a downward spiral.
Beautifully crafted from double entendre title to closing sentence, Joy’s first novel is the study of an unforgettable American family through good times and bad. Darkly nostalgic, the action is set against the major events from the late 40s on, with race relations ever simmering in the background. After the perfect game, Dancer never gets his chance due to a perpetually sore arm and the financial needs of his expanding family. He moves from his off-season job as parts inspector at the Caterpillar plant, to its better-paying foundry, a Dantean hell run by the Thackers, a father and son Ku Klux Klan team. “The windows were caked with soot, and the lighting was dim. Once the furnace was fired up and the men started building molds, the air would be filled with carbon ash and fine black molding sand. The junk hung in the air and made everything look blurry, like a bad dream.” (60) Shorn of his dream, Dancer starts drinking, gets into fights, is arrested, and becomes increasingly alienated from wife Dede and sons Clayton and Jimmy. The older son Clayton, who always envisioned Dancer as perfect after seeing him pitch that day, comes to hate his father, despite being just like him. Meanwhile Dede goes to work and has affairs, all the while helping Dancer whenever he’s in trouble. Eventually, Dancer is taken in by an ex-alcoholic, black milkman, a situation that leads to a violent denouement and Dancer’s ultimate redemption.
A natural for nostalgia buffs and baseball fans filled with period detail like sting-ray bikes, Green Stamps, and baseball name-dropping - Spahn, Larsen, Mantle, and Musial. But this book is so much more - an expertly-written examination of the importance of dreams to the human psyche that is a must-read for everyone.

[Kristiana Kahakauwila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here is a "baseball novel" that transcends sport and offers an in-depth portrait of a family and an era.

The novel begins in Dancer Stonemason's perspective but later moves to his wife's and son's perspectives and the effect allows their perceptions and understandings to bump against each other, complicating ideas of truth and love. The scenes are well-drawn and well-edited, filled with dialogue that reads like spoken word (a feat!) and characters who are as complex as real people, with the same complex desires, anger, sadness, and hope as real people as well.

Themes of race, family, father-son relationships are present… But for me the most poignant moment happens near the end when a scene related to the end of the Vietnam War echoes against our present moment. Len Joy does write about a Past Time in America's history, but everything he details feels prescient now.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

American Past Time starts out as a book about baseball, but is really a family's journey through civil rights, the turbulent 60s and the Viet Nam War. Dancer Stonemason is a pitcher on a minor league team on his way to the majors. He, then pitches a perfect game in the minor leagues and from the that day on, his life is never the same. Dancer and his wife Dede, go through many ups and downs. His older son, Clayton, has problems forgiving his father and his brother Jimmy turns out to be a born salesman. The author has a way of writing so that you truly care about the characters. The ending is a little pat and cliched but it didn't have a strong impact on how I felt about the book. First novel from Mr. Joy and its a job well-done.

[Gay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have an "official" and more comprehensive review of Len Joy's debut novel "American Past Time," and it will be out soon, but in the meantime, I want to make sure that I say publicly how much I like this novel. Set against the tensions of the mid-twentieth century of Jim Crow v. Civil Rights, this story of one family mid-America is a novel to be embraced. The author gives each parent and both boys chapters in which the reader can see through the eyes of each character. Really enjoyed this novel and encourage others to pick it up to see what American was like for one family in the "almost" south of Missouri.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not normally one to pick up novels having baseball as a center, being a non-sporting and lazy kind of man, but Len Joy hooked me on this one. It helped that this book has solid and interesting characters, a gripping storyline, and a plainspoken earthiness to it. Even I can be interested in baseball when all that is there. More than that though, baseball is only the context. Baseball is just the framework for conveying a much more universal insight into the good way to live our lives. We might not all know baseball, but we all know what it is to fail while trying to live. The secret is all in how we live with that.

[Bonnie ZoBell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very pleasurable read, not really about baseball but about family and the highs and lows that come from living with one. Len Joy does an excellent job with characterization. I especially love the two sons, Clayton and Jimmy. Clayton is just like Dancer, an athlete and stubborn, and is deeply angry with his father because of things that happen in the book that I'm not going to tell you. Jimmy, a bit pudgy, easy-going, and not an athlete at all is funny, the family caretaker, and a great little businessman even before he makes it into double digits.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adored this book. The family dynamic was wonderful and complex and heartbreaking. The author created a compelling family narrative mixed in with a chaotic period of history. I love books that draw in larger issues into the personal relationships of those being effected.

This book has made the cut of books I will recommend to my dad - which so far is about two - including this one. Can't say enough good things!!

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book about realistic people and their extended circle of friends, lovers, and business associates. Moves very quickly, great vacation reading. Looking forward to the author’s other books. He’s in a similar vein to John Ed Bradley and Richard Russo. If you like their stuff you will like this one.

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Len Joy’s American Past Time is a heartfelt, beautifully crafted novel that lingers in your thoughts long after the final chapter. Set in the 1950s and 60s, it explores the intersection of baseball, family, and the inevitable shifts of time, delivering a poignant tale of love, resilience, and personal redemption.

At its core, American Past Time is the story of Dancer Stonemason, a minor-league baseball pitcher with major-league dreams. Joy masterfully captures the bittersweet realities of chasing dreams while life—filled with responsibilities, relationships, and unexpected tragedies—marches forward. The rich, authentic prose makes the struggles and triumphs of Dancer and his family feel deeply personal.

Larry Oliver’s narration elevates the novel to new heights. His steady, nuanced delivery brings depth to the characters, and he captures the subtle emotions of the story with remarkable precision. Each character’s voice feels distinct, allowing the listener to easily immerse themselves in the drama and heartache of Dancer’s world. Oliver’s pacing is perfect, and his performance makes the audiobook an absolute joy to experience.

American Past Time is more than a story about baseball—it’s about the sacrifices we make, the dreams we let go of, and the enduring power of family. Len Joy has penned a modern classic, and Larry Oliver’s narration is the perfect complement to this moving, unforgettable story.

A must-read (or listen) for fans of historical fiction and heartfelt, character-driven narratives. Five stars, without question!

[Balroop Singh · Rating 2 out of 5]

American Past Time by Len Joy is the story of Dancer Stonemason and the trials and turbulences he has to face in his life – nothing new. It has a weak plot that lacks emotion though there are many moments that could have been handled in an insightful manner. The narrative rambles on tediously and many times I felt like dropping this book, as it failed to hold my attention. There are unnecessary digressions and mundane affairs that are lackluster.

Len’s main characters are distressing, they don’t know what they should do and what is the right path; even the author doesn’t want to give them the right direction or he himself is clueless. Dancer has no control over himself and is a failure on all fronts – how could such a character carry the story on his shoulders to captivate the readers? Dede puts forward lame excuses for betraying her husband. The only inspiring character is Jimmy, the younger son of Dancer. I was expecting that end would reveal all the truths to the estranged son, Clayton but that too didn’t happen. I was disappointed with this book.

[Gregory Renz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully crafted story of a small-town family and their struggles to overcome tragedy and loss. There is so much to love about this story; from deeply drawn characters who will tug at your heartstrings to a plot that never sags. The author weaves in the racism of the South during the sixties and the toll that the Viet Nam war took on families. He frames the story masterfully by starting the story with baseball and ending the story with baseball. But it's so much more than a baseball story. It's a story of life's crushing challenges and inspirational triumphs. Nicely done. The narrator of this audiobook was able to capture the flavor of the southern dialect, bringing the characters to life. I highly recommend this heartfelt story. The story and characters will stay with you long after you read or listen to it.

[Richard Pulfer · Rating 4 out of 5]

"American Past Time" is a historical epic charting the ups and downs of an all-American family from an idyllic baseball career through the chaotic tribulations of the sixties and seventies. It's very engaging read, offering likeable yet realistic characters struggling with the ever-changing realities of life during the time period. Joy excels particularly at making his characters both enjoyable and complicated, and at no point to the characters feel as though they've dipped into cynical caricatures of themselves. Overall, it's an intriguing read, especially for fans of the time period.

[Stephanie Farragher · Rating 2 out of 5]

A story about a family making their way imperfectly though life in a small Missouri town.

This book follows the Stonemason family through ups and downs, mistakes and misfortune, and in the end illustrates the need for all of us to find Grace, forgiveness and redemption in our lives. While the book itself was not a favorite of mine, there were moments in it where I felt a connection to the characters.

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very disappointed. The book was highly rated, and it is a baseball story. But it is written so simply. The only entertainment value is in the storyline and characters (although there are multiple unbelievable coincidences in the story). Reading this was the literary equivalent of eating a meal at Golden Corral.

[Kimberly]

I got this book as a Blind Date with a Book…upon opening the package, I was disappointed. I am the furthest thing from a sports lover. I enjoyed the book, much to my surprise! Don’t judge a book by its cover. Sports was an undertone, the book was more about life and choices. I’m glad I took a leap of faith and cracked open the cover

[Jeffrey Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the beginning of the novel and all its possibilities; by the end, I was disappointed with how the author tried to "make" the story work.

[Herb · Rating 2 out of 5]

A washed up, one time promising, ball player goes to ruin then redeems himself. Set from the 50's to the 70's. Just okay.

[GW · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is offensive when an author uses foul language while telling his/her story. This would have been a decent book but it was ruined by the cussing.

[Lelia McKee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing story about a minor league baseball player dreaming of the big leagues when life gets in the way. Well written.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

In his debut novel, American Past Time, author Len Joy weaves a timeless classic that transports the reader back in time with a wonderful story that interweaves a changing family dynamic with the favorite American pastime of baseball and iconic historical events that span the decades of the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s.

American Past Time is a compelling story about family, love, youth, the pursuit of dreams, disappointments, struggles, triumphs, learning to survive, move forward, and finding oneself. Set in the Midwest small town of Maple Spring, Missouri, Dancer Stonemason is an up-and-coming pitcher with the Rolla Rebels, a minor league team within the St. Louis Cardinals organization. Dancer's dreams of making it to the big leagues is just days away when he pitches the game of his life, only to lose his chance when his throwing arm fails him. With a growing family that struggles through hard times, Dancer's dreams and plans change, as choices are made that will effect and forever change the Stonemason family.

American Past Time is an intriguing story about life and its trials and tribulations, complex family dynamics, and a journey of self-discovery set within the span of twenty years covering tumultuous events in history from the 1950s to the early 1970s. The reader is easily drawn into the Stonemason family's lives as their family struggles to find their way in small town Midwestern America. This is a fast paced story that will captivate the reader's attention, take them for a stroll down memory lane of historical events, and celebrate the passion of apple pie and the American classic pastime that is baseball.

American Past Time is a heartwarming tale of life and family that captures the true essence of the American tapestry of times gone by.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from the author / publisher in exchange for my honest review and participation in a virtual book tour event hosted by JKS Communications Virtual Book Tours.

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[Brandon Kopceuch · Rating 3 out of 5]

An easy and enjoyable read, but was expecting something at the end.