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Columbus Slaughters Braves
Mark Friedman's debut novel is an unflinchingly honest portrait of the relationship between siblings, the heartbreaking tale of two brothers whose lives lead to vastly different fates. The narrator, Joe Columbus, tells the story of his brother CJ's remarkable success as a professional baseball player in an effort to explain not only CJ's apparently charmed life but also his own failures - his envy, his crumbling marriage, his missteps and cowardice.
A richly imagined story that explores both the grand and enduring allure of our national pasttime and the complications of our lives - our longings, losses, and regrets - COLUMBUS SLAUGHTERS BRAVES is a dark and comic and ultimately redemptive novel. Like W. P. Kinsella's SHOELESS JOE Joe and Michael Shaara's FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME, this is a poignant and compassionate work that introduces readers to a gifted and extraordinarily perceptive writer.
A richly imagined story that explores both the grand and enduring allure of our national pasttime and the complications of our lives - our longings, losses, and regrets - COLUMBUS SLAUGHTERS BRAVES is a dark and comic and ultimately redemptive novel. Like W. P. Kinsella's SHOELESS JOE Joe and Michael Shaara's FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME, this is a poignant and compassionate work that introduces readers to a gifted and extraordinarily perceptive writer.
200 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
20 people want to read
About the author
Mark Friedman
99 books5 followersAfter teaching high school math for one year, Mark Friedman served for 19 years in the Maryland Department of Human Resources, including six years as the department's Chief Financial Officer. In 1991 he joined the Center for the Study of Social Policy in Washington, D.C. where his work focused on helping state and local governments finance innovative child and family services. In 1996, he founded the Fiscal Policy Studies Institute (FPSI) in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Since 1996, he has provided training at the federal, state, county, city, school district and community levels.
Friedman's work has involved nearly every kind of government and non-profit organization from social services, health and education to transportation, environment and many more. His widely acclaimed methods have been used in over 40 states and seven countries outside the United States.
Friedman's work has involved nearly every kind of government and non-profit organization from social services, health and education to transportation, environment and many more. His widely acclaimed methods have been used in over 40 states and seven countries outside the United States.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 13, 2017
This book was difficult to read. The author wrote of such a tortured life in the shadow of his successful athletic brother; a sibling that sadly dies at the end. I know . . . this is a spoiler . . . but I would not recommend reading this book and I hope I dissuaded you from reading it.
I am not against stories about sibling rivalry, nor a protagonist struggling with unmet dreams, if there is some insight gained through the telling. But this author struggled throughout all three parts of this book with little redemption at the end. He did not grow as a person, nor did he discover new connections with the world or himself because of his grief.
While Friedman is a gifted writer, and I like reading about baseball, I was not satisfied with this story. I think he should have worked through a couple more drafts to find some enlightenment.
I am not against stories about sibling rivalry, nor a protagonist struggling with unmet dreams, if there is some insight gained through the telling. But this author struggled throughout all three parts of this book with little redemption at the end. He did not grow as a person, nor did he discover new connections with the world or himself because of his grief.
While Friedman is a gifted writer, and I like reading about baseball, I was not satisfied with this story. I think he should have worked through a couple more drafts to find some enlightenment.
June 9, 2020
Joe Columbus is not a likeable protagonist. He’s not likeable at the beginning of Columbus Slaughters Braves, he’s not likeable throughout, and he certainly doesn’t grow or learn anything by the end to improve that state. CJ Columbus, Joe’s superstar baseball playing younger brother, is fairly vague, we never learn much about who he is and what makes him tick and by the end know even less and doubt what little you thought you knew, from unreliable narration. On the surface a story of these two brother’s relationship doesn’t seem like it should work - but it does.
Columbus Slaughters Braves tells the story of the Columbus brothers, Joe and CJ. Joe the elder brother grows up in the shadow of his younger brother, CJ, being a baseball prodigy. The story is told through present day Joe’s narration looking back on CJs rise through Little League baseball, into high school, college and eventually stardom in the Major Leagues.
Everyone loves CJ and life seemingly comes easy for him. Contrasting that we begin to really dislike Joe as his internal selfishness, doubts and pettiness surface. In fact, I would say Joe’s defining trait is that he’s really, really unlikeable. What makes this work though is that what makes Joe so unlikeable is that internal monologue and how real it can be. It’s very easy to see shades of oneself in Joe’s selfish and jealous trains of thought.
I had originally come across this book when it was first released while on a lunch break in a Barnes and Nobles. I loved baseball and the cover caught my attention immediately. I read the opening section of the book, the one where Joe describes how he first knew CJ was something special when it comes to baseball. Lunch finished, I put the book back and returned to work. 18 years later I still thought about that opening passage. It was so well written, a perfect baseball story with two brothers on a sandlot field. I thought about that passage many times over the years and finally COVID quarantine found me with a copy of the book ready to read on. While the rest of the book does not hold up to those first few pages, Columbus Slaughters Braves is a good, but very heavy read and I am very glad I eventually got around to reading this book.
Columbus Slaughters Braves is often said to be about sibling rivalry. I strongly disagree with any comment of that nature. There is no sibling rivalry in this story. Joe grows up jealous of CJ. Joe grows up ignorant of how selfish and destructive his own line of thinking is. We never really get to understand what CJ thinks. Did CJ grow up feeling any of Joe’s bitterness? Did CJ wish to be closer to Joe? Does CJ even like Joe? None of those questions get answered. In fact, Joe is so freaking selfish, he doesn’t have one line asking any of those questions.
Columbus Slaughters Braves is not a baseball book, but the author understands baseball. It is not a book about sibling rivalry, but the author understands strained family dynamics. It is not a cheesy heart wrenching story of loss, but the author clearly understands loss. Mark Friedman takes an unbelievable, one in a million story and makes it relatable and that is what makes this a recommended read. You will see the ending coming a mile away, but still find yourself tearing up, because Mark Friedman’s writing puts you in the story.
Columbus Slaughters Braves tells the story of the Columbus brothers, Joe and CJ. Joe the elder brother grows up in the shadow of his younger brother, CJ, being a baseball prodigy. The story is told through present day Joe’s narration looking back on CJs rise through Little League baseball, into high school, college and eventually stardom in the Major Leagues.
Everyone loves CJ and life seemingly comes easy for him. Contrasting that we begin to really dislike Joe as his internal selfishness, doubts and pettiness surface. In fact, I would say Joe’s defining trait is that he’s really, really unlikeable. What makes this work though is that what makes Joe so unlikeable is that internal monologue and how real it can be. It’s very easy to see shades of oneself in Joe’s selfish and jealous trains of thought.
I had originally come across this book when it was first released while on a lunch break in a Barnes and Nobles. I loved baseball and the cover caught my attention immediately. I read the opening section of the book, the one where Joe describes how he first knew CJ was something special when it comes to baseball. Lunch finished, I put the book back and returned to work. 18 years later I still thought about that opening passage. It was so well written, a perfect baseball story with two brothers on a sandlot field. I thought about that passage many times over the years and finally COVID quarantine found me with a copy of the book ready to read on. While the rest of the book does not hold up to those first few pages, Columbus Slaughters Braves is a good, but very heavy read and I am very glad I eventually got around to reading this book.
Columbus Slaughters Braves is often said to be about sibling rivalry. I strongly disagree with any comment of that nature. There is no sibling rivalry in this story. Joe grows up jealous of CJ. Joe grows up ignorant of how selfish and destructive his own line of thinking is. We never really get to understand what CJ thinks. Did CJ grow up feeling any of Joe’s bitterness? Did CJ wish to be closer to Joe? Does CJ even like Joe? None of those questions get answered. In fact, Joe is so freaking selfish, he doesn’t have one line asking any of those questions.
Columbus Slaughters Braves is not a baseball book, but the author understands baseball. It is not a book about sibling rivalry, but the author understands strained family dynamics. It is not a cheesy heart wrenching story of loss, but the author clearly understands loss. Mark Friedman takes an unbelievable, one in a million story and makes it relatable and that is what makes this a recommended read. You will see the ending coming a mile away, but still find yourself tearing up, because Mark Friedman’s writing puts you in the story.
December 4, 2015
A story about destructive sibling rivalry when one is extremely talented
This book is about one of the oldest social and psychological dynamics, sibling rivalry. Specifically, the intensity of the rivalry when one of the children is extremely successful and the other is not. Joe Columbus is a high school teacher and the older brother of CJ, one of the best baseball players ever. He was such a natural that his skills were evident very early and people believed that he would star in the major leagues, even in his early teen years. Therefore, the jealousy began early, before Joe began to mature emotionally.
CJ was a star for the Chicago Cubs, so good that he was the best hitter in the majors from the moment he stepped on the field. At one point his batting average was well over .400 at the All Star break. CJ appeared in commercials and on billboards, so Joe encountered his image all the time, fueling his resentment.
Joe was not a supportive and helpful older brother, he was a big-time sulker and resenter, so strongly that he deliberately sabotaged events regarding CJ. Or at the very least made others uncomfortable by his actions. Joe’s bitterness is so strong that it seeps into his marriage and he seems headed for a complete collapse of everything in his life.
The circumstances dramatically change when a sudden tragedy occurs in the Columbus family. In most books, this would be a time of great healing and reconciliation, to Friedman’s credit he does not play it that way. In real life, such deep bitterness does not dissolve overnight, even in the midst of tragedy.
This book is very well written, exposing one of the major causes of family dysfunction, one extremely successful child among a group of siblings of lesser talent. The very skills that give them success are a fundamental part of their being and the source of the hostility. In this case, Joe is being consumed by his jealousy and there appears to be nothing that will dampen it. All adults that have experienced this situation will be able to relate to this family dynamic. The book is not about baseball, it is about extreme sibling rivalry where one of the children happens to be a baseball star.
This review also appears on Amazon.
This book is about one of the oldest social and psychological dynamics, sibling rivalry. Specifically, the intensity of the rivalry when one of the children is extremely successful and the other is not. Joe Columbus is a high school teacher and the older brother of CJ, one of the best baseball players ever. He was such a natural that his skills were evident very early and people believed that he would star in the major leagues, even in his early teen years. Therefore, the jealousy began early, before Joe began to mature emotionally.
CJ was a star for the Chicago Cubs, so good that he was the best hitter in the majors from the moment he stepped on the field. At one point his batting average was well over .400 at the All Star break. CJ appeared in commercials and on billboards, so Joe encountered his image all the time, fueling his resentment.
Joe was not a supportive and helpful older brother, he was a big-time sulker and resenter, so strongly that he deliberately sabotaged events regarding CJ. Or at the very least made others uncomfortable by his actions. Joe’s bitterness is so strong that it seeps into his marriage and he seems headed for a complete collapse of everything in his life.
The circumstances dramatically change when a sudden tragedy occurs in the Columbus family. In most books, this would be a time of great healing and reconciliation, to Friedman’s credit he does not play it that way. In real life, such deep bitterness does not dissolve overnight, even in the midst of tragedy.
This book is very well written, exposing one of the major causes of family dysfunction, one extremely successful child among a group of siblings of lesser talent. The very skills that give them success are a fundamental part of their being and the source of the hostility. In this case, Joe is being consumed by his jealousy and there appears to be nothing that will dampen it. All adults that have experienced this situation will be able to relate to this family dynamic. The book is not about baseball, it is about extreme sibling rivalry where one of the children happens to be a baseball star.
This review also appears on Amazon.
August 23, 2012
Columbus Slaughters Braves is another in a long line of baseball books that I've read. But it goes beyond the box scores, beyond the paeans to "America's Game". Instead it focuses on the relationship between two brothers: CJ and Joe Columbus. The former is the fastest rising star on a late-nineties Cubs team that was going nowhere (as Cubs teams are wont to do), the latter is a little older and much more cynical, bitter and cruel.
With Joe Columbus as our narrator, we're subject to all the pangs of primal self-doubt as every overlooked brother since Cain. It's not the most comfortable feeling in the world (especially if, like me, you can think of several dozen ways in which your real life brothers are superior to you), but few of us would go inf or the kind of cruel and silent psychological warfare that Joe perpetrates on his little brother.
What keeps the story readable is Joe's honesty in the narration. The childhood jealousy and immature disdain is not excused or qualified, it simply is, the way that childish behavior simply is childish. As the book goes on there is no miraculous change. Like an actual person, Joe acknowledges his failings but is torn between the easy act of ignoring it and the more problematic act of changing himself.
You might not like Joe (as a narrator he seems to suspect as much), but you have to respect the honesty of the character as well as the unflinching commitment of author Mark Friedman to writing a work like this. Though the plot hits some familiar and occasionally melodramatic notes, accomplishing the tricky task of a difficult but compelling protagonist makes it notable.
With Joe Columbus as our narrator, we're subject to all the pangs of primal self-doubt as every overlooked brother since Cain. It's not the most comfortable feeling in the world (especially if, like me, you can think of several dozen ways in which your real life brothers are superior to you), but few of us would go inf or the kind of cruel and silent psychological warfare that Joe perpetrates on his little brother.
What keeps the story readable is Joe's honesty in the narration. The childhood jealousy and immature disdain is not excused or qualified, it simply is, the way that childish behavior simply is childish. As the book goes on there is no miraculous change. Like an actual person, Joe acknowledges his failings but is torn between the easy act of ignoring it and the more problematic act of changing himself.
You might not like Joe (as a narrator he seems to suspect as much), but you have to respect the honesty of the character as well as the unflinching commitment of author Mark Friedman to writing a work like this. Though the plot hits some familiar and occasionally melodramatic notes, accomplishing the tricky task of a difficult but compelling protagonist makes it notable.
January 8, 2008
"I also must confess that the last part -- about him keeping the glove in front of his face and then peering around it -- was a fabrication. I don't remember if that really happened, though it seems like something that might have, like something CJ would have done. Who the hell can remember all the details of a summer day twenty years ago?" Check out that unreliable narration, folks. I am all about unreliable narration. I'm also all about f-ed up families and sibling rivalry and brothers and baseball and possible affairs between the narrator's wife and his little brother the superstar baseball player that are implied but never confirmed because the narration is just. that. unreliable. Seriously, I couldn't put the freaking thing down.
April 17, 2010
This is an engaging account of two brothers whose lives follow very different paths. One is a natural athlete who becomes a baseball star, and the second brother is a teacher. The two are not close, possibly because the older brother resents his sibling's easy success. The story is plausible enough, although I had a little trouble believing that one brother would be showered with gifts while the other was bereft. It's a quick read, and although it's not really a baseball story, I found it entertaining.
January 23, 2010
Friedman hits very heavy emotionally in this book. I wasn't always comfortable as I read, but Friedman was definitely in charge of my emotions. Masterfully in control. At times things seemed to get a little heavy handed with the bad emotional state I was sharing with the narrator, but I suppose that just shows how much I was affected by the story. For a relatively simple storyline the book hits heavy.
July 14, 2008
Interesting story about two brothers- one of whom is a professional baseball player. It's very well written, though the main character is a real jerk and you just want to yell at him at certain parts of the book. It's probably very realistic, though.
June 12, 2016
Baseball and dysfunctional family dynamics, very well written. The baseball is somewhat incidental, though well done, as the family relationships are of more central importance. What life with a famous little brother might be like. Quick read, but worth it.
December 18, 2007
Really good book, much different than I expected but I really enjoyed it.
January 25, 2008
A good story. But this is not a feel good book.
February 13, 2008
A debut novel of sibling rivalry of brothers. Very good read.
January 17, 2009
It wasn't really about baseball.
April 10, 2009
This book disproves the notion that I'll like any book about baseball and family dynamics. It's just not written very well and the main character is a sniveling fuck.
November 29, 2012
A book about baseball...but more about two brothers. One is a famous baseball player and one is not.
February 5, 2009
This is a great book about baseball and family relationships.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews