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The Prospect
When seasoned baseball scout, Bud Esterhaus, recruits phenom pitcher, Joe Carpenter, for the El Centro Sand Cats, he thinks he might be able to wind down his career with a patina of quality. But as Joe climbs through the minor league ranks and attracts the attention of the L.A. Dodgers, Bud is stunned to discover that the budding star is actually a girl—a she-nom—and the whole plan will come crashing down if he can’t cook up a way to keep her identity hidden from the testosterone-steeped world of professional baseball. Joe Carpenter is really Jo Carpenter, and Bud thinks she’s good enough to be the first woman to make The Show.
In The Prospect, Kevin Brennan (author of Parts Unknown—William Morrow/HarperCollins) shows us one way—with a little Shakespearean gender bending—a woman could find herself playing in Major League Baseball. The Natural meets Bull Durham meets A League of Their Own in this warm girl-powered story.
In The Prospect, Kevin Brennan (author of Parts Unknown—William Morrow/HarperCollins) shows us one way—with a little Shakespearean gender bending—a woman could find herself playing in Major League Baseball. The Natural meets Bull Durham meets A League of Their Own in this warm girl-powered story.
297 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 1, 2022
About the author
Kevin Brennan
12 books51 followersKevin Brennan is the author of seven novels, including Parts Unknown (William Morrow/HarperCollins), Yesterday Road, and, coming in May '22, The Prospect. His short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in The Berkeley Fiction Review, Mid-American Review, Twin Pies, The Daily Drunk, Sledgehammer, Fictive Dream, Atlas and Alice, LEON Literary Review, MoonPark Review, Atticus Review, and others. He's also the editor of The Disappointed Housewife, a literary magazine for writers of offbeat and idiosyncratic fiction, poetry, and essays. Kevin lives with his wife in California's Sierra foothills.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 4, 2022
This book gives the reader a close look at baseball as a career choice and a business, along with the way it fits--or doesn't--into the lives of individuals and families. Bud Esterhaus has sacrificed his marriage and his role as a father to his job as a scout, and Joe/Jo Carpenter is willing to risk everything for a shot at being the first woman to play in the big leagues.
The story is told from deep inside the world of pro ball. Bud knows the game inside-out. He speaks its language and shows the reader--even this one, who knows little about the sport and cares even less--its magic and allure. I found myself rooting for Jo and following all the ups, downs, and subterfuges needed to keep her identity a secret.
Running in parallel is Bud's regret for his poor relationship with his son, and his tentative attempts to reach out and re-establish it. A couple of exquisitely awkward situations are described in cringe-inducing detail. While recognizing Bud's shortcomings in this area of his life, I couldn't help but hope something good would come about in the end.
Brennan's prose is polished and clear. Dialogue is snappy and realistic, and imbued with the terminology and culture of baseball. As well, there are vivid depictions of road trips into the heartland of America. Like this: "Driving at night through the desert is a great thing. In the summertime, like late June when we were doing it, you can have the windows down and the cool wind swirling all around your head. You can blast the radio as it plays ranchera from Mexican AM stations. And because you can't see the flat, arid horizon and the heat waves and the baking roadkill, it feels like you're traveling through a transparent tunnel that unveils the stars as you go."
This book has all the ingredients for a great read: compelling plot, relatable characters, and good writing. I highly recommend it.
The story is told from deep inside the world of pro ball. Bud knows the game inside-out. He speaks its language and shows the reader--even this one, who knows little about the sport and cares even less--its magic and allure. I found myself rooting for Jo and following all the ups, downs, and subterfuges needed to keep her identity a secret.
Running in parallel is Bud's regret for his poor relationship with his son, and his tentative attempts to reach out and re-establish it. A couple of exquisitely awkward situations are described in cringe-inducing detail. While recognizing Bud's shortcomings in this area of his life, I couldn't help but hope something good would come about in the end.
Brennan's prose is polished and clear. Dialogue is snappy and realistic, and imbued with the terminology and culture of baseball. As well, there are vivid depictions of road trips into the heartland of America. Like this: "Driving at night through the desert is a great thing. In the summertime, like late June when we were doing it, you can have the windows down and the cool wind swirling all around your head. You can blast the radio as it plays ranchera from Mexican AM stations. And because you can't see the flat, arid horizon and the heat waves and the baking roadkill, it feels like you're traveling through a transparent tunnel that unveils the stars as you go."
This book has all the ingredients for a great read: compelling plot, relatable characters, and good writing. I highly recommend it.
April 12, 2022
I'm not much of a baseball fan, and yet I devoured this book. Brennan's story immediately draws you in, and his dimensional characters, Jo/Joe Carpenter and Bud Esterhaus, keep you tethered in their likable orbit throughout. How long can they keep their secret that baseball's new wonderboy is actually a wondergirl? That question, along with Brennan’s smooth prose, kept me eagerly turning the pages.
With The Prospect’s universally appealing premise, fans of all genres will enjoy it. Thanks to the author for an early review copy.
With The Prospect’s universally appealing premise, fans of all genres will enjoy it. Thanks to the author for an early review copy.
June 20, 2022
First, I need to acknowledge that I did receive an advanced copy of this wonderful novel, The Prospect. But I bought it before I got the advanced copy. Just sayin'.
As you might guess from the title of this post, The Prospect has to do with baseball. But, there's a twist. In this case (and this is not a spoiler), one of the characters is not your average wanna-be Big Leaguer. He is a phenomenon, what scout Bud Esterhaus would call "the living unicorn of a ballplayer." The twist is that he is a she.
Are you a baseball fan? Do you lapse into what some might consider a foreign language when discussing America's national pastime? I'm not, and I don't. In fact, I know zip about baseball. But you don't have to know baseball to become engrossed in this story of a young woman who wants to play in the big leagues with the big boys.
The story is told through Bud Esterhaus, a divorced late-middle-aged man whose real mistress was not the Elaine that his wife eventually found out about. No, although Bud argues that Elaine was his wife's tipping point, the real wedge in their marriage, as well as in his relationship with his son, was Baseball, with a capital B. In bold, 42-point font.
In The Prospect, Bud discovers Joe Carpenter, a slim, small player who, as a military veteran at 26, is considered a bit old for the minor leagues, but that will be the least of Bud's problems with Joe. From the book blurb, you, the reader, know that Joe is really a woman, but no one else does, which is one of the reasons why this novel is a nail-biting page-turner. Jo aka Joe manages to keep her secret for a good long while with Bud twisting himself into knots to accommodate her "eccentricities:"
"What I'd never seen was a player who apparently didn't want to be seen in any degree of undress. In a place where there's literally nothing to be ashamed of, never taking off your clothes is bound to arouse suspicion."
I wasn't above spreading that war-wound idea around. But I wasn't about to ask Joe either."
When she does slip up and Bud learns of her deception, both the reader and Bud are already committed to this "living unicorn." We're all in, and the tension shifts from how long can Jo keep her secret to how long Bud and Jo can keep her secret. One thing to keep in mind, and I found this to be a fascinating part of the novel, is how often people see only what they want to see or expect to see.
Jo and Bud have a number of close calls, adding to the tension of the story and to Bud's already high stress level. According to Bud, Jo is an "innocent":
"Not so much naive. Just innocent. There's a difference. To me, a naive girl trying to play pro ball was putting herself at enormous risk but didn't know it. Jo, the innocent, knew what the stakes were but was going to rely on her brains and her skills to get by. Her innocence was to be found in how she believed it completely possible."
I came to think of Jo as both naive and innocent. She knew what the stakes were and definitely believed in her own smarts and skills to succeed, but to believe she could maintain the deception indefinitely seemed naive. And selfish. She was 26 years old with military experience, yet Jo Carpenter didn't consider the impact of her secret on others. It was a dream of hers to play pro. She was going to try and make it happen without regard for who got hurt. Bud was putting his own career on the line by helping her, but she never seemed to truly understand the risk he was taking. It wasn't that Jo didn't care about Bud. She does, in fact, come to care deeply about him. Still, it's all about her.
In a way, Bud has the same problem. Bud is all about baseball and finds it nearly impossible to reconcile the fact that his son couldn't care less about it. Bud does acknowledge that not every boy will grow up to love baseball, but he couldn't meet Stan even halfway while he was growing up. Bud loved the game and - without regard for who got hurt - he put the game ahead of his family. Bud and Jo needed to find each other and go through this coming-of-age experience together. With Jo, Bud got to experience the kind of bond he had wanted with his son. She validated his need and his ability to be a father.
In turn, Jo got the guidance she needed, not just in how to play ball, but also in how to play Life. When someone believes in you, like Bud believes in Jo, everything seems "completely possible."
When I get frustrated with a character, when I want to argue with them, that's a pretty good indication that I'm deep in the story. I'm hooked. Plenty of times I was frustrated with Bud or Jo or both at the same time. But there were more times when I was cheering them on or commiserating with them. Brennan draws his characters so vividly that you believe they could walk off the page and into your life. With these characters, I'd also expect them to grab some beer and drag me to a baseball game. And I'd go with them … happily.
I know zip about baseball, but I know when a writer has hit one out of the park. Kevin Brennan has done just that with The Prospect.
As you might guess from the title of this post, The Prospect has to do with baseball. But, there's a twist. In this case (and this is not a spoiler), one of the characters is not your average wanna-be Big Leaguer. He is a phenomenon, what scout Bud Esterhaus would call "the living unicorn of a ballplayer." The twist is that he is a she.
Are you a baseball fan? Do you lapse into what some might consider a foreign language when discussing America's national pastime? I'm not, and I don't. In fact, I know zip about baseball. But you don't have to know baseball to become engrossed in this story of a young woman who wants to play in the big leagues with the big boys.
The story is told through Bud Esterhaus, a divorced late-middle-aged man whose real mistress was not the Elaine that his wife eventually found out about. No, although Bud argues that Elaine was his wife's tipping point, the real wedge in their marriage, as well as in his relationship with his son, was Baseball, with a capital B. In bold, 42-point font.
In The Prospect, Bud discovers Joe Carpenter, a slim, small player who, as a military veteran at 26, is considered a bit old for the minor leagues, but that will be the least of Bud's problems with Joe. From the book blurb, you, the reader, know that Joe is really a woman, but no one else does, which is one of the reasons why this novel is a nail-biting page-turner. Jo aka Joe manages to keep her secret for a good long while with Bud twisting himself into knots to accommodate her "eccentricities:"
"What I'd never seen was a player who apparently didn't want to be seen in any degree of undress. In a place where there's literally nothing to be ashamed of, never taking off your clothes is bound to arouse suspicion."
I wasn't above spreading that war-wound idea around. But I wasn't about to ask Joe either."
When she does slip up and Bud learns of her deception, both the reader and Bud are already committed to this "living unicorn." We're all in, and the tension shifts from how long can Jo keep her secret to how long Bud and Jo can keep her secret. One thing to keep in mind, and I found this to be a fascinating part of the novel, is how often people see only what they want to see or expect to see.
Jo and Bud have a number of close calls, adding to the tension of the story and to Bud's already high stress level. According to Bud, Jo is an "innocent":
"Not so much naive. Just innocent. There's a difference. To me, a naive girl trying to play pro ball was putting herself at enormous risk but didn't know it. Jo, the innocent, knew what the stakes were but was going to rely on her brains and her skills to get by. Her innocence was to be found in how she believed it completely possible."
I came to think of Jo as both naive and innocent. She knew what the stakes were and definitely believed in her own smarts and skills to succeed, but to believe she could maintain the deception indefinitely seemed naive. And selfish. She was 26 years old with military experience, yet Jo Carpenter didn't consider the impact of her secret on others. It was a dream of hers to play pro. She was going to try and make it happen without regard for who got hurt. Bud was putting his own career on the line by helping her, but she never seemed to truly understand the risk he was taking. It wasn't that Jo didn't care about Bud. She does, in fact, come to care deeply about him. Still, it's all about her.
In a way, Bud has the same problem. Bud is all about baseball and finds it nearly impossible to reconcile the fact that his son couldn't care less about it. Bud does acknowledge that not every boy will grow up to love baseball, but he couldn't meet Stan even halfway while he was growing up. Bud loved the game and - without regard for who got hurt - he put the game ahead of his family. Bud and Jo needed to find each other and go through this coming-of-age experience together. With Jo, Bud got to experience the kind of bond he had wanted with his son. She validated his need and his ability to be a father.
In turn, Jo got the guidance she needed, not just in how to play ball, but also in how to play Life. When someone believes in you, like Bud believes in Jo, everything seems "completely possible."
When I get frustrated with a character, when I want to argue with them, that's a pretty good indication that I'm deep in the story. I'm hooked. Plenty of times I was frustrated with Bud or Jo or both at the same time. But there were more times when I was cheering them on or commiserating with them. Brennan draws his characters so vividly that you believe they could walk off the page and into your life. With these characters, I'd also expect them to grab some beer and drag me to a baseball game. And I'd go with them … happily.
I know zip about baseball, but I know when a writer has hit one out of the park. Kevin Brennan has done just that with The Prospect.
November 22, 2022
I cannot say enough good things about this book. I have always enjoyed this author, and his work just keeps getting better.
This book stirs up lots of emotions and plenty of questions about the unfairness and discrimination still so prevalent out there. I am not a baseball fan, but I learned so much and enjoyed every bit of play from beginning to end.
This book stirs up lots of emotions and plenty of questions about the unfairness and discrimination still so prevalent out there. I am not a baseball fan, but I learned so much and enjoyed every bit of play from beginning to end.
July 18, 2022
What a fun book to read. I breezed through this (and you don't really have to like baseball). While it was fairly predictable, it was also entertaining enough to keep me reading. I have read all of Brennan's books and I think this was my favorite as he draws the reader into the life of Jo and the deception in allowing an extremely talented player to follow their passion and their sport. Brennan developed the characters so that I felt like I truly was friends, or at least acquaintances with them.
This was one of those books that I was sorry to see end.
This was one of those books that I was sorry to see end.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews