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Bad News Bears
Bad News Bears Go to Japan
160 pages, Paperback
Published June 1, 1978
19 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 5, 2008
Not unlike Hemingway, Richard Woodley's genius lies in well-crafted, famously plain declarative sentences that linger in the mind like poetry: "Coach Morris removed his tight-fit baseball cap, wiped the sweat off of his forehead and squinted at the scoreboard. 'We're getting our asses handed to us because these bumbling retards don't know the first thing about how to throw a baseball, and these Japo runts are loving every minute of it. I need a beer." His cast of prepubescent dissolute expatriates--Cindy Lou and her drunken ferret Boots, Mikey Radcliff, the son of an unhappy Jewish boxer, the sardonic beauty queen Rebbecca Goldwater--are as familiar as the "underdog crowd" we all once knew. No wonder this quintessential lost-generation novel has inspired several generations of imitators, in style as well as lifestyle.
Coach Morris Buttermaker, Woodley's narrator with a mysterious war wound that has left him sexually incapable, is the heart and soul of the book. That and baseball. Alcohol and post-World War II anomie fuel the plot (along with some baseball): weary of drinking and dancing in Japanese cafés, the expatriate gang decamps for the Tokyo town of Banzaii for the "wonderful nightmare" of a season-long fiesta. Coach Morris, with fiancé and ex-lover Cohn in tow, breaks hearts (and baseball bats) all around until she falls, briefly, for the handsome teenage center-fielder Yamada Taro. "My God! he's a lovely boy," she tells Coach Morris. "And how I would love to see him get into those clothes. He must use a shoe-horn." Whereupon the party disbands.
But what's most shocking about the book is its lean, adjective-free style. The Bad News Bears Go To Japan is Richard Wooley's masterpiece--one of them, anyway--and no matter how many times you've read it or how you feel about the manners and morals of the characters (and the baseball), you won't be able to resist its spell. This is a classic that really does live up to its reputation.
Coach Morris Buttermaker, Woodley's narrator with a mysterious war wound that has left him sexually incapable, is the heart and soul of the book. That and baseball. Alcohol and post-World War II anomie fuel the plot (along with some baseball): weary of drinking and dancing in Japanese cafés, the expatriate gang decamps for the Tokyo town of Banzaii for the "wonderful nightmare" of a season-long fiesta. Coach Morris, with fiancé and ex-lover Cohn in tow, breaks hearts (and baseball bats) all around until she falls, briefly, for the handsome teenage center-fielder Yamada Taro. "My God! he's a lovely boy," she tells Coach Morris. "And how I would love to see him get into those clothes. He must use a shoe-horn." Whereupon the party disbands.
But what's most shocking about the book is its lean, adjective-free style. The Bad News Bears Go To Japan is Richard Wooley's masterpiece--one of them, anyway--and no matter how many times you've read it or how you feel about the manners and morals of the characters (and the baseball), you won't be able to resist its spell. This is a classic that really does live up to its reputation.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 11, 2008
You can't out-wit those darn Bears!
September 24, 2011
So-so novelization of a so-so movie
September 9, 2012
Da Bearssss.
October 18, 2016
This was not a bad follow-up to the original but the uniqueness has worn off. Still, the book is a decent read but not for the kids. The humor is ribald at times.
April 30, 2015
another cute read for my sister and my book/movie combo project
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews