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Brittle Innings
For seventeen-year-old Danny Boles, a 5'5" shortstop out of Tenkiller, Oklahoma, the summer of 1943 would be a season to remember. The country's at war, and professional baseball needs able-bodied men. Danny's headed for Highbridge, Georgia - home of the Goober Pride peanut butter factory and the Highbridge Hellbenders, a Class C farm club in the Chattahoochee Valley League. He's a scrappy player with one minor a violent encounter on the train to Georgia has rendered him mute, his vocal cords tied up in knots.
Danny's idiosyncrasy, however, is nothing compared to that of his new Hellbender roommate, an erudite seven-foot giant by the name of Jumbo Hank Clerval. With his yellow eyes, strangely scarred face, and sausage-sized fingers, Hank seems to have been put together in a meat-packing plant. But he plays a mean first base and can hit the ball a mile. With the Hellbenders in a pennant race as hot as the relentless Georgia sun, the eloquent Clerval forms a special kinship with the speechless kid from Oklahoma. Danny soon realizes that Hank is not an ordinary man but something more complex...more mysterious than he'd imagined.
These two very different ballplayers forge a bond as the season moves inexorably toward its dramatic, and ultimately violent, conclusion. Both want a shot at the major leagues and both want to know what it's like to be a man. But they are about to discover how ambition and desire can turn even the gentlest soul into the worst kind of monster.
At turns funny, tragic, and ultimately uplifting, Brittle Innings is a brilliant evocation of a uniquely American a season-long contest in which fantasies are engaged, heroes are created and destroyed, and innocence is lost forever.
Danny's idiosyncrasy, however, is nothing compared to that of his new Hellbender roommate, an erudite seven-foot giant by the name of Jumbo Hank Clerval. With his yellow eyes, strangely scarred face, and sausage-sized fingers, Hank seems to have been put together in a meat-packing plant. But he plays a mean first base and can hit the ball a mile. With the Hellbenders in a pennant race as hot as the relentless Georgia sun, the eloquent Clerval forms a special kinship with the speechless kid from Oklahoma. Danny soon realizes that Hank is not an ordinary man but something more complex...more mysterious than he'd imagined.
These two very different ballplayers forge a bond as the season moves inexorably toward its dramatic, and ultimately violent, conclusion. Both want a shot at the major leagues and both want to know what it's like to be a man. But they are about to discover how ambition and desire can turn even the gentlest soul into the worst kind of monster.
At turns funny, tragic, and ultimately uplifting, Brittle Innings is a brilliant evocation of a uniquely American a season-long contest in which fantasies are engaged, heroes are created and destroyed, and innocence is lost forever.
502 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1994
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1009 people want to read
About the author
Michael Bishop
308 books105 followersMichael Lawson Bishop was an award-winning American writer. Over four decades & thirty books, he created a body of work that stands among the most admired in modern sf & fantasy literature.
Bishop received a bachelor's from the Univ. of Georgia in 1967, going on to complete a master's in English. He taught English at the US Air Force Academy Preparatory School in Colorado Springs from 1968-72 & then at the Univ. of Georgia. He also taught a course in science fiction at the US Air Force Academy in 1971. He left teaching in 1974 to become a full-time writer.
Bishop won the Nebula in 1981 for The Quickening (Best Novelette) & in 1982 for No Enemy But Time (Best Novel). He's also received four Locus Awards & his work has been nominated for numerous Hugos. He & British author Ian Watson collaborated on a novel set in the universe of one of Bishop’s earlier works. He's also written two mystery novels with Paul Di Filippo, under the joint pseudonym Philip Lawson. His work has been translated into over a dozen languages.
Bishop has published more than 125 pieces of short fiction which have been gathered in seven collections. His stories have appeared in Playboy, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, the Missouri Review, the Indiana Review, the Chattahoochee Review, the Georgia Review, Omni & Interzone.
In addition to fiction, Bishop has published poetry gathered in two collections & won the 1979 Rhysling Award for his poem For the Lady of a Physicist. He's also had essays & reviews published in the NY Times, the Washington Post, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Omni Magazine & the NY Review of Science Fiction. A collection of his nonfiction, A Reverie for Mister Ray, was issued in 2005 by PS Publishing. He's written introductions to books by Philip K. Dick, Theodore Sturgeon, James Tiptree, Jr., Pamela Sargent, Gardner Dozois, Lucius Shepard, Mary Shelley, Andy Duncan, Paul Di Filippo, Bruce Holland Rogers & Rhys Hughes. He's edited six anthologies, including the Locus Award-winning Light Years & Dark & A Cross of Centuries: 25 Imaginative Tales about the Christ, published by Thunder’s Mouth Press shortly before the company closed.
In recent years, Bishop has returned to teaching & is writer-in-residence at LaGrange College located near his home in Pine Mountain, GA. He & his wife, Jeri, have a daughter & two grandchildren. His son, Christopher James Bishop, was one of the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre on 4/16/07.
Bishop received a bachelor's from the Univ. of Georgia in 1967, going on to complete a master's in English. He taught English at the US Air Force Academy Preparatory School in Colorado Springs from 1968-72 & then at the Univ. of Georgia. He also taught a course in science fiction at the US Air Force Academy in 1971. He left teaching in 1974 to become a full-time writer.
Bishop won the Nebula in 1981 for The Quickening (Best Novelette) & in 1982 for No Enemy But Time (Best Novel). He's also received four Locus Awards & his work has been nominated for numerous Hugos. He & British author Ian Watson collaborated on a novel set in the universe of one of Bishop’s earlier works. He's also written two mystery novels with Paul Di Filippo, under the joint pseudonym Philip Lawson. His work has been translated into over a dozen languages.
Bishop has published more than 125 pieces of short fiction which have been gathered in seven collections. His stories have appeared in Playboy, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, the Missouri Review, the Indiana Review, the Chattahoochee Review, the Georgia Review, Omni & Interzone.
In addition to fiction, Bishop has published poetry gathered in two collections & won the 1979 Rhysling Award for his poem For the Lady of a Physicist. He's also had essays & reviews published in the NY Times, the Washington Post, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Omni Magazine & the NY Review of Science Fiction. A collection of his nonfiction, A Reverie for Mister Ray, was issued in 2005 by PS Publishing. He's written introductions to books by Philip K. Dick, Theodore Sturgeon, James Tiptree, Jr., Pamela Sargent, Gardner Dozois, Lucius Shepard, Mary Shelley, Andy Duncan, Paul Di Filippo, Bruce Holland Rogers & Rhys Hughes. He's edited six anthologies, including the Locus Award-winning Light Years & Dark & A Cross of Centuries: 25 Imaginative Tales about the Christ, published by Thunder’s Mouth Press shortly before the company closed.
In recent years, Bishop has returned to teaching & is writer-in-residence at LaGrange College located near his home in Pine Mountain, GA. He & his wife, Jeri, have a daughter & two grandchildren. His son, Christopher James Bishop, was one of the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre on 4/16/07.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
June 19, 2011
One of the joys of reading is discovering a book that you had bought years ago but never gotten around to reading. I finally read "Brittle Innings," and I was genuinely moved by what a brilliant piece of baseball fiction it is. I had only read one work by Michael Bishop in the past, a sci-fi collection of stories, and this only shows you shouldn't narrowly assume authors can only write well in one genre. This book ranks up there with Lardner and Harris with its joy of language. Set in Georgia during WWII, this story of an Oklahoma teen who is a mid-season addition to a minor league professional baseball team is a pleasure. That the author pulls off this feat with his main character mute through half the novel and with a second main character who may be a major literary figure from the past is all the more reason to rave about this novel. Bishop doesn't shirk from accurately tackling the racial views of the times either. It's a shame that this book never received the widespread recognition that it deserved when it was published. Maybe the title or the cover art were too ambiguous for a book that defies easy description. Find this book in a library or used bookstore. Highly recommended.
August 16, 2007
For all that I'm not overly fond of actually watching baseball, I like reading fictional stories about it an awful lot. I've read (and liked) Field of Dreams, The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, Screwball, The Last Days of Summer, and many more. The mythology of baseball seems to lend itself to stories that aren't exactly grounded in our reality.
But the king of that sort of basball book has got to be Brittle Innings. One the one hand, it's a gritty, detailed portrait of life in the southern baseball leagues. You get to see it all, from practices to road trips to actual games, in understated prose that captures the feel of an era.
On the other hand, there's that myth thing, and in this case, it's a whopper, centered in the character of Henry "Jumbo" Clerval. I won't spoil the revelation, but the amazing thing is that Bishop manages to make Clerval as grounded and real as all of his teammates.
But the king of that sort of basball book has got to be Brittle Innings. One the one hand, it's a gritty, detailed portrait of life in the southern baseball leagues. You get to see it all, from practices to road trips to actual games, in understated prose that captures the feel of an era.
On the other hand, there's that myth thing, and in this case, it's a whopper, centered in the character of Henry "Jumbo" Clerval. I won't spoil the revelation, but the amazing thing is that Bishop manages to make Clerval as grounded and real as all of his teammates.
August 2, 2015
This is a very strange book. It reads like a hybrid of Frankenstein and Ball Four with only a fraction of those books' talents. To be fair, it DID keep me engaged. Bishop clearly knows the game of baseball and creates a highly believable baseball world in the American south during World War II. His writing is solid on a sentence level and he has effective control of various characters and their odd southern personalities. Unfortunately, the tone of the book is inconsistent. At times, the book seems to be the silly story of odd characters, but then at other times the book is remarkably dark and unsettling without convincing reasoning. One such example of this is that the main character loses his voice for a large portion of the book, which is fine because it helps to add a humorous element to the narrative. The voice loss, however, is a result of a brutal rape committed against the protagonist. The scene is not only shocking for its content, but also for the way that the author ends up (mostly) diminishing what has happened. The main character ends up confronting his abuser, but in a mostly careless way. This juggling of emotions wasn't as effective as it could have been. Finally, the book is framed in a way that Bishop fails to return to, relying on the the hope that the reader won't remember the first pages of the novel. This is book with a deliciously strange premise, but very little payoff.
August 6, 2018
The perfect combination of Gothic novel, Baseball novel and Story of the American South.
September 5, 2013
Based in the deep South during World War 2, Brittle Innings follows the baseball exploits of Danny Boles, a sometime mute, and his larger than life room and team mate, Henry "Jumbo" Cherval. There is a big mystery, no pun intended on the origin of Danny's friend. Is he a golem? Sasquatch? An alien? Frankenstein's monster?
The answer, when it comes, is hardly a surprise, thanks to a gratuitous scene in a movie theater. If the book concerned only this plotline, or if it turned out that Henry is just a very large and ugly man, this would be a decent book. But the plot veers all over hte place, touching on the war, race, sexuality, amongst other things.
The author also uses a device that I don't care for in any book, but especially seems pointless in this one. The book begins and ends with a narrator, a sportswriter, who approaches the older Danny Boles and seeks to write a book about his life as a scout, not as a player. No where else does this character appear, and the book would lose nothing if one took away the prelude and cheesy fake "editor's note" at the end.
All told ,this book would have been much better with a good editor and weeding out about 200 pages. There are better books that blend fantasy/speculative fiction/urban sci fi/whatever and baseball. Shorter ones too.
The answer, when it comes, is hardly a surprise, thanks to a gratuitous scene in a movie theater. If the book concerned only this plotline, or if it turned out that Henry is just a very large and ugly man, this would be a decent book. But the plot veers all over hte place, touching on the war, race, sexuality, amongst other things.
The author also uses a device that I don't care for in any book, but especially seems pointless in this one. The book begins and ends with a narrator, a sportswriter, who approaches the older Danny Boles and seeks to write a book about his life as a scout, not as a player. No where else does this character appear, and the book would lose nothing if one took away the prelude and cheesy fake "editor's note" at the end.
All told ,this book would have been much better with a good editor and weeding out about 200 pages. There are better books that blend fantasy/speculative fiction/urban sci fi/whatever and baseball. Shorter ones too.
March 10, 2015
A book WITH baseball, not ABOUT baseball.WWII deep South displays its prejudices, with monsters in every kitchen and train stop, while the real monster struggles with his own humanity. Borders on cliché, yet beautiful and hard to put down.
February 26, 2021
Storyline: 2/5
Characters: 2/5
Writing Style: 3/5
World: 1/5
I like that the Hugo Awards offers variety in their selections. This was neither mainstream science fiction nor epic fantasy but a nostalgic historical fiction set in a largely realistic WWII America with just the smallest bit of flair. Guessing what that flair was going to be and how it was going to fit with the rest of the story was a nice source of anticipation. I also found myself enjoying the sports-based theme and was convinced (until some internet searching afterwards) that Bishop himself must have played in the CVL, traveled to those away games, and boarded with those roommates. I enjoyed the budding camaraderie early in the story and the evident love of a sport. I was less enamored with the fantasy revelation and development. I thought the historical fiction and the fantasy intersected in just about the most tepid way possible. In fact, aside from love of the game, I found most everything to lack emphasis and connection. There are a lot of themes in the story, but they’re not there for development or social criticism but as backdrops for the tale. I could see the will put into closing the book out with significance and force, but nothing had been sufficiently built up for us to be shocked, satisfied, or wowed with. I am surprised to find (again, with some quick internet searching) that Michael Bishop is a well-known, regarded, and awarded author. Neither the ideas nor the execution sets this above the many generic and most-forgotten books that sit on used bookstore shelves. I am not inspired to read from the author again.
Characters: 2/5
Writing Style: 3/5
World: 1/5
I like that the Hugo Awards offers variety in their selections. This was neither mainstream science fiction nor epic fantasy but a nostalgic historical fiction set in a largely realistic WWII America with just the smallest bit of flair. Guessing what that flair was going to be and how it was going to fit with the rest of the story was a nice source of anticipation. I also found myself enjoying the sports-based theme and was convinced (until some internet searching afterwards) that Bishop himself must have played in the CVL, traveled to those away games, and boarded with those roommates. I enjoyed the budding camaraderie early in the story and the evident love of a sport. I was less enamored with the fantasy revelation and development. I thought the historical fiction and the fantasy intersected in just about the most tepid way possible. In fact, aside from love of the game, I found most everything to lack emphasis and connection. There are a lot of themes in the story, but they’re not there for development or social criticism but as backdrops for the tale. I could see the will put into closing the book out with significance and force, but nothing had been sufficiently built up for us to be shocked, satisfied, or wowed with. I am surprised to find (again, with some quick internet searching) that Michael Bishop is a well-known, regarded, and awarded author. Neither the ideas nor the execution sets this above the many generic and most-forgotten books that sit on used bookstore shelves. I am not inspired to read from the author again.
November 15, 2018
*”I think it’s cause my life’s done crept into its brittlest part, like unto them innings when the whole thing could go either way - depending on jes when the crucial bonecrack happen, and to who.”*
This book was a wonderfully pleasant surprise. Baseball and philosophy and mythology seem to mix unexpectedly well together, like chiles and chocolate.
I didn’t like EVERYTHING about this story - it dragged a bit in places and its tone and pacing were inconsistent - but it felt like an inspired little piece of fiction nonetheless. Set in the south during WWII, it details the unlikely summer of a semi-pro ball player named Danny Boles, an Oklahoma high school kid come to play for the Highbridge Hellbenders of the CVL.
He falls in with a memorable and unique cast of characters, foremost of which is his quiet, vegetarian, seven-foot tall roommate Henry “Jumbo” Clerval. Danny thinks on first seeing him: [He looked like] he’d been put together in a meat-packing plant by clumsy blind men”.
Sharp-tongued Phoebe (the team owner’s niece) is every bit the match for poor Daniel:
*”Hey, wait a sec.” I stopped and looked back at Phoebe. “Sorry I called you Ichabod. Nobody likes a name dropped on em like a peed-on blanket.”*
Bishop’s language and characterizations are fascinating and spot-on. He does a tremendous job with the various dialects and figures of speech, lending a feeling of authenticity to the narrative.
It mixes in liberal doses of humor and pathos, triumph and tragedy. I wish there were more books like it.
This book was a wonderfully pleasant surprise. Baseball and philosophy and mythology seem to mix unexpectedly well together, like chiles and chocolate.
I didn’t like EVERYTHING about this story - it dragged a bit in places and its tone and pacing were inconsistent - but it felt like an inspired little piece of fiction nonetheless. Set in the south during WWII, it details the unlikely summer of a semi-pro ball player named Danny Boles, an Oklahoma high school kid come to play for the Highbridge Hellbenders of the CVL.
He falls in with a memorable and unique cast of characters, foremost of which is his quiet, vegetarian, seven-foot tall roommate Henry “Jumbo” Clerval. Danny thinks on first seeing him: [He looked like] he’d been put together in a meat-packing plant by clumsy blind men”.
Sharp-tongued Phoebe (the team owner’s niece) is every bit the match for poor Daniel:
*”Hey, wait a sec.” I stopped and looked back at Phoebe. “Sorry I called you Ichabod. Nobody likes a name dropped on em like a peed-on blanket.”*
Bishop’s language and characterizations are fascinating and spot-on. He does a tremendous job with the various dialects and figures of speech, lending a feeling of authenticity to the narrative.
It mixes in liberal doses of humor and pathos, triumph and tragedy. I wish there were more books like it.
December 22, 2012
I’m a baseball fan who also much admires the writing of Michael Bishop, so have to wonder why it took me until 2012 to read his superb 1994 novel Brittle Innings. Part of the reason has to be that my partner George Zebrowski and I have long had the habit of acquiring books and then slipping them onto bookshelves, as with bottles of wine in a wine cellar, to age a bit before being read. (This method works best with books that have been heavily publicized; you’ll either enjoy and appreciate them all the more after all the hype has died down or else you’ll wonder what all the fuss was about.) In Brittle Innings, Bishop does a masterful job of combining a coming-of-age story with a detailed glimpse of the American South during World War II, some of the most evocative and beautiful writing about baseball I’ve ever seen, and one of the early masterpieces and forerunners of modern science fiction – and that’s about all I should say so as not to spoil this fine novel for those who haven’t yet read it. First published by Bantam, it’s back in print and once again available in trade paperback from Fairwood Press. (This review also appears in my recent post at Ambling Along the Aqueduct, the blog of Aqueduct Press.)
May 21, 2012
I was told that this was the only juxtaposition of a baseball book with science fiction. It turned out to be one of the most odd things that I have ever read. Danny Boles is a seventeen year-old shortstop in the midst of World War II. When he graduates high school early, he's hired to play minor league ball for a Class C team deep in Georgia. When he arrives, he plays dumb, literally, to cover his stammer, anxiety, difficulties dealing with men. He is assigned to room with the gargantuan and reclusive but eloquent and educated first baseman, Jumbo. Jumbo, as odd as he is, helps Danny survive the persecution of the men threatened by his talent. At this point, you may be wondering where the science fiction is. 200 pages in, I was as well. The revelation of what is going on is.... surprising to say the least. The first 300 pages are tough going, but once the book gains traction, with the climax in sight, it becomes compelling. This is not a great book. Bishop seems to be trying to make a deep statement about fathers and sons, but it fails to ring true. It's also not for the faint of heart. There is very disturbing content. In the end, I would say that if you're dying of curiosity, ask me for spoilers. Unless you're truly a prolific reader, this is a waste of time.
March 27, 2015
I've been meaning to read this book for at least ten years, since I read a review by David Pringle raving about it. Spoilers be damned, here comes the punchline: it's a novel about Frankenstein's Monster living well into the twentieth century and playing minor league baseball during WWII. Hank 'Jumbo' Clerval is the monster (and he hits monster home runs) and his sidekick and our protagonist is young Danny Boles, a likeable fellow. To be honest, I'd give this four and a half stars if I could as there were parts toward the end where the whole thing dragged a fraction. It's a long book at 500 pages and the situation, despite being winsomely zany, tends toward disintegration into its disparate parts on occasion. There are a lot of characters and not all of them are especially memorable, but there's at least four or five of interest. Your enjoyment of this book would probably be enhanced if you are an aficionado of baseball, but even if you don't care for the sport this is the oddest and most heartwarming sequel to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein one could care to imagine.
December 15, 2021
When I first read this book some 25 or so years ago, I found it disappointing. I was very much involved in minor league baseball research at the time. Although this was fiction, I was annoyed with teams and leagues that were not, to me, authentic. I had felt the same way about Donald Hays' "The Dixie Association" (1984). Age has brought me to a greater appreciation of both books. (Mr. Hays, the Milledgeville Peacocks is a great name for a team.) 17-year-old Danny Boles is a shortstop with the Highbridge, Ga., Hellbenders in the Chattahoochee Valley League. Discovering his 7-foot roommate's journal, Danny learns that Jumbo Hank Clerval is actually the "monster" created by Dr. Frankenstein. Bishop, emulating Mary Shelley's style, alternately relates the story of the creature's life in the Artic and journey to becoming a baseball player in Georgia. The modern parallel story is set in the 1943 baseball season and Chattahoochee Valley League pennant race. I do not do much re-reading but I'm glad this was an exception. This is a beautifully constructed story.
February 15, 2015
I enjoyed this book although it was a little strange. The main character frustrated me and it seemed that the author focused more on the wrong supporting characters. The sub-plot of the "creation" of Henry Clerval was distracting and, from my perspective, only took away from the main story rather than add to it. Additionally, the wild course of events at the end of the book were a disappointment. Otherwise, the book is a great novel with an entertaining story.
May 15, 2007
The best Frankenstein story I can remember ever reading, as well a great baseball novel. Lots of other cool stuff, too! Sounds like quite a mishmash, but it all comes together poignantly. Bishop perfected "magic realism" before it became the literary buzzword of choice.
January 3, 2017
Un día, un buen amigo llegó con unos libros y me los dejó. Este pasado año hemos hecho eso, yo le presto algunos libros, él me presta algunos suyos y así. Como compartimos gustos, es muy fácil complementar nuestras lecturas con el contenido de nuestras bibliotecas particulares. En el último intercambio, me dejó lo habitual: libros de horror, acerca de cosas del género y también me dejó "Jugadas decisivas", que en la portada de la edición mostraba una estampa de beisbol y ya. En la contraportada decía claramente que se trataba de una novela acerca del beisbol y de la vida. ¡Debo reconocer que me saqué muchísimo de onda! ¿Por qué mi amigo me habría prestado un libro de beisbol cuando sabe que es un deporte que no me gusta nadita? Tampoco ayudó el que no me dijera nada acerca de él, sólo me lo dejó y ya. Lo dejé hasta el final de la lista, no con muchas ganas de afrontar su lectura, pero dado que era una recomendación suya, muy dispuesto a leerlo.
Cuando lo empecé a leer, sorpresivamente me fue gustando mucho. Digo, los primeros capítulos hablaban acerca de la carrera de una joven promesa del deporte, y de las peripecias que afrontaba en su camino para llegar a las ligas mayores. El estilo de Bishop es muy interesante, logra capturar el interés y hacer ameno incluso el tema para el cual no me encontraba muy predispuesto que digamos. Pero de repente, había algunas cosillas aquí y allá que empezaron a despertar mis sospechas ¿en verdad se trataba sólo de una novela acerca del beis y ya? Cuando las sospechas se fueron haciendo más fuertes, ¡llegó la confirmación del verdadero tema del libro! ¡Y qué diablos!Si ya me iba gustando mucho, ¡a partir de ese momento todo fue en crescendo hasta no tener más remedio que devorarlo lo más rápido que pude!
Cuando mi amigo me lo dejó, me dijo que no me podía decir mucho acerca de él para no arruinar la sorpresa, y tenía razón, de haberlo hecho seguro habría acometido la tarea mucho antes, y el balance no habría sido tan satisfactorio como sucedieron las cosas, leyendo a ciegas confiando en el gusto de mi amigo. Por lo mismo, no quiero hablar nada más acerca de lo que va, y aunque es muy sencillo buscar información acerca de él en el internet y develar la sopresa, lo insto a no hacerlo. Más bien recomiendo que se avienten así, a ciegas con él. Si les gusta la literatura fantástica clásica, seguro lo van a disfrutar, y si no, como sea contiene los elementos necesarios para que sea una lectura muy entretenida.
En lo personal, ha sido una buena manera de cerrar mi año pasado y empezar este. Una grata sorpresa de un amigo que le dio precisamente a las cosas que me gustan leer y que la neta, me ha dejado tan buen sabor de boca que aún no consigo borrar la sonrisa.
¡Muy pero muy recomendable!
Cuando lo empecé a leer, sorpresivamente me fue gustando mucho. Digo, los primeros capítulos hablaban acerca de la carrera de una joven promesa del deporte, y de las peripecias que afrontaba en su camino para llegar a las ligas mayores. El estilo de Bishop es muy interesante, logra capturar el interés y hacer ameno incluso el tema para el cual no me encontraba muy predispuesto que digamos. Pero de repente, había algunas cosillas aquí y allá que empezaron a despertar mis sospechas ¿en verdad se trataba sólo de una novela acerca del beis y ya? Cuando las sospechas se fueron haciendo más fuertes, ¡llegó la confirmación del verdadero tema del libro! ¡Y qué diablos!Si ya me iba gustando mucho, ¡a partir de ese momento todo fue en crescendo hasta no tener más remedio que devorarlo lo más rápido que pude!
Cuando mi amigo me lo dejó, me dijo que no me podía decir mucho acerca de él para no arruinar la sorpresa, y tenía razón, de haberlo hecho seguro habría acometido la tarea mucho antes, y el balance no habría sido tan satisfactorio como sucedieron las cosas, leyendo a ciegas confiando en el gusto de mi amigo. Por lo mismo, no quiero hablar nada más acerca de lo que va, y aunque es muy sencillo buscar información acerca de él en el internet y develar la sopresa, lo insto a no hacerlo. Más bien recomiendo que se avienten así, a ciegas con él. Si les gusta la literatura fantástica clásica, seguro lo van a disfrutar, y si no, como sea contiene los elementos necesarios para que sea una lectura muy entretenida.
En lo personal, ha sido una buena manera de cerrar mi año pasado y empezar este. Una grata sorpresa de un amigo que le dio precisamente a las cosas que me gustan leer y que la neta, me ha dejado tan buen sabor de boca que aún no consigo borrar la sonrisa.
¡Muy pero muy recomendable!
March 16, 2019
I am not a baseball fan at all, and I wouldn't normally read a baseball novel. But when a baseball novel also happens to be a sequel to Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN, well, then it's a (pardon the expression) whole new ball game. The story follows Danny Boles, a teenager who, in 1943, is offered a position on a minor league baseball team. On a train ride to Georgia to report for practice, a terrible incident traumatizes him so much that he is left unable to speak (previously he had spoken with a stammer). But he is still able to play baseball and he still joins the team. One of his teammates is a mysterious seven-foot-tall, terribly ugly, but soft-spoken and well-read man named Henry Clerval (though everyone calls him Jumbo). Danny (who is saddled with the nickname Dumbo because of his big ears) and Jumbo become roommates in the team house and strike up a special friendship. The story that unfolds is fascinating, moving and ultimately horrific. I can't imagine that I will soon read a better book than this one. A baseball novel that is also a sequel to FRANKENSTEIN sounds absurd, but Michael Bishop, the author, really hit this one out of the ball park (sorry, couldn't resist). Those in the know will be amused at some of the surnames of various characters in the book -- Polidori, Heggie, Strock, and, of course, Boles.
January 24, 2021
It's 1943 and the nation is at war. With the ranks of professional baseball depleted by the war effort a 17 year-old shortstop, a star at his Oklahoma high school, gets a boy's dream come true when he is recruited into a Minor League farm club for the Philadelphia Phillies. The minor league club is in Georgia and a long way from home. He will need to grow up quickly if he is to succeed.
Brittle Innings has baseball at it's heart but is so much more than that. It's very much a coming of age story as young Danny Boles enters a whole new world utterly alien from the home he left behind. Along the way as he struggles to find his place in it he encounters racism, triumph, tragedy, and even love (the author pulls no punches depicting the conditions of Georgia in 1943).
He also discovers friendship with his roommate, the team's first baseman, an ugly, hulking giant of a man who cracks home runs like nobody's business but is well read and eloquent. Who hides a terrible secret...
You don't have to love baseball to love this book. The writing is excellent and characters unforgettable. It was a sheer joy to read.
Brittle Innings has baseball at it's heart but is so much more than that. It's very much a coming of age story as young Danny Boles enters a whole new world utterly alien from the home he left behind. Along the way as he struggles to find his place in it he encounters racism, triumph, tragedy, and even love (the author pulls no punches depicting the conditions of Georgia in 1943).
He also discovers friendship with his roommate, the team's first baseman, an ugly, hulking giant of a man who cracks home runs like nobody's business but is well read and eloquent. Who hides a terrible secret...
You don't have to love baseball to love this book. The writing is excellent and characters unforgettable. It was a sheer joy to read.
May 28, 2018
This book is superficially about baseball in Georgia [USA] in the 1940s, and is also a sequel to Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein." This sounds like two separate stories but isn't; one unifier is the set of troubled relationships within several father-son/ mother-daughter pairs: that between 'Henry Clerval' and his long-deceased progenitor, Victor Frankenstein; between the contemporaneously narrating character, Danny Boles, and his father; between Phoebe and her mother, Miss LaRaina; and between Mister JayMac and his son, Darius. Sometimes the social tension of an adult is on recovery from past damage from a father (or creator); sometimes the hurt is on-going for large parts of the novel.
The novel is complex; other reviewers have mentioned other facets.
The novel is complex; other reviewers have mentioned other facets.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 1, 2020
4.5 for me.
This is a wonderfully fun read about minor league baseball in the 40's. In the south..
It is super atmospheric, just very cinematic and dramatic and character based.
It is also science fiction!!!!!!
Some of that plot seems to be superfluous but it keeps moving towards a great conclusion..It is comfortably trope filled; coming of age, race, hatred, old south...but it is delightfully so...like hanging with old friends...and their weird uncle you have never met.
Never heard of Michael Bishop...but if you love baseball, this is great
This is a wonderfully fun read about minor league baseball in the 40's. In the south..
It is super atmospheric, just very cinematic and dramatic and character based.
It is also science fiction!!!!!!
Some of that plot seems to be superfluous but it keeps moving towards a great conclusion..It is comfortably trope filled; coming of age, race, hatred, old south...but it is delightfully so...like hanging with old friends...and their weird uncle you have never met.
Never heard of Michael Bishop...but if you love baseball, this is great
January 13, 2023
I'm an odd bird: I like reading about baseball and baseball players more than actually watching real ballgames. Not sure when I acquired this trait, but a book like "Brittle Innings" is just about perfect if you're the kind of person who devoured "Ball Four" and made it through the slow parts of "The Art of Fielding". I'm still not sure what to make of the big reveal in the middle of the book; it didn't exactly work for me, but I still loved the characters and the book by the time I'd finished the last page.
November 9, 2025
A very entertaining historical fiction novel about a minor league baseball team during the WWII era. There is a pretty big reveal about halfway through the book that I don't want to spoil but I will say it is the only aspect of the book that is Science Fiction. The rest reads as straight lit fic.
Knowing the spoiler beforehand doesn't ruin the book in any way (A booktuber spoiled it for me) but I think it's probably more fun to get the reveal through the story.
Knowing the spoiler beforehand doesn't ruin the book in any way (A booktuber spoiled it for me) but I think it's probably more fun to get the reveal through the story.
November 8, 2018
This is a brialliant novel. It has been nearly twenty years since I read it, but I can still recall some scenes. No spoilers, but there are few novels that can posit such an absurd situation, but still come across as totally believable.
March 10, 2019
Rewards are high due to sustained atmospheric and understated writing narrated by a Depression-era traveling baseball player focusing on a quiet mysterious slugger (who some may visualize as a Josh Gibson type) with a surprising background.
Count this as one of the best books you'll ever read.
Count this as one of the best books you'll ever read.
March 2, 2020
Stunning
Baseball and the nature of man, subtle and outrageous; throw in period history, characters and dialogue and you gotta read this.
Baseball and the nature of man, subtle and outrageous; throw in period history, characters and dialogue and you gotta read this.
May 4, 2020
Great read, very atmospheric. You don't see many gothic baseball stories, and speculative fiction is poorer for it.
October 4, 2020
Painfully excellent. I just... wow.
April 25, 2021
I'd recommend reading Mary Shelly's "Frankenstein" before this. These two books seem to share a soul.
November 22, 2021
A coming of age historical novel meets Sling Blade (the movie).
February 24, 2024
What a fun read. Baseball - A little The Natural; a little Shoeless Joe; a Little Frankenstein. A novel about sons and fathers and baseball.
September 30, 2025
Amazing. One of the best books I’ve read this year.
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