Synopses & Reviews
Henry Wiggen, hero of
The Southpaw, became the best-known fictional baseball player in America. Now he is back again in
Bang the Drum Slowly, throwing a baseball "with his arm and his brain and his memory and his bluff for the sake of his pocket and his family."
Also available in Bison Book editions are The Southpaw, It Looked Like For Ever, and A Ticket for a Seamstitch, the other three volumes in the Henry Wiggen series.
Review
"[Bang the Drum Slowly] has one of the loveliest last lines in American literature, a regret from Wiggen for the way the players made fun of a slow-witted and now dead teammate: ‘From here on in, I rag nobody. We could all use that on our coat of arms."—George Vecsey, The New York Times George Vecsey
Review
"Bang the Drum Slowly makes wonderful reading—whether one hates baseball or loves it. . . . It is awfully funny in parts, and laughter is rare enough on anybody's bookshelf."—New York Times New York Herald Tribune
Review
"What makes Bang the Drum Slowly unique . . . is Author Harris' mastery of his offbeat scene. . . . The talk is natural, larded with casual humor, earthiness and more than a touch of locker-room obscenity. . . . Harris has measured [the dimensions of his characters] with his heart as well as his eye and ear."—Time New York Times
Review
"Bang the Drum Slowly is more than just another novel about baseball. It is about friendship, about the lives of a group of men as one by one they learn that a teammate is dying. Henry's dead-pan, vernacular account of life in the dugout is refreshing, lively and often uproariously funny. His reactions to his doomed friend are poignant and profoundly touching. Bang the Drum Slowly is a fine bitter-sweet book."—New York Herald Tribune New York Times
About the Author
Mark Harris (1922-2007).