Art of Fielding

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Average customer rating 4.7 (23 comments)

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College is an interesting time in one’s life. It is the quintessential crossroad for an individual - a concrete dividing line that few of life’s crossroads ever have. At the beginning, one’s life dreams are still unlimited and entirely possible. As a student creeps closer to his graduation date, those options and dreams become limited, sometimes severely, so that by the time of graduation the leap from the possible to the practicality of adulthood is a truly terrifying experience. Henry, Owen, and Mike are all at this essential crossroad and must make that leap into the unknown, abandoning long-cherished plans or miraculously enacting their wildest dreams. Yet college is not the only major crossroad in life’s journey; life is full of those proverbial forks in the road. Pella and Quert both face their own personal crossroad, not knowing which path will lead them in the direction they truly need, let alone desire. Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding blends the lives of each of these characters and their own travails with their individual crossroads, deftly detailing the emotional toil such decisions require and establishing strong connections between characters and reader. Each of the main characters in The Art of Fielding is lost in some fashion, and it is not until they stop fighting the paths down which fate wants to take them where they finally find what they need. During their individual journeys, one is swept up in their mini tragedies, the dramas that surrounds them, their highs, and their unspeakable lows. Mr. Harbach masterfully recreates the same feelings within a reader, dredging up all the pain and anguish associated with growing up that a reader once felt at his or her own childhood crossroad. Remarkably, he also manages to keep the drama realistic and utterly engaging. The plot moves swiftly, but there is a depth of exposition that enables a reader to empathize with and understand each of the characters. The story never feels overly lengthy and in need of severe edits; rather each scene develops with an attention to detail that enhances rather than bores. It is the type of sweeping drama that so rarely graces the bookstores these days with its thorough descriptions, large cast of characters, and ability to capture and hold a reader’s attention throughout each one of its 500+ pages. While The Art of Fielding is more than a novel about baseball, the sport does play an intricate role in the plot, and knowing something about the sport and even liking the game will prove beneficial in some of the more detailed baseball scenes. Interestingly, while much of the locker room antics - the careful pre- and post-game rituals, the superstitions, the banter, the speeches - happen in almost every sport, there are very few team sports in which one player’s mistake is obvious to player, team, and observers alike and can cost a team the entire game. Baseball is as much a team sport as it is a completely individual sport, and Henry’s struggles are uniquely associated with the game of baseball. The understanding of baseball’s dichotomy will enhance a reader’s understanding of and appreciation for Henry’s and Mike’s problems. Baseball as a metaphor for life - it might not be the first comparison that would occur to a person, but, if one understands the finesse, the physics, the physicality, and the mental aspects of the game, it rings surprisingly true. The Art of Fielding crosses the boundary of being a baseball novel to being a novel about life that happens to occur to baseball players by subtly highlighting the similarities and the aptness of the metaphor. A reader internalizes each of the characters’ pain and suffering because one can always draw upon similar, equally difficult, and emotional experiences. Between the brutish but generous-to-a-fault Mike, delicate Henry, suave Owen, troubled Pella, and grave Quert, a reader has a myriad of experiences upon which to reflect and relate, and a reader will do just that. Mr. Harbach, with his skillful turns of phrase, makes it too easy for a reader to empathize with each of the characters, and the result is a poignant, beautifully simple novel about the pain of growing older and wiser to which everyone can relate.

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Few books depict college life in such an honest way and the restraint Harbach shows in not over glamorizing these formative years is admirable. This heart breaking story of a college athlete who psyches himself out is engrossing for baseball fans (and non-fans alike)! The dynamic between the other characters is masterfully conceived as well. Looking forward to more from Harbach!

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A well-written and engrossing novel.

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Baseball, small liberal arts college, midwest, family drama and intrigue...what could be better?

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This book was amazing! Will stay with me a very long time. I have never read anyone else who described baseball from the player's perspective so well.

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Baseball and writing are both criticized as long, laborious exercises. Their similarities seem more clear thanks to this stunning first novel by Chad Harbach. As Harbach describes the concentration, precision and attention that his protagonist, Henry, lends to the sport, it is easier to see how he himself could have spent a decade crafting the personalities and strangling life courses that wind together at a small Midwestern liberal arts school. Beautiful debut.

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A nearly perfect novel that will take its place among the best novels of the post-modern era

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Everything you want is here: friendship, love, sex, the meaning of life...and baseball.

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Just a fantastic book...by the end of chapter five I actually had chills! Superb storytelling, with so many different angles that I think just about anyone could find something here to love. The Art of Fielding is the first book I've read in years that I would consider re-reading simply for the sheer pleasure of experiencing the story all over again. This one is definitely deserving of a Puddly Award!

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This is the book that I enjoyed the most in 2011!

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best book of 2011. baseball, yes. gay, yes. coming of age, yes. more, yes. and even more? definitely.

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The rare coming of age novel that combines a racing plot and multiple truly-formed characters with an erudite but not overly stuffy tone. Maybe I'm biased because I played sports at a small Division III college -- giving the story and its setting particular resonance -- but I find it hard to believe that any fan of the American novel will fail to be swayed by the winning prose. It has a couple of groaning plot twists and a predictable moment or two, but I must say that I am eagerly awaiting the next offering by Mr. Harbach. Alongside Philipp Meyer's American Rust, it is one of the great debuts of recent years.

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Best book of 2011! Well-drawn characters and a terrific story. Couldn't put it down.

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A coming of age novel that delights, informs, and inspires reflection. I have recommended this book to anyone who will listen. Yes, it's about baseball and about going away to college, but it is the story that many of us face in life: acceptance of the imperfect.

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I love baseball, and love to read a good book. This book is so intelligently written that I couldn't put it down. My time is never wasted on such a wonderfully told story. What a fantastic debut by the author!

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Harbach takes so many different varieties of solid Americana, both literary and mainstream, from Melville and Moby Dick and Emerson to baseball's mythology, mysticism and moneyball, and through an act of sorcery creates a gorgeously evocative portrait of old fashion yearning. The first third is pure field of dreams stuff, followed by a gut-wrenching fall from grace. There are moments when you seem to know this story too well, but the characters are so spellbinding that you will want to forgive some of the more predictable elements of this most American of stories.

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I found the characters in this story by Chad Harbach compelling and interesting. The story itself was engrossing and I found it difficult to put the book down because I wanted to find out what happened next. You don't have to be a baseball fan to appreciate this book but it doesn't hurt.

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"The Art of Fielding" is a very well-written first novel about a group of friends as Westish College---a small, liberal-arts university on the East Coast. When you start to read the book, you think that it is primarily going to be a story about Henry--a poor boy who takes advantage of his prodigious baseball skills and makes it to the big leagues. Yes, there is some of that, although he surely takes a circuitous route to get there. But the book is in truth about much more than Henry. You get a good dose of father-daughter relationship, professor-student, boyfriend-girlfriend, and older friend-younger mentee sprinkled throughout the story. I wouldn't be runing anything by saying that the story takes a big turn when Henry misfires on a throw to 1st Base---you can read that in the liner notes. I don't necessarily agree though that the "throw" is the essence of the book. To me, this is a story of living vicariously through others. How Mike knows he doesn't have what it takes to make it so he tries to live his baseball dream through Henry. How Pella to some extent comes back from an early mistake in life and shows that you can in fact start again. How Henry reaches the depths of depths and by the end of the book is surprised at what fate has in store for him. And finally, how Owen embraces his individuality but ends up losing the person he cares about the most. "The Art of Fielding" in my opinion will go down as one of the Top Ten Books of 2011. Definitely in the NY Times 100 Best Books of 2011 but I think it has enough to crack the top 10. Incredibly good for a first novel. You will not be able to put it down.

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I CARED about these characters. This book pulled me out of a deep depression due to health issues because I was so worried about Henry, Owen, Mike, Pella, and her father. There was plenty of baseball, obviously, but the focus was on feelings, reactions, making choices that can change lives. What a joy it was to be immersed in a world that totally sucked me in and made me forget what I was going through. I can't wait to see what Chad Harbach writes next.

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The Art of Fielding is much more than a novel about baseball. In fact, two of the most interesting characters are not baseball characters, at all. The brilliance of the novel is that Harbach uses a wholly original story about baseball to explore many other themes -- love, struggle, temptation, redemption. Some of my favorite scenes took place far from the baseball diamond. And yet, if you are more of a sports fan than a literature lover, there is still much to love in Harbach's novel. A great debut!

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An amazing debut novel. I am not even a baseball or sports fan and yet really enjoyed every chapter. Reminded me of early John Irving novels. Highly recommended.

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Clear your calendar, click off your computer, settle into the multitude of reading delights provided by the 500-plus pages of this masterful debut novel. It is indeed one of the great baseball novels, as reviewers have said, but it is not just a book for seamheads. This is a marvelous campus novel, a coming-of-age novel, a novel of love and redemption in many forms. It envelops you in its fictional world, grabs hold, doesn't let go during its unpredictable ebb and flow. Chad Harbach does what Jonathan Franzen is supposed to do, but better. "The Art of Fielding" will become a familiar title when awards are announced for the best books of 2011.

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"The Art of Fielding" by Chad Harbach, though just a hair too long, is a joyous read, with memorable characters and one doesn't even have to understand baseball to be taken to the field where a short stop crouches. The character of Henry is as fully drawn as John Irving's Owen Meany. If you could hear Owen Meany's voice in "A Prayer for Owen Meany" - you will visualize Henry's mitt sweep the field in front of him and the power of his throw to first base. Just a wonderful American novel.