W.P. Kinsella
1982
Grade: C+
It is very difficult to divorce this work from the more famous film that is based upon it, but much of what has made the movie so enduring is certainly original here. Ray Kinsella is certainly an ardent apostle in the church of baseball, and his love of the sport bleeds through on every single page. The beautiful language that is used really draws the reader in and helps, if not compels, him or her to share in what Ray finds so magical about the legacy and adventure of the sport. The novel itself has a dreamy quality that allows it to linger pleasantly yet sometimes uncomfortably as you wonder if you can ever love something as much as Ray Kinsella loves baseball.
One of the standout characters of the entry is certainly Archibald “Moonlight” Graham who, like J.D. Salinger, is based upon a real person. This further blends the reality and fiction of the novel in the same way that the plot does, giving the whole thing the intoxicating possibility of being absolutely true. This is the kind of layering that had me furiously wondering if Salinger really did give that interview about wanting to play at the Polo Grounds before they were demolished, is there really some connection between Salinger’s characters and Kinsella’s family, and did “Moonlight” Graham really never get a major league at bat in his singular appearance? The more truth I found the deeper into the narrative I was drawn until, right before beginning to nurture the faintest glimmer of hope that the greats of ages past were in fact living their dream somewhere in an Iowa cornfield, I was confronted with the fact that at the time of the novel’s publication in 1982, Salinger had indeed receded from public life but, rather than disappearing into the great unknown with Shoeless Joe Jackson, lived until 2010. The novel had lied. But Kinsella, in a beautiful and artful way, was prepared for this too in the form of the character Eddie Scissons.
Eddie presents himself as the oldest living Cub which turns out to be a complete fabrication. However, even this fabrication, repeated and in a sense relived, for decades finds a way through the magic of the novel to become true, and once it is true it has always been true. Ray posits, after Eddie’s death, that the Baseball Encyclopedia would somehow have been transformed to mirror Eddie’s dream of himself. The implications of this idea just bounce around the room in the way that big ideas always do, and add so much impact to the work as a whole which might otherwise be relegated to sentimentality.
If the novel shines because of its love for baseball, it suffers some for the lengths to which it goes to show how much it dislikes things. Cities, corporations, modernity, and religion become the antagonist to his righteous agrarian family and a baseball undefiled by big business. There is no small amount of irony as he laments the loss of the small family farm to the faceless, computer-controlled, corporate farms as a return to the reign of the land barons. In bemoaning the death of the small family farm, he forgets that whoever was there before was certainly just as sad to see their way of life disappear.
This irony is doubly present in his treatment of the religious. Kinsella focuses his criticism on characters like Annie’s mother and Eddie’s estranged daughters, and he is quick to point out when their religion supersedes their humanity. This is particularly funny coming from a character who ultimately threatens a man with a gun over the bleachers in his corn field.
Though in the main the plot is strong, I’m not sure I understand the purpose of Ray having a twin brother. With the exception of having another talking point with which to entice Salinger and his role as a carnival barker in the conclusion of the novel, I don’t see what his value was to the work. There are dozens of moments where the similarities between the brothers are boldly highlighted but to no seeming purpose. I thought the comparison between the freak show and Ray’s field was a compelling one. However, to make Richard a twin, who coincidentally is involved with a woman that shares a name with Ray’s wife, amounted to nothing in the end. I was thinking that the goal was to show the difference between the believer (Ray) and the cynic (Richard), but as Richard eventually does experience the magic of the field, and without any kind of conversion, it all fell sort of flat.
The novel is beautifully and lovingly written, and I was happy to find that many of the qualities that make the film so endearing find their origin here. The prose is transportative and genuine even if Kinsella hits the nail once or twice after its been driven fully. With the exception of a gratuitous moment or two, the novel flows well in an intentional, if dreamy, way and leaves the reader wondering if they are doing as much for their dreams as Ray Kinsella did for his. A charming and heartwarming story.
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