Call number
Genres
Publication
New York: Ballantine Books, 1996
Pages
310
Description
Gideon Clark is a man on a quest. He is out to prove to the world that the indomitable Chicago Cubs traveled to Iowa in the summer of 1908 for an exhibition game against an amateur league, the Iowa Baseball Confederacy. But a simple game somehow turned into a titanic battle of more than two thousand innings, and Gideon Clark struggles to set the record straight on this infamous game that no-one else believes ever happened.
Awards
CASEY Award (Finalist — 1986)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1986
Physical description
310 p.; 7.7 inches
ISBN
0345410246 / 9780345410245
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User reviews
LibraryThing member Othemts
Shoeless Joe is more famous and popular, but I love this surreal novel which involves time travel, mystic visions, and a 40-day baseball game (with a stone angel in the outfield!).
LibraryThing member homan9118
I liked it, but to an extent. It had it's moments where it shined. One moment in particular involved a minister preaching out loud in the middle of a baseball game, in the middle of a bad storm. Towards the end of the book though the suspension of belief just got to be too much. Kinsella took a
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great idea and almost ruined it, in my opinion. Show Less
LibraryThing member jonwwil
This book had its moments. Being a baseball lover, I really enjoyed some of the descriptions of and digressions on the game. And I love the depiction of times when baseball was truly America's pastime, discussed on street corners and on porches at dusk. I love football and basketball too, but
That said, I thought this book got a little tedious. Surreality is one thing, but a 2164-inning baseball game that goes on for forty days strained my patience. I also thought that some plot elements, particularly the relationship between Gideon and Sarah, were a little goofy and unbelievable. I think the story was interesting, but not necessarily executed as well as it could have been.
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there's a romantic element to baseball that other sports don't have, an element that Kinsella does a nice job of capturing.That said, I thought this book got a little tedious. Surreality is one thing, but a 2164-inning baseball game that goes on for forty days strained my patience. I also thought that some plot elements, particularly the relationship between Gideon and Sarah, were a little goofy and unbelievable. I think the story was interesting, but not necessarily executed as well as it could have been.
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LibraryThing member chrisod
A 2000 inning long baseball game.....check. Time travel......check. Native American mythology.....check. A slightly odd church that lives life 12 hours offset from the rest of the world....check. Finding the love of your life. Again. Or previously....check Learning that getting what you’ve always
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wanted doesn’t necessarily solve your problems....priceless? This is just a fantastic book. I finished it last night and I’m ready to re-read it starting today. Kinsella, who wrote “Shoeless Joe,” which was the basis for the movie Field of Dreams, gives us another fantastical story of magic, love, and life wrapped around the mythology of baseball, and once again set in a Midwestern corn field. Show Less
LibraryThing member agnesmack
The Iowa Baseball Confederacy was about baseball and took place in Iowa, both pros in my world. However, it also involved a lot of magic and science fiction bullshit, which is a definite con.
The story follows a man whose father has passed on a bunch of information about this supposed baseball
Eventually he travels through this wrinkle in time, with his best friend, and they end up in Big Inning, Iowa, in 1908. He's finally able to see "The Game," yet finds that he must sacrifice an awful lot in order to do so.
This book was pleasant to read, though there wasn't much character development. I had the impression that it was written for a young adult audience, though I believe that had more to do with the author's ability, and not his intentions.
In summation : I enjoyed reading this book, despite the fact that I normally dislike magic/SciFi and am typically anti non-character driven stories. There are about a million people I would recommend it to, though I think you'd have to be a Cubs fan, or at least a baseball fan, to really enjoy it.
The story follows a man whose father has passed on a bunch of information about this supposed baseball
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league that existed and beat the 1908 Chicago Cubs (one of the best baseball teams in history). The problem is that no one but this man and his father believe it exists. The son ends up losing his wife and family, so obsessed is he with proving that the league existed.Eventually he travels through this wrinkle in time, with his best friend, and they end up in Big Inning, Iowa, in 1908. He's finally able to see "The Game," yet finds that he must sacrifice an awful lot in order to do so.
This book was pleasant to read, though there wasn't much character development. I had the impression that it was written for a young adult audience, though I believe that had more to do with the author's ability, and not his intentions.
In summation : I enjoyed reading this book, despite the fact that I normally dislike magic/SciFi and am typically anti non-character driven stories. There are about a million people I would recommend it to, though I think you'd have to be a Cubs fan, or at least a baseball fan, to really enjoy it.
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LibraryThing member Raven9167
I received this book ages ago as a gift, but I hadn't gotten around to reading it until now, which is somewhat surprising since it's baseball and fiction (a dynamite combination for me). I think part of my hesitancy was that it was by the same author who wrote the book Shoeless Joe, upon which
Where to start: this book involves Leonardo Da Vinci, an irritable little person, an Indian who has been waiting centuries for the return of his wife, time travel, a flood of epic proportions, a church that does everything 12 hours earlier/later than the rest of the world does, an angel statue playing as a right fielder, and the complete disappearance of an entire baseball league. Oh, and a baseball game that lasts in excess of 2000 innings. Yeah, like I said, definitely strange. But odd as it might be, the book's message that the pursuit of obsession may be a fruitless one and the road we think we want to travel may in fact be quite different than we imagined comes shining through despite the odd series of events. I think what I enjoyed most was the humor of it and that at no point did the strangeness feel out of place. There isn't much character development here really, which is usually something I insist on, but the plot here is so rich that I will excuse it.
All in all, a wonderful story about myth-making and baseball. My only complaint resides with the ending, which is not clear at all unfortunately. A tip of my cap to Kinsella, as this novel could have completely flown off the handle into "completely ridiculous" territory, and at times very nearly did, but he managed to control it.
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Field of Dreams is based. I may be alone in this among baseball fans, but I never cared much for Field of Dreams because to me it was just too much of a head trip. But I have to admit now, having read The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, that it is possible that I just did not enjoy Field of Dreams because of the medium and that perhaps Kinsella's books are not meant to be filmed, because this was a pleasure to read although thoroughly more strange than Field of Dreams ever was.Where to start: this book involves Leonardo Da Vinci, an irritable little person, an Indian who has been waiting centuries for the return of his wife, time travel, a flood of epic proportions, a church that does everything 12 hours earlier/later than the rest of the world does, an angel statue playing as a right fielder, and the complete disappearance of an entire baseball league. Oh, and a baseball game that lasts in excess of 2000 innings. Yeah, like I said, definitely strange. But odd as it might be, the book's message that the pursuit of obsession may be a fruitless one and the road we think we want to travel may in fact be quite different than we imagined comes shining through despite the odd series of events. I think what I enjoyed most was the humor of it and that at no point did the strangeness feel out of place. There isn't much character development here really, which is usually something I insist on, but the plot here is so rich that I will excuse it.
All in all, a wonderful story about myth-making and baseball. My only complaint resides with the ending, which is not clear at all unfortunately. A tip of my cap to Kinsella, as this novel could have completely flown off the handle into "completely ridiculous" territory, and at times very nearly did, but he managed to control it.
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LibraryThing member GraceZ
What a fun book! Also a bit confusing, however. I really loved all of the baseball + time travel + historical figures (Teddy Roosevelt, Leonardo da Vinci). But some of the other characters, such as Sunny, bothered me, and I didn't get the thing about Sarah getting stuck. The ending kind of lost me.
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Still, left me feeling pretty happy with it. Show Less