I wanted to read The Art of Fielding
after I read a fascinating article in Vanity Fair about getting it published. It had an interesting arc, getting this thing written and then published to much fanfair. A Moby Dick type of story, if you will.
I enjoyed it. It's well written and the characters were fleshed out for me in ways that many writers gloss over. It felt like - without knowing him at all - there was a lot of author Chad Harbach in The Art of Fielding.
Like Moneyball
, it was a book about baseball that wasn't really about baseball. Considering I've never watched a baseball game in my entire life, it's a shock that I enjoyed both. It's about these boys who play college baseball, it's about who they love, including each other. Almost all the characters seemed wiser than their years, like the author looking back instead of what it feels like to be in college and struggling with these things. I didn't feel The Art of Fielding was as epic as others did. I thought it was entertaining, and well-told, and definitely surprising in some ways.
It's a good summer read, in the same way Franzen is a good summer read. Not light, and not beachy, but easy enough to read and quality. These days, that's about all my brain can handle.
What are you reading this spring? You know I love recommendations.
