The prominent positioning of baseball in the title and storyline might lead non-sports-oriented (is that a word?) readers to question if this novel is for them. He's a good reference point for Harbach “kind of like Franzen” would describe Harbach well. If you like austere, well-constructed novels, you'll like The Art of Fielding. The first 460 pages are more like a clinic on how to write well. The novel's end is serene and satisfying. Only in the last fifty pages does he passionately let loose. The 'gay guys discovering each other' subplot was trite and predictable. His writing is good, clean, and high-quality but, unfortunately, occasionally reads sterile. Harbach writes in a controlled, professional writer's workshop manner about 80% of the time. Water (specifically Lake Michigan) and Moby Dick recur as themes that, I would bet, a grad student somewhere is analyzing in a paper right now. The five meet, collaborate, have sex, become codependent (maybe.I'm not sure what “codependent” means) and evolve over the course of a couple years on the campus of a small northeastern Wisconsin college. The storyline revolves around five characters and readers shouldn't be misled into thinking, as the inside cover description seems to imply, that Henry is the star and the four other characters lesser lights. So while I can recommend the novel, with reservations, I can't make the four star leap. You know that weird paradox you feel when you like a book but kind of wish it was over? I felt that around, oh, page 350 of The Art of Fielding. Written with boundless intelligence and filled with the tenderness of youth, The Art of Fielding is an expansive, warmhearted novel about ambition and its limits, about family and friendship and love, and about commitment - to oneself and to others.Ĭhad Harbach's The Art of Fielding is 2/3rds strong but maybe 100 pages too long. In the process they forge new bonds, and help one another find their true paths. And Pella Affenlight, Guert's daughter, returns to Westish after escaping an ill-fated marriage, determined to start a new life.Īs the season counts down to its climactic final game, these five are forced to confront their deepest hopes, anxieties, and secrets. Mike Schwartz, the Harpooners' team captain and Henry's best friend, realizes he has guided Henry's career at the expense of his own. Owen Dunne, Henry's gay roommate and teammate, becomes caught up in a dangerous affair. College president Guert Affenlight, a longtime bachelor, has fallen unexpectedly and helplessly in love.

Henry's fight against self-doubt threatens to ruin his future. But when a routine throw goes disastrously off course, the fates of five people are upended.

At Westish College, a small school on the shore of Lake Michigan, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big league stardom.

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach