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4 out of 5
by
Laura
from
Boston, MA | Mar 2, 2009
Like a lot of kids who have a strat-o-matic game hidden under the bed, Roy McGuire likes to analyze things with statistics. They offer a tidy way to explain away some of life’s little anomalies. Take the case of Walt Dropo, who had twelve hits in twelve plate appearances in 1952. That’s a major league record. You never, ever expect a batter to have twelve hits in twelve consecutive plate appearances. But as Roy explains it,
The odds of that are like one in two million, but there’s been way more than two millions tries, if you think about all the baseball players and all the games they ever played in, so it had to happen eventually. Dropo was just the guy who did it. (pg. 7)
So while it may surprise everyone else, it’s no surprise to Roy that it has rained in Moundville every single day for the last twenty-two years. It’s just like Walt Dropo. With all the cities in the world, and all the rainy days in history, someday there was bound to be a place where it rained every day for twenty-two straight years. It just so happens that Moundville is that place. It’s statistics.
Of course, very few things in life can really be explained away so easily. And like in so many great books about baseball, a hint of magic lingers around the baseball game between Moundville and rival Sinister Bend that was rained out on the Fourth of July twenty-two years ago. When the rain suddenly stops, twenty-two years later to the day, a reply of that legendary baseball game becomes inevitable.
Arriving home from baseball camp, Roy is surprised to find a strange boy in his home. His name is Sturgis, and it turns out that he is Roy’s new foster brother. And while they develop a bond as foster brothers, they are also forging a different bond - that of a pitcher and a catcher. The two boys have a complicated relationship, that can swing quickly from companionship to antagonism - which is exactly what you might expect when two young teenage boys are suddenly thrown into a house together. But things are complicated further as the boys untangle their histories, which are more intertwined than it first appears.
The trio of men who live in the McGuire household are a joy to read about. Roy’s dad is a treat from his kitchen adventures - spam manicotti one night, green bean and water chestnut chili the next - to his can-do attitude. He’s the kind of guy who starts a water-redistribution business when the rains start, and switches right over to landscaping when they stop again. He is also a very sweet father, and you can see his influence in Roy’s steady leadership and dry sense of humor. Sturgis is tougher to sum up. He probably does it best himself, when the rain finally stops. Roy urges Sturgis to join him outside in the sunshine:
‘Didn’t you say yourself that it would probably start up again? What if it’s the only nice day for the next twenty-two years?’
‘There’s a short story like that by Ray Bradbury,’ he says. ‘It takes place on a planet where the sun only comes out for a few hours every seven years. One kid spends the whole day stuffed in a closet.’
‘And you want to be that kid?’
‘Yeah. I always identified with that kid.’ (pg. 63)
Sturgis has had a tough life, and fitting in is not something that comes easily to him. But while he is certainly moody and sometimes aggressive, he is also hard-working, thoughtful, and extremely talented. While the plot of the book is built on some wonderful magic, the characters feel very real.
Initially when I found out that the nasty rival team was from a traditionally Sioux town, and that the town had the very big-bad-guys name of “Sinister Bend,” I was worried about the portrayal of Native American characters in the book. But I’m pleased to say that those worries were unfounded - players on both sides of the rivalry were complex both in their character and in their relationships with each other. No character is without his or her flaws - even Roy’s incredibly kind and optimistic dad makes his mistakes - but even the most supremely flawed characters in this book are sympathetically human. And the relationship between the citizens of Moundville and Sinister Bend are woven together in much more complicated ways than Roy, or the reader, realizes.
3 people found this review helpful
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5 out of 5
by
Erin
from
Hyannis, MA | Aug 18, 2008
Loved it! Great characters, great baseball moments, a touch of whimsy, and a fabulous ending. HOLES meets THE NATURAL--only better!
Comes out in April 2009. Don't miss this one!
2 people found this review helpful
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5 out of 5
by
SpeedReader (Angela)
from
Salt Lake City, UT | Nov 2, 2008
Wow! I loved this book! The last 1/3 especially had me glued to the pages while I waited to find out how it ended. This is a great book for boys and girls alike, but oh how I wish that I had a son to share this book with! My nephews will have to do ... although the oldest is only 4 1/2.
The characters in this book were great! The kids acted just the way I would expect kids to act. Roy's dad is fabulous with his crazy dinners and "When Life Hands You Lemons, Make Lemonade" attitude. Roy is just what I would expect of a 12-year-old boy who thinks that baseball is life (I knew several of those boys when I was growing up). And Sturgis is intriguing. I just didn't really get him, who he was or what his story is, so it was interesting to see all those little pieces come to life throughout the book. My favorite character is probably a small Cuban boy whose only English words are his name and "Search Me" that all the kids nickname "Google".
MUDVILLE is a grand slam with it's story of baseball, life lessons, friendship and mystery. (Haha! How can I review a sports book with a sports metaphor thrown in somewhere??)
Go get your copy next week when the book is released on Tues, Feb 24th!
1 people found this review helpful
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4 out of 5
by
Brandy
from
Cambridge, MA | Jun 8, 2008
It's a rare book that makes me want to play baseball. This book really captures everything about the game--the author (hi Kurtis) clearly loves the game, and it infuses every bit of every character. The rivalries, the importance of the game to this sodden town, the cultural and personal heritages caught up with baseball... every page of this book is a mash note to the sport, and I mean that in a good way.
It's not all baseball, though--there's a family story here, brotherhood and parents and general familial relationships to each other. It could be very sappy, but none of the characters are perfect--they're all flawed in their individual ways, giving even the characters with little screen time or deep importance to the plot dimension and earning them sympathy. It would be easy to give some of these characters no redeeming qualities, but Scaletta tempers the bad and/or neglectful behaviors with hints that these parents do love their children--they just can't be good parents, for whatever reason. Their flaws make them human.
Full disclosure: Kurtis is someone I'm proud and honored to call my friend, but I'd say these things even if he weren't. Because this is a sports book that interested me, even though I, the terminally graceless and uncoordinated, have no interest in sports, particularly baseball. I still don't fully understand in words what makes the game so great--but on a gut level, I think I understand it perfectly.
1 people found this review helpful
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4 out of 5
by
Kassie
from
Minneapolis, MN | Feb 24, 2009
I read the book in a handful of hours and really liked it. Besides being about baseball and brothers, there are themes on race, alcoholism, and absent parents. The main characters have real world flaws and troubles, which I really liked. Kurtis does a good job giving the characters depth and their troubles relevant and real.
1 people found this review helpful