I’ve been trying so hard to stay away from my phone whilst in bed, so books it has been lately, and I’m happy to report on a couple more beauties.
The Art of Fielding is this seasons acclaimed “World According to Garp” wonder, and my ever alert wife made sure I knew it had received a 5 tick review on 3RRR’s weekly show, but also mentioned the “flawed baseballer” theme and I was sold. I’m not really going to recommend it though. I went through a bunch of rural and small town America fiction 10 years ago, starting with Annie Proulx, Richard Ford and Kent Haruf and gradually realised that there was a sentimentality to much of it that I could no longer stand. Even after a 3 or 4 year break with U.S fiction, I battled with it in this book too. The sparse styles of other writers hold more appeal now.
Still, it is engaging and a big page turner with some strong characters. Compared to other things I’ve been reading, it just comes across as light and forgettable. 3 stars.