The Iowa Baseball Confederacy

Rating:
Summary: Excellent novel, what else would you expect from Kinsella?
Review: After reading "Shoeless Joe" my craving for W.P. Kinsella needed to be taken care of. When I picked up "The Iowa Baseball Confederacies" I did not expect to read it entirely in one day. But Kinsella has that kind of effect on a reader. He intertwines fiction with fact, reality with fantasy. He develops characters so well that you feel their pain when things don't go their way, and you share in their joy when things do. The story of Gideon Clarke and his obsession is a page turner for anyone who enjoys fantasy novels, and a healthy knowledge of baseball wouldn't hurt early. His use of the greatest double play tandem in baseball history, Tinkers-Evers-Chance, lets the reader associate reality with Kinsella's fantasy world. The story of the Iowa Baseball Confederacy and their 40 day baseball game versus the eventual World Champion Cubs of 1908 is a book I strongly reccommend

Rating:
Summary: Didn't please me as much as I had hoped
Review: After reading the summary on the back of this book in the bookstore, I thought I would find it really interesting, considering I love baseball and I am always open to fantasy elements in stories. I enjoyed the premise of it: a man trying to prove that an epic game really did take place so long ago. However, when the man actually travels back in time to be at that game, I started to lose interest in the story. I don't think I can really pin down what I found wrong with it; I suppose I just would have written it a different way, that's all.

Rating:
Summary: Magic irrealism
Review: Be sure you like baseball before you read this book: you should be able to stomach a phrase like "Baseball is the only thing white man has done right". Interresting in its treatment of the larger themes: obsession, love; but a bit of a railroaded story. Elements seem to have been thrown together haphazardly, without much concern for continuity in the novel. Read it if you really love baseball, but if you don't, Shoeless Joe is far, far better.

Rating:
Summary: Baseball Fever
Review: It normally takes me a month or more to finish a book due to time constraints and a busy schedule, but I cruised through this one in about a week. I don't want to give anything away so I won't speak of plot summary. If you like baseball, magic, and craziness, this book is for you.

This was my first Kinsella book. I bought Shoeless Joe half way through and I can't wait to read it. Then, I will finally break down and see "Field of Dreams".

Rating:
Summary: Very Disappointed
Review: Its pretty difficult to put this book in a genre. Sports novel? There's a 2,000 inning game in here. Mythology? The characters seem plenty real to me. Lets just say that it belongs in the genre of books that defy classification.
I'm not sure whats so great about this book. I guess its just the fact that when Kinsella says there was this totally fantastic event, you believe him. Who knows why? The man is an amazing writer, and this proves it. By the way, if you are a teacher by all means, assign this book to your class instead of the tired old 19th century british class warfare novel.

Rating:
Summary: The Iowa Baseball Confederacy
Review: This was one of the funnest (is that a word?) books I've ever read. I rarely find a book that builds a story like this one. Kinsella has a gift of weaving reality and fantasy back and forth until you aren't sure what is or isn't possible. The story begins very much rooted in reality then slowly creeps into a fantasy world where baseball is no longer just a game, but quite literally becomes a religion, complete with choirs and lighting bolts from heaven. I actually noticed my heart beating faster as the games intensity built, I think it was around the 1700th inning. That's right 1700th. Read this book if you love baseball. Read this book if you don't, you won't be disapointed.

Rating:
Summary: Another Classic Baseball Novel
Review: W.P. Kinsella is one of my all-time favorite writers, and this is one of his better novels. If you've seen the movie, "Field of Dreams," or read his book "Shoeless Joe," which was the basis for the movie, you know what to expect from Kinsella.

His stories of baseball and magic are written for readers with vivid imaginations. This is a story of a researcher looking for proof of an old league that nobody else can remember. He somehow ends up at a never-ending exhibition game between the 1908 Cubs and the all-stars from this Iowa league.

As usual with Kinsella, the book is about a lot more than baseball. If you're the type of reader who can accept a story that seems totally unbelievbale, and if you like baseball, you should try this one. If you like it, he's written quite a few other books and I haven't found a bad one yet.

Rating:
Summary: Mind-boggling
Review: What's so mind-boggling is the drugs that Kinsella must have been smoking in order to come up with this one. Now read this description of the book:
An albino, like his dead father, is convinced that a 3000 inning game took place 80-some years ago between the Chicago Cubs and the Iowa baseball Confederacy All-stars. The albino is somehow able to go back in time and witness the game (as a matter of fact the local hicks use him as a good-luck charm and rub his head before stepping to the plate, allowing him to remain in the dugout) in all its glory. Then Teddy Roosevelt shows up and takesa few swings, telling the pitcher not to patronize him after throwing an easy pitch, and then making a cheap pun about the bat being a "big stick." Soon after that Leonardo DaVinci showed up in a balloon and watches a few innings. Shortly thereafter a giant flood occurs and some of the players spontaeneouly throw themselves in the waters. To fill the vacancies, a statue of an angel plays in the outfield.

There, I think I've covered all the bases, so to speak. Oh, I forgot the Native America named "Drifting Away" who is messing with the reality of this county and eventually plays in the game too.

Look, I don't like to be so completely negative, but the book was ludicrous. To make matters worse, it throws in a fairly gratuitous love interest who is the spitting image of the Albino protagonist's mother (kinda Fruedian) and more seemingly random things than could possibly be mentioned in this review. And bear in mind, reading these things, that I'm a baseball fan.
3/10