Rating: 
Summary: One the best sports novels
Review: I strongly recommend people who are into sports to read this novel because the novel is a very easy read and the novel relates to the sports world of today despite the novel being published nearly fifty years ago. The Natural, which is about a baseball player, named Roy Hobbs who was a nobody that turns into a bona fide star, is a novel that's suitable anywhere from a pre-teen to an adult. The novel has rivalries, women, slumps, losing streaks, and corruption, just to name a few. It has a shocking ending that doesn't end well for Roy Hobbs. Most importantly, The Natural has a great flow and the novel keeps the reader's attention. For the people that aren't into sports or into baseball in particular, you will still find this book easy to read and enjoyable. It's one of the better sports novels written in the 20th century.
Rating: 
Summary: The book and Roy Hobbs -- Both also rans
Review: If you want to read a well written book, this one is for you. If you want to read a good story, skip it. The author toys with the reader (or allows the reader to fool themselves) by making you think this is going to be a boy is good, bad thing happens, boy turns bad, man redeams himself story. The best line from the book that sums up the book and Roy Hobbs is "Say it ain't true, Roy". When you finish the last five pages you will be thinking the same thing.
Rating: 
Summary: Not rags-to-riches
Review: It always intrigues me that folks insist on comparing a novel to the movie version that a novel spawns, when in fact they have almost nothing to do with one another. I have never seen the Robert Redford movie version of this book, but I can pretty much guess that the Roy Hobbs as portrayed by Redford is nothing like the shallow, rather selfish, self-centered character in the book.The only other Malamud book I had read before this one was "The Assistant", (a book I enjoyed immensely) and while I enjoyed this book well enough it did fall somewhat short of my expectations. Maybe it was because I was expecting a rags-to-riches hero, or maybe it was because I felt Malamud never got below the surface of nearly all the characters... However, the story of the baseball season that the book does cover is exceptionally good, and whether a fan of the game or not, you will be swept along. And while I can quibble some about plotting and depth, Malamud writes splendidly, in a clean, concise, riveting fashion. A somewhat mixed bag, but recommended still.
Rating: 
Summary: say it ain't true
Review: Do not come to this book wanting to read it if you are a big fan of the movie. My brother told me to quit reading when I was halfway through and I should have taken his advice. It is a good book, and well written. But there are too many expectations after seeing the movie and I was disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: All he ever wanted
Review: All he ever wanted was to be the best at baseball. Roy wanted to be the best, but Bump thought
he was the best. before one game they got into a fight. then that very same game bump tried to
catch a ball, and ran into a wall, breaking his neck and died. After Bump died Roy slowly became
the choice of the fans, and Bumps name slowly faded away.
Rating:
Summary: Say it ain't so Roy
Review: The Natural is as fine a piece of baseball fiction as I have ever read. Roy Hobbs, a player with unlimited ability, makes a mistake and pays for it the rest of his life. I will not get into a book description or a discussion of Malamud's writting style, but I will say those of you expecting a rehash of the movie will be suprised. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A fantastic novel and a fantastic flick
Review: ...There seem to be two divergent opinions on this book and its relationship with the movie. Some say that the movie is another example of Hollywood creating simply another happily-ever-after flick for public consumption, out of a greatly different novel. Others state that the movie gave us a moving portrait of a true hero and a tale of redemption. I believe that both are true. The book is fantastic, but not in the traditional baseball sense. If you were to imagine that Roy was not a ballplayer but an actor or farmer--a position from which we don't crave heroes, The Natural would be an unquestionably great novel in everyone's mind. But, I, like many of these reviewers am an avid baseball fan. Something I'm not sure Malamud is. If he is, something turned him off. He was born too late for the Black Sox scandal, so it's probably just player greed. Not a single ballplayer in this novel is any way simpathetic: Roy is a glutton with a massive ego, Bump an arrogant showman, and the rest simply womanizing drinkers. In some ways I agree that modern ballplayers are a similar lot (Bonds, Henderson, A-Rod). It is in this light I enjoy the movie, in which Roy isn't as simple and ego-driven. He is an honest, hard-working hero, who teaches the care-free, partying guys on the team a thing or two about dedication and hard-work. I think this is a solid case for a book and its movie both being fantastic artistic works but with wholly separate messages.
Rating:
Summary: The SUPER-Natural
Review: This book ought to be titled "The Super-Natural," rather than "The Natural," since there are so many mythic and magical elements to it, in both style and content. Forget about any comparisons to the feel-good/and-they-lived-happily-ever-after movie starring Robert Redford. Don't get me wrong--I loved the movie, but still, Malamud must have been tearing his hair over what Hollywood did to his dark, tragic fable of thwarted human ambition, greed and lust. Even the main character's name, Hobbs, seems symbolic, or at least allusive: Hobbes (slightly different spelling) was a pessimistic philosopher who saw human life as a pitiless struggle for survival. Some reviewers have seen parallels with the King Arthur legend, but the novel isn't a contemporary retelling of that story. Malamud employs elements of the legend to give his own story a deeper, mythic resonance. What this book ISN'T is a simplistic baseball novel, with a clean-cut hero overcoming adversities and becoming a winner in the end. As a reader you want to like Roy Hobbs, want to see him succeed, but Malamud keeps shoving a stick into his spokes. (Or maybe into his spikes.) His character is a man of unhealthy appetites. Roy's ambition to be "the best that ever was" in baseball is utterly self-centered and he's unable to see beyond it to any higher goal in life. His relationships with women are clumsy and coarse, and his fleeting visions of domestic happiness dimmed by lust and a tendency to want the wrong women for all the wrong reasons. Even his relationship with food is problematic. Toward the end of the novel he becomes the personification of the vice of Gluttony, stuffing himself to the point where he nearly causes his stomach to explode and he winds up in the hospital. Without giving anything away, I think it's fair to say the book has a dark finale. This grim novel ends with an allusion to the Black Sox scandal--a newsboy begging Roy to "say it ain't true"--and Malamud offers a final line that sounds less like the King Arthur legend than like something from ancient Greek drama in its image of ruined hopes and tragic futility: "he lifted his hands to his face and wept many bitter tears." Beats me how anyone can describe this brilliant, unforgetable but relentlessly bleak book as inspirational or uplifting. They must be confusing the novel with the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Like A Barry Bonds Home Run...
Review: don't watch the movie, the book is so much better...unless you are the type that lives life through rose colored glasses, you'll be able to deal with the cynicism abd observations malamud makes in the book. it's not just about baseball, it's a morality play . it's about human beings and how anyone can be a slave to greed, to obsession; anyone can be bought for a price.roy's passion for baseball, was eclipsed by his passion for living...he wasn't meant to be loved, he was for people to see what happens if you lived selfishly. he had a choice. a good life with a woman who loved him, or a life with a glamour puss who only wanted to destory him. in the end, he sold out to his own shallowness...unfortunately modern sports has become worse than " the natural." very few players play for the love of the game. they are more interested in what's in it for them, selling themselves to the highest bidder. at least barry bonds will be back with the giants next year...
Rating: 
Summary: The Natural
Review: If I were to give this book a rating on its plot, characters, interest, and storyline then I would have to give this 5 stars. Bernard Malamud wrote this book brilliantly. He uses his knowledge of baseball and creative talent to write a book about a man's life long struggle to become a professional baseball player. There were only really two minor things that I did not like about this great book the first is that it was a little hard to follow with the characters frequent flashbacks and dreams. It made it hard for me to exactly know when it was describing present day and when it was talking about a dream or telling a flashback. The second problem I had was when the book was talking about one of the main character's girlfriends, and since he had so many it was hard to tell which on the book was explaining. These two minor problems were easily overcome, but still were noticeable to be mentioned from memory. This book was an excellent portrayal of a baseball story, which gave the reading that little edge and twist.
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