The Art of Fielding

A Novel

By: Chad Harbach

Narrated by: Holter Graham

Length: 15 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

A disastrous error on the field sends five lives into a tailspin in this award-nominated tale about love, life, and baseball.

At Westish College, a small school on the shore of Lake Michigan, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big league stardom. But when a routine throw goes disastrously off course, the fates of five people are upended.

Henry's fight against self-doubt threatens to ruin his future. College president Guert Affenlight, a longtime bachelor, has fallen unexpectedly and helplessly in love. Owen Dunne, Henry's gay roommate and teammate, becomes caught up in a dangerous affair. Mike Schwartz, the Harpooners' team captain and Henry's best friend, realizes he has guided Henry's career at the expense of his own. And Pella Affenlight, Guert's daughter, returns to Westish after escaping an ill-fated marriage, determined to start a new life.

As the season counts down to its climactic final game, these five are forced to confront their deepest hopes, anxieties, and secrets. In the process they forge new bonds, and help one another find their true paths. 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.

©2011 Chad Harbach (P)2011 Hachette

Critic reviews

"Reading The Art of Fielding is like watching a hugely gifted young shortstop: you keep waiting for the errors, but there are no errors. First novels this complete and consuming come along very, very seldom." (Jonathan Franzen)

"Chad Harbach's The Art of Fielding is one of those rare novels - like Michael Chabon's Mysteries of Pittsburgh or John Irving's The World According to Garp - that seems to appear out of nowhere and then dazzles and bewitches and inspires until you nearly lose your breath from the enjoyment and satisfaction, as well as the unexpected news-blast that the novel is very much alive and well." (James Patterson)

"Chad Harbach has hit a game-ender with The Art of Fielding. It's pure fun, easy to read, as if the other Fielding had a hand in it - as if Tom Jones were about baseball and college life." (John Irving)

The Best Book I’ve Ever Read

Holter Graham is a master who delivers the passion and drives engrained in this unforgettable story like it’s a second nature pitch from shortstop to 1st.

Great book!! Loved it!

I spent a lot of time in my driveway listening to this book in my car. It was so good that I didn't want to turn it off. You love all these characters so beautifully described. You want this young baseball player to make it to the big leagues. It's not just about baseball--it's about lives and how they are ever changing and growing. A really good book! I'm recommending it to my book club and everyone else I know!

Entertaining college story but weird performance

I almost turned this book off because I found the narrator's voice so irritating. It's very sing-songy, with words emphasized in weird places. I almost thought I was listening to an infomercial. I think he was chosen because he has an all American boy voice, which compliments the story. Two of the main characters are young American men that play baseball. I ended up persisting and I came to not mind the performance after awhile. The narrator did do a nice job of differentiating between the characters.

The story follows several characters at a college in the Midwest. There is a lot about baseball. I don't really care that much about baseball, but I found the descriptions enticing and I was interested in the fates of the players and the team as a whole. There are also several plots about the relationships between the characters in the book, which I also found very interesting. It wasn't terribly deep, but there were many places where the writing was insightful and moving. Overall, I'd say, "entertaining."

Not a baseball story

This is a perfectly good story about a bunch of people on a small college campus, some of whom happen to be baseball players. But to pitch it is a huge insight into the game of baseball is misleading. Maybe it provides some insight for people who know nothing about the game, but that isn't me. It does provide some insight into what it is like to play the game seriously at a small DIII school that doesn't have much of an athletic budget, but even the interest of that was ruined by the horribly misogynistic comments abut the Amherst softball team in the closing chapters. I listened to the whole thing because I paid for it.....but I certainly can't see what the big hype is all about.

Well-rounded characters, slightly boring plot

This book is very well written, but by the end, I found myself wishing it would just be over already. The characters are fully realized, but the plot is thin. If you're a baseball fan, you'll probably love it. If you're not a baseball fan, there is still plenty of relationship drama to sink your teeth into. This is a book about sexuality and self-discovery.

What's the big deal

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Explain more of the story. So many things were left unsaid I was quite disappointed. This book took a completely different road at the end and to me had nothing to do witht he title of the book, nor the theme.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

It was LAME. My specific thought was "what the heck?" what just happened? It's ending like THIS?

Could you see The Art of Fielding being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No, not at all. If it was, I would not watch it.

The Rough on the Diamond

Great narrator, since his voice changed by character, even when he spoke the women's dialogue...it was believable. The characters' names make an impression so it's easy to keep them straight and "in character". I appreciate the narrator announcing the chapter # at each break, since my cheap MP3 player makes it difficult to always get back to the place I left off---there are many (60+) chapters, and it's a fast listen because of the pace of the story and the complexity of the characters---Even though I was a scorekeeper through many many years of Little League and HS Baseball, without the emotional context of watching our children play baseball, I quickly tire of the pace of the game. Now my grandsons play, so it's back to the field, and after listening to "The Art...", with renewed appreciation for the beauty of the game.

Saved by the narrator

Although I didn't love this book because of some of its implausible twists, I kept coming back to it because it was very entertaining, and for that I give credit to the narrator, Holter Graham, who did an excellent job of voicing the characters' dialogue and thought.

May become a classic about male bonding

I am not a sports fan and don’t usually enjoy books with sexuality as a main theme? But this book was such a fascinating and rare deep dive exploration of male friendship. I had a hard time putting it down. Excellent narration. Worth your credit and your time.

Perfect Match Up

The story and narrator are a perfect pairing. I have listened to hundreds of audio books in all different genres and the pairing of Holter Graham with this wonderful story was brilliant. The book was selected by our book group. Several members read and others listened. Everyone enjoyed the book in both formats and are keen to recommend it.