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)

Baseball and gay romance! What's not to like?

Baseball happens to be one of my passions which led me to "The Art of Fielding" in the first place. And I often enjoy stories with gay characters in them, so I thoroughly enjoyed this book with the unique and flawed characters woven into the world of baseball.

And the focus isn't so much on the gay characters alone as it is on all the characters in their sometimes secretive and complex lives.

Loved it

Any additional comments?

Excellent book that I thoroughly enjoyed hearing. I couldn't hit pause! Definitely recommend this for anyone who enjoys a good campus novel: baseball fandom NOT a prereq.

Takes a long time - like baseball

The reader was very good, and I think he did a great job telling the story. The writing, however, tended to go on and on at times, and the author says things that seem to be profound, but yet aren't. I kept listening, because I really liked the characters, but many times I would look to see how much time was left, and was amazed that I still had 3 or 4 more hours to go.

Good, but too long

I was expecting a book about baseball. There was too much character development that had little to do with the story. Too many words. O would have liked it better if it was about 1/3 shorter.

Solid read.

Very much enjoyed the stories and struggles these characters work with around the loose theme of baseball. Some big questions asked and no frilly answers provided, just space to think and maybe hope

squirm-inducing anxiety throughout

I don't think I understand the backlash to the popularity of this book, but mostly because I don't understand its popularity. I almost stopped listening twice. I can understand some complaints about the characters- for all their seemingly irrational actions, they seem to lack an irrational, animal spirit. Their reasons were too clearly understood or guessed, although I found the complexity of the characters progressed with the page numbers. Perhaps they just started out too simply.

All those complaints seem minor compared with the gut-wrenching, anxiety-driven toying that Chad Harbach seems to delight himself with until the last hour of the book. Why didn't that turn more people off of this book? Far from being a rehashing of some sports genre triumph-defeat=triumph+understanding formula, I thought the author used various elements of the genre to torture the reader. I grew to appreciate the way Harbach was able to invoke in me the same anxiety that various characters experienced, and I commiserated with the circular and seemingly endless self-doubt Henry constantly tried to claw himself out of. I don't see his last, manic triumph as an escape, but just another symptom of some disease he fully develops, but is also spread to all major characters.

The major puzzle of the book is how Henry can escape the trap, and we are given various theories to explore, most proposed by Schwartz. Schwartz's desire to mechanize himself through training did not work, and his invocations of enthusiasm or rage in his pregame speeches could not help Henry. Aparicio's Zen aphorisms are clearly not an answer. There is no salvation in screwing Pella, nothing in asceticism. It's not by some strength of his will that Henry makes his last play. If anything, it feels as though Henry is pushed by the world back into his position. Henry is no Ishmael, although the latter is clearly an apparition that floats through our minds as we wonder how the two may or may not be related. If Ishmael's beauty comes through his radical openness, his ability to adopt and live in the modes of being the world presents to him, like a voice joining a particular harmony for a time, then I believe the answer is that, albeit in a small way, Henry is eventually able to open himself in a similar way. I wished for Henry it could have been greater.

One of the Few Good Novels about Baseball

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would but probably to someone who likes baseball and/or literary fiction. It's not for everyone, even though it's not entirely about baseball.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I liked the baseball aspects the best. There aren't many good baseball novels around. There aren't many baseball novels around in general that I know of. I found some of the secondary character's stories to be a bit tedious - Affenlight, Owen, and Pella - and I was waiting for the story to get back to Skrimshander and Schwartz. It's very well written, I just couldn't care less about the other characters. Also, I thought it was interesting to make a story out of the guy who can no longer make routine throws - Steve Sax, Chuck Knoblauch, Rick Ankiel, among others.

What about Holter Graham’s performance did you like?

As with most good narration the characterization here is very well done. I never thought it was off in any way.

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

I've heard that an HBO series is in talks.

Any additional comments?

Overall, I thought this was a generally good novel. I think it's a great baseball novel and very good for a first-time novelist. I think, for my taste, it could have been cut down a bit as I didn't care too much about the secondary characters and how much of the story was devoted to them. It was very well written, I just didn't find the other characters and their part of the story too interesting when compared to the main college baseball storyline.

Not a baseball fan but...

I thoroughly enjoyed this book...didn't want it to end. Have recommended it to several friends.

I don't why but one of the best books ever

This is a great book. It is maybe about baseball. Maybe about love. Maybe about failure. Maybe about success. Maybe about college. Maybe about being young. Maybe about being old. Maybe about finding yourself. Maybe about losing yourself.
I don't know. I really loved this book.

Rich Storytelling

Where does The Art of Fielding rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Among the best audiobooks to which I've listened to date.

What did you like best about this story?

The story felt true and touched a number deep human connections and emotions.

Have you listened to any of Holter Graham’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not listened to other Holter Graham's performances

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes