The Art of Fielding

By Chad Harbach - 2011 Little, Brown & Company

There are a few interesting aspects about this book that must be considered for review.  In an article from last week's issue, Sports Illustrated named this book the number one in sports entertainment and media for the 2011 year.  Is it really that good?  I think that part of its high ranking comes from the fact that this is Harbach's first novel but the book is good enough that it seems he's been writing for ages.  In other words, Sports Illustrated did not simply take the story into account but also the story about the story.

For the format of the novel itself, Harbach subtly blends a high vocabulary into his book,coming across as impressive but not confusing, and as the book is divided into 82 short chapters it makes the reading easier and keeps the story moving.

From a sport's point of view, Harbarch bravely chooses to focus on the individual psychological aspects of baseball, something that took a long time for the major leagues to accept the reality of.  That Harbach chose to create a star player with Steve Blass disease shows that he is not trying to write a typically heroic, albeit classic, baseball novel, but something that dives into the deeper parts of our nation's pastime.

A nice choice for a sports-oriented reader and for fans of some of the hidden nuances of baseball.