After the bleak Fight Club, I’d thought I’d lighten the mood a bit as I moved back to non-fiction with My Baseball Diary, a series of recollections by James T. Farrell, author of the Studs Lonnigan books and a White Sox fan who grew up in the early years of the 20th Century. Unfortunately, the mood soon became so light that it nearly put me to sleep.
I will start by saying that this book isn’t bad- some of the recollections paint a clear picture of what baseball was like almost 100 years ago, which is pretty cool. But reading this book from cover to cover can be a bit of a snore at times, mostly due to Farrell’s antiquated writing style. This was originally written in 1957, when Farrell was 53. The language and "aw shucks" tone are most likely comparable to other books written at that time, but it can really detract from the subject matter. Farrell also has a method of repating himself throught this book- historical accounts of a game are often followed by fictionalized exerpts from Farrell’s novels.
At other times, the language provided a few chuckles- like in this section from one of Farrell’s novels where a teenage character explains to his young brother how he acquired cigarettes:
"I copped these on Aunt Margaret the other night. But if you snitch on me, I’ll lam your ears in."
I kept waiting for someone to sliip somebody a Mickey Finn, or to sap some rube on the melon with a blackjack, but to no avail. Instead, we hear repeatedly of what a fine catcher Ray Schalk was, which may be true, but it does get a bit repetitive…
To die-hard baseball fans who really want a blast of nostalgia, this would be a fine bathroom book, worth reading in small clips. All others should stay away.
Seeing as how the year is over two months over and I just completed my third book, I think my goal of 50 Books in ’05 is out of reach (barring any sudden shifts to the complete Hardy Boys collection). So I now move back to fiction, with Nelson Algren’s The Man With The Golden Arm, a fairly long novel that I passed on in January for the much shorter Fight Club. I’ll still call this blog feature 50 books in ’05 and we’ll see how close I can get…