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Shoeless Joe

A novel by W.P. Kinsella

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A book about and for dreamers

Jul 5, 2010

by rockinrw6
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More

Rating:

I’m not even much of a sports fan, let alone a baseball fan, but this book it’s been one of my favorites since I had to read it in high school. I even reread it years later to see if it still lived up to memories of it. It did. It’s the basis for the movie “Field of Dreams,” with the famous disembodied voice telling the main character, “If you build it, he will come.” Although there are differences between the novel and that movie, I recommend reading the book AND watching the movie. They each have their strengths. But back to the novel. It’s really a story about dreams more than it is about baseball, with elements of history and myth and fantasy all wrapped in. The main character, Ray, is a struggling farmer, who hears this voice, and immediately knows that he is meant to build a baseball field for Shoeless Joe. So he takes on the task. Slowly he meets the ghosts of past players, he goes on a quest to visit major league parts, hunts down the reclusive J.D. Salinger, and gets closer with various members of his own family, all while protecting this magical baseball field he has built. It really is a book about following your dreams, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.