The Art of Fielding

 

The RA Book Club read The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach this semester.  Below are some of their thoughts on the book!

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach is an easy to read story of illicit love, university life, and the sacrifices made for college sports.  It is a must-read for students, or anyone else, who find themselves feeling lost and hoping for an extrapolation about the unpredictability of life.  Although the story does have some slow points, Harbach’s technique of flipping between stories each chapter keeps the novel moving and keeps the reader’s interest.  Harbach writes what seems to start as a baseball story without presuming any knowledge of the topic and ends the novel as more of a story about the determination and persistence required to play baseball successfully. – SDR

I had a very rich experience reading Harbach’s The Art of Fielding. In it lies such a great balance between character development and the incessant experience surrounding a game that is so relatable on many levels. For the Ball player who identifies with the spiritual crisis, for the common folk who appreciates an author’s attention to the minor details. The Art of Fielding ends each paragraph with the reader wanting for more. –DJM

Chad Harbach’s stellar novel was slow to start, but as I kept reading I found that I couldn’t put it down. At first, I assumed it would be a story about baseball, and, in many ways, it was. But more so, the novel focuses on the how baseball can stand as a metaphor for the human condition. We all have our individual struggles: mental block, smoking, alcoholism, the fear of failure, the fear of exclusion, but we are together in our struggles to make it to the bottom of the 9th inning, to dig deep and fight as long as we can.

I found Harbach’s prose to be phenomenal; it was easy to read, but deeply insightful. I found his use of metaphor to be selective, but powerfully so, and I found his descriptions of life at Westish to be masterfully done. Many times, while reading, I found myself transported to that world. I found the characters (for the most part) endearing and engaging: I particularly loved Owen and Affenlight- the modern day scholars, with old souls and youthful dispositions. I approved of Schwartz and Henry, though I found it odd that there was no antagonist (beyond the mental issues they each experienced). There was obviously tension in the novel, but I wanted to pin it on someone, or something other than the fear of failure.
The ending, I found to be touching, if a little unrealistic, compared to the strict plausibility of the rest of the novel. Henry was, in my opinion, not supposed to be a pro baseball player: I wanted him to have a clean separation from the game of his youth. I also found Affenlight’s burial touching, but a little contrived.
All in all, I would rate this novel a 7/10 for it’s engagement and entertainment, but that’s about it. It isn’t the grandest novel, and I don’t feel change by it, but it is enlightening, funny and entertaining in all the right ways. – GE

It's all too infrequent in life that you come across a book that really makes you feel something. I'm not talking about a book that makes you cry for one scene or that has a joke that makes you laugh, I'm talking about a prolonged sensation that carries you through chapter after chapter. For me, Chad Harbach's The Art of Fielding feels like home. The book left me with a lingering sense of warmth and care co-mingled with the drama and grief that signals family and being home. On surface level, The Art of Fielding is a book about college baseball, but, if you just barely scratch the surface, it becomes immediately clear that what it's really about is relationships. It is an exploration of the way different people interact with their family, their friends, their childhood heroes, and, perhaps most importantly, themselves. If you're looking for a relaxed, fun, easy read, this book might not be for you. If you're looking for a 521 page emotional roller to suck you in and spit you out a few days later with an odd desire to go hug someone and toss around a baseball even though you hate sports, they have a copy of The Art of Fielding in Bobst, go check it out. –KMJ

As for The Art of Fielding, I have to admit that while I enjoyed some parts of the book, I didn't connect with the overall message as much as I would have hoped. My biggest praise for the book is the character development. I feel that Harbach did a great job in creating authentic, believable, and essentially, human characters. I definitely know a Pella, a Henry, and a Mike Schwartz in my own life, and the characters made the message of the book much more relatable to me. However, while the book started out as being driven by factors that weren't baseball, the book lost me in the last 200 pages or so because the plot was very much driven by the games and I just didn't connect with that style of writing. The overall themes were very universal -- failure, determination, persistence, and growing up -- but I felt that I could connect with them only on a superficial level because each theme in the book was conveyed in the framework of baseball, a relatively uninteresting game to me.

Also, I'm not sure if this is a fair critique to make, but I didn't feel that the book represented women very well. I might be currently hypersensitive of these issues simply because of recent events that have taken place in my life, but in the future, I would prefer to read books that represent women in more diverse circumstances than sexual ones. Pella was the only focal female character in the book, and we only got to see her through the lens of her relationships with other men. The Art of Fielding was written by a man, about men...which is interesting considering the majority of book club this semester was women! All in all though, I truly looked forward to each Sunday that we met. I'm in a purely science program, so it's not often that I am given the opportunity to read good fiction novels and talk about them and I appreciated the chance to do this once a month! -MN

Chad Harbach's The Art of Fielding was not a book I was entirely excited to read. All I knew was it centered around college baseball, and I don't follow any sport besides triathlon. But, I love the community of book clubs and gave it a go. And I am glad I did. This book is so much more than a story about baseball, it covers complicated questions and thoughts that every college student has about life, love, difficult decisions and how passion can be a driving force to both success and downfall. This novel was well written and followed each story line in a readable and interesting manner. I enjoyed the writing style as much as the story and was especially impressed with Harbach's character development. There was not one character who was "textbook good or perfect". Everyone had flaws which made them relate-able and easy to connect with while reading. As a graduating senior, I appreciated reading this book because it validated many of the thoughts I have had as an involved college student, and the fears and insecurities I have about going into the real world. My favorite character was Mike and I felt like I understood a lot of the struggle he felt as being a great captain and leader, but never the star athlete. His character development throughout the book was not drastic, but subtle, realistic and powerful to me. -MP