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Title: The Celebrant by Eric Rolfe Greenberg ISBN: 0-8032-7037-2 Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr Pub. Date: April, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.38 (8 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Like Living Through The Era
Comment: Essential to understanding and enjoying "The Celebrant" is knowing just who Christy Mathewson is. The book is half the action on the field, the dugouts and the offices, half the business of the Kapinskis, a Jewish immigrant family who carry a high fanatical esteem of Mathewson. But the book is very much baseball, so understanding the "hero" status of Mathewson would be helpful, and the author assists with tiny statistical boxes laced throughout the book.
The book is also a zealous, near-stalkerish account of Mathewson, famous for his 327 wins (with the highest winning percentage of all righties), career 2.13 earned run average, as well as his blonde-haired, blue-eyed, Bucknell-educated pedigree. The tall Mathewson dominated the early 1900s by developing a "fadeaway" pitch that tailed into righthanders, more familiar as today's screwball.
The book follows the Kapinskis gradual absorption into the baseball world after the younger brother, a talented artist, designs a beautiful commemorative World Series ring in an era when such rings weren't commonplace. His business savvy and gambling-addicted brother pushes all the deals and the pair soon gain prominence not only within the jeweler's circle, but in baseball, particularly with their worshipped idol Mathewson, the rest of his teammates and hard-as-nails manager McGraw.
The book includes many historical aspects of baseball: the gambling scene that once heavily threatened to ruin the game; the pre-free agency relationship that had owners literally owning their players (who had little control over their careers), and the gradual integration of all sorts of fans into the game.
It's a good read, leaving you with the sort of feeling you get after watching a long baseball movie based on fact.
Rating: 1
Summary: This book is not for Baseball buffs
Comment: I bought this book many years ago. I'm surprised it's still in print -- It should have never been in print. It is a contrived historical novel with fictional characters of zero intrest. ...
Rating: 5
Summary: Awesome book-troubling finish....
Comment: First of all, let me say that I very rarely read fiction-it's just not my thing. With that in mind, The Celebrant is one of the best books I've ever read. It gets its hooks in you early with a captivating yarn, and an interesting writing style.
What bothers me is the ending. Is it a lesson on the dangers of hero worship? Is it a coincidence that Jackie acts on the words of Mathewson after meeting him for only the second time? What if he hadn't gone to see him? I don't think he would have made the same decision. What did his action accomplish?
This is what really bothered me.
Eli had already been cut off from the family business-he wasn't going to take anyone else down with him. Tough love gone askew?
Was Jackie blindly following the words of Mathewson, or had Mathewson's mind created some twisted higher standard others should follow, unbeknownst to Jackie? This ending caught me offguard, especially after the lecture Arthur got about how valuable Eli was to the company in it's beginning, and he should be taken care of now. Am I not my brother's keeper? I guess not...
These questions aside, this is masterful writing. The World Series games come alive as never before. McGraw, Merkle, Snodgras, Hal Chase, and the fictional Kapinski family all intertwine in this splendid tale. What a movie this would make!
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Title: Bang the Drum Slowly by Mark Harris ISBN: 0803272219 Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr Pub. Date: March, 1984 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Shoeless Joe by W. P. Kinsella ISBN: 0395957737 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 28 April, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Universal Baseball Association, Inc.: J. Henry Waugh, Prop. by Robert Coover ISBN: 0452260302 Publisher: New American Library Pub. Date: September, 1987 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Natural by Bernard Malamud ISBN: 0374502005 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 07 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: If I Never Get Back by Darryl Brock ISBN: 0452283728 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: August, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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