Shoeless Joe by W. P. Kinsella Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Shoeless Joe
Book Review: DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT READING THIS BOOK
Summary: 1 Stars
I HAD TO READ THIS BOOK FOR HIGH SCHOOL, IT IS THE WORST BOOK I EVER READ. ON EVERY PAGE THERE IS A SIMALE OR METAPHOR, IT JUST GETS SO REPETITIVE, AND THE PLOT IS JUST SO BORING AND POINTLESS. I JUST WONDER WAS THE AUTHOR DRUNK WHEN HE WROTE THIS PIECE OF GAARBAGEBook Review: Death By Simile
Summary: 3 Stars
I've always loved the movie, and now I'm finally reading the book. So far I like it, but the similes are dragging the story down. I've started to skip over sentences, in order to speed up the narrative. Where was the editor on this project? When I notice the writer's style more than the story, something is wrong.
"I explore gingerly, trying to walk without crunching gravel, ready to leap into the underbrush like a shy animal. A two-car garage is built into the side of a hill, like a bear's den at the zoo". Two simile-containing sentences back-to-back!? Scissors, please!
I'm suffering from simile overload, and I'm only on page 70.
Book Review: Don't waste your money...or your time
Summary: 1 Stars
After seeing Field of Dreams, I was excited to get the book and fill in the holes of the story and figure out what was left out of the movie. But you know what? It didn't happen? Why? Because the movie is only vaguely "based on" this book. For good reason, too. The book is terrible. As in poorly written, mostly boring, and largely kinda dumb.
I don't know who the Field of Dreams screenwriter is, but Kinsella should be on his knees kissing the guy's (or girl's) feet every morning. He turned this largely unreadable mess of a novel into a moving, funny, classic movie.
One example? In the movie, the revelation that the main character is REALLY building the field for his father doesn't come until right at the end, setting up an improbably emotional moment--even for most men who've seen the film. In the book, it's on about page 10. Shoeless Joe appearing is practically an aside--even though it's the dang title of the book!
Don't waste your time reading this book...and definitely don't waste the money. If you've ever seen Field of Dreams, it will only taint the movie experience for you.
Book Review: Dreams Fade To Reality
Summary: 5 Stars
Daydreams, visions, and hopes all come together in the magical novel Shoeless Joe, written by WP Kinsella. In Kinsella's compelling novel, Ray Kinsella, an Iowa insurance agent turned farmer, is changed from a dreamer into a creator. At first, he is a dreamer, hoping to keep his farm while not making enough money off of it to pay off the mortgage. His brothers-in-law constantly attempt to buy his farm from him in order to complete a scheme to make them a load of money. Regardless, he keeps his farm and hopes for a way to pay for it. There, he enjoys life with his wife Annie and his daughter Karina. Annie and Karina support Ray throughout the book, giving him good advice and lifting his spirits when he needs it most. His love of baseball, dreaminess, and determination send him on a journey to both past and present to search for the greatest baseball game that he will ever see. It starts when, one summer evening, Ray hears an incorporeal voice say, "If you build it, he will come." Ray immediately knows that `he' is Shoeless Joe Jackson, a man banned from baseball for life as a result of the infamous Black Sox scandal of 1919. The `it' is a baseball field, to be constructed in Ray's cornfield. With care and diligence, Ray builds a stadium, with left field (Shoeless Joe's position) a veritable heaven. He waits for Shoeless Joe to appear, and in time he does and plays ball there every night. Then Ray perfects the rest of the field, and the other members of the Black Sox come to play for him. The fantasy appeared perfect, but it didn't last. Then, "Ease his pain." Ray hears those words from the immaterial voice after his completion of the stadium. Instinctively, he knows that the `pain' is that of JD Salinger, the famous yet hermit-like author of Catcher in the Rye. He realizes that he must go cross-country and get Salinger to come with him to a baseball game, getting Salinger to stop being a hermit and go back to loving baseball. Ray effectively kidnaps an unwilling Salinger and takes him to Fenway Park for a game. Though at first stubborn, Salinger comes around, finally agreeing to go with Ray back to Iowa to see the magical field. On the way back to Iowa, other characters are encountered. They are Archibald `Moonlight' Graham, a baseball player for the New York Giants (albeit only as a defensive replacement for an inning), Richard Kinsella, Ray's twin brother who has not been seen by Ray for many years but has been drawn back to Iowa by some freakish coincidence (or is it a coincidence?), and Eddie Scissons, an old man who loves to tell tales of his `baseball days' with the Cubs, and how he will be buried in a Cubs uniform (although he never played for them). Both Scissons and Graham are former ballplayers who succumbed to everyday life, and all of the above men have something that they need to do; something that only Ray's ballfield can do for them. Through Ray and his field, they can regain a bit of the past, and part of their lives is reopened to them. From Salinger's invitation to visit with the phantom ballplayers to one of Ray's lifelong family dreams coming true to the revealing of Eddie's secrets to the transformation of Graham, each character has a unique and important role. Kinsella writes in detail about the characters, their problems, journeys, and successes. He mixes in trivial details with the important information and makes the book seem shorter than it really is. With clever imagery and a gripping storyline, Shoeless Joe is wonderfully written. It reads like a true story that happens to have some elements of a novel. This book is one of the better ones that I have read, because of both the great characters and the plot. Ray's dreams and journey stick with you after you have finished reading. One scene that captures the feeling of the book is this, at the end of the story; "On the porch, we turn to look at the silent, satiny green of the field. I press the switch, and, like a candle going out, the scar of lights disappears. Above the farm, a moon bright as butter silvers the night as Annie holds the door open for me." It shows how Ray loves the field, and how Annie has been a strongly supporting member of his family for him. The passage also shows how WP Kinsella describes with words (the silent, satiny green of the field) the beauty of the field and without words (as Annie hold the door open for me) how Annie has supported Ray throughout the book. By reading Shoeless Joe, one can understand what true baseball fandom is about, and how dreams can fade into reality.Book Review: Dreams brought to life...
Summary: 4 Stars
The 1919 Chicago White Sox form the backdrop of this mystical book about bringing dreams to life. Shoeless Joe is much more than a book about baseball, it is about having a dream and pursuing it with a passion. Of course, baseball fans (like myself) will love how Kinsella uses the game to bring to life the characters and the truth of living life fully, without hesitation. Kinsella's use of language creates grand pictures within the reader's mind and is an absolute joy.
I highly recommend this book for baseball fans and students of life.