Gil Gamesh, the only pitcher who ever literally tried to kill the umpire. The ex-con first baseman, John Baal, "The Babe Ruth of the Big House...
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Jun 16, 2007
Brian
rated it: 
I have a lot of Jewish friends, and most of them are Philip Roth fans. Some of them are baseball fans. But none of them have read this book. Why? I don't know. I myself am only a half-Jewish baseball fan, but I still managed to enjoy it thoroughly. Maybe if my mother had been Jewish, I would've given it five out of five, but I thought Roth's ending was hurried and unsuitable, and his satire was a bit scattershot. Nevertheless, my mother is a nice woman. She's Catholic. If you're ever in Suffern,
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Mar 24, 2009
Alex
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Raucous and often extremely funny, The Great American Novel is the story of the forgotten baseball team The Ruppert Mundys as told by former sportswriter and alliteration addict Mr Word Smith - as unreliable a narrator as you will ever encounter and yet his bizarre tale of the conspiracy that destroyed baseball's Patriot League is oddly persuasive. The Mundys are a team of the crippled and/or deluded: their players include the one-legged, the one-armed and, later, a vindictive midget.
R More...
R More...
Dec 15, 2011
Chris
rated it: 
My next book. Probably start tomorrow night. Can't seem to find the correct cover so far. Starting tonight(Sat.)... It's Monday now and I'm into it a ways. Fun and crazy stuff. Along the lines of "Billy Bathgate" but another step further out there. Tons of language fun if you're up for it. If you're in some dire medical straits... lay off the alliteration. Uses the "N" word constantly and women are referred to as "slits". I'm not sure where the satire is so far. Day
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May 13, 2011
Ryan
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I was almost discouraged enough by the prologue to not even bother with this book. In the end, I mostly just skimmed through the intro, focusing only on the brilliant part about Hemingway, and ignoring all of the pointless alliteration so that I could get to to the story. And boy, am I glad I stuck with it. I really enjoyed this book. I am big on dark humor, and this thing is chalk full of it. It is a masterful work.
The narrator regales us with the tale of a forgotten, eradicated baseb More...
The narrator regales us with the tale of a forgotten, eradicated baseb More...
Dec 20, 2009
Bill
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My annual baseball book this year (and the first fiction installment of same) was Roth's virtuoso comic novel about a mythical professional baseball team in a mythical league during WWII, when times are so tough the club has to play all its games on the road -- with a one-legged catcher, a 90-pound second-baseman and basically no pitching. But it's not just a baseball book -- it's an hilarious social satire about the times, the sport and American culture in general. And it's one of the funniest
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Jul 27, 2011
Malcolm
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About 30 years ago I read Roth – as we all did, Portnoy's Complaint – and middle aged New York Jewishness really didn't resonate with an adolescent in small town New Zealand. A friend recommended recently that I try this, and it's pretty good – but I suspect that it works for me because I now grapple with the history, organisation and politics of sports organisations. It's a good satire of Organised Baseball, of Cold War politics, of McCarthyism – but I'm afraid that it still doesn't resonate in
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Jun 03, 2010
Dennis
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The Great American Novel is not a novel in the sense that The Great Gatsby is a novel. It is an imagined epic baseball satire that lies somewhere between Tristram Shandy and the bible - but just the funny parts. Consequently I find that it is best savored over many weeks - a few dozen pages at a time. Frankly, it is so perverse in its sexist, racist absolutely non PC perspective that the shock value improves in small portions - again, somewhat like the bible. This is my second reading and I am a
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Aug 23, 2007
Gregory
rated it:
The Rupert Mundy's were a sight to behold.
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Feb 01, 2012
Perry
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Lets start by making it clear that it helps if you like baseball before you read this one. Furthermore, it helps if you have a little understanding of the history of America's Pastime too. Unusually for a Brit, I qualify on both counts! I love baseball and I know a little bit about it too. Not as much as Smitty "Word" Smith however. He is the narrator who follows and chronicles the woes of the fictional Ruppert Mundays during the first year of America's involvement in World War II, whe
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Jan 19, 2010
Daniel
rated it: 
An American novel...definitely. Great? No so much so.
The writing of this is typical 1970's humor. Think M*A*S*H (yes, I know the book was published in '68, but the movie was released in '70, which helped popularize the book series) or the works of Kurt Vonnegut. It's a sort of intelligentsia humor. Sophisticated. Dry. Not a laugh-out-loud type of humor. And for me, this didn't work.
I have to be up-front. I'm not a huge baseball fan. I enjoy it a little bit more, More...
The writing of this is typical 1970's humor. Think M*A*S*H (yes, I know the book was published in '68, but the movie was released in '70, which helped popularize the book series) or the works of Kurt Vonnegut. It's a sort of intelligentsia humor. Sophisticated. Dry. Not a laugh-out-loud type of humor. And for me, this didn't work.
I have to be up-front. I'm not a huge baseball fan. I enjoy it a little bit more, More...
May 16, 2008
Ryan
rated it:
I have a tradition ever year that I read a novel about baseball during spring training to get myself in the mood for the upcoming season. Novelists seem to have a way of describing this game that really resonates with me. They are drawn to the same fantastic element of this child's game played by grown men that engages me for so much of the year every year.
I bought an old used hardcover of this book a few years ago but never really felt ready to tackle it. That title felt a little to More...
I bought an old used hardcover of this book a few years ago but never really felt ready to tackle it. That title felt a little to More...
Oct 19, 2009
Evyn
rated it:
This book is insane and not easy to stick with. It follows a fictitious baseball team in a fictitious baseball league during WW2. The characters, narrator, and plot twists are unbelievable, comedic, sarcastic. It is a kind of commentary on society at that time.
Philip Roth is an amazing writer and I think he had to get things out of his system before reaching the consistent plateau he has been on. After reading this, The Breast and his Nixon book (Our Gang), I decided to skip a lot of his e More...
Philip Roth is an amazing writer and I think he had to get things out of his system before reaching the consistent plateau he has been on. After reading this, The Breast and his Nixon book (Our Gang), I decided to skip a lot of his e More...
Aug 10, 2009
Mike
rated it:
I enjoyed this book, and think it was more of a 3.5 for me than a straight-up 3. I'm a sucker for books about baseball, and overall I thought the book was well-written. It wasn't as consistently funny as I was hoping it would be, although there were some scenes that were truly hilarious (the shenanigans before one of the games which included a grandmother stealing second base was the highlight for me). I can't say I took any great message from the satire, but it was an enjoyable read.
Jul 28, 2011
Okay okay okay, after reading this on the recommendation (insistence) of a friend, I've decided I don't HATE Philip Roth as much as I did after reading The Plot Against America. Man, I hated that book. I didn't love Portnoy's Complaint, either. This novel, though, this is funny. And clever, even. It's about American baseball, but it's really about American history, but it's really about American hypocrisy. Mostly, it's about baseball.
Jul 22, 2008
Joel
rated it: 
i got arrested and i couldn't find a good book in jail to read, and then lo and behold i came across this. I always heard of p. roth, but i never read anything from him, so i read this book and thank you mr. roth for making my first two weeks in jail bearable. i knew i was in jail with tons of stupid people, myself included, but i never thought i would read something like this in jail. Wow, even in jail i discovered authors that i really enjoyed. I have since become a fan. Last week i went
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Nov 08, 2011
David
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I've not read much Philip Roth but find him to be an exceptionally gifted wordsmith and biting satirist. This book turns a fictional 3rd Major League into the pivot point of the International Communist Conspiracy and take digs at McCarthyism, JFK conspiracy theorists (I may be wrong but I assume the sadly assassinated Golden Boy centerfielder is at once MM and JFK) and even anticipates sabermetrics. Hilarious.
Jul 03, 2010
Mike
rated it:
The 60-page prologue which teases Hemingway is a lot of fun, but it slows down after that. It's reasonably good on the whole, but I would not recommend it with so much else out there to read.
May 15, 2011
Joshua
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This is easily the tamest Philip Roth book I've read, both in terms of explicit sexual fantasies and in terms of writing style. The 50-page "preface" did leave me with a little bit of Roth fatigue, but for the book is a surprisingly straightforward, by his standards, satirical novel about a baseball team during World War II.
Mar 26, 2009
Andrew
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Combining baseball and communist conspiracies makes for an extremely fun read. Not as 'literary' as Roth's other work, but very funny.
Jun 19, 2009
Dec 27, 2009
Dave
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This book was a godsend after the last Roth novel I read, The Professor of Desire. Whereas that book is overly earnest and self-indulgent The Great American Novel is just pure comic inventiveness. This is Roth's tribute to America: it's culture, language, and politics. The prologue in which the narrator ("Fella name a' Smith. First name a' Word.") meets Hemingway, the midget Bob Yamm's farewell speech, the game between the Rupert Mundys and the asylum inmates, the visit to the "
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Apr 17, 2009
Mudman27
rated it:
Every baseball fan should read it. the funniest sport book I've ever read. I give this book as a gift to friends and family.
Dec 06, 2009
Dave
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Great story about baseball and America back when things were a little grittier pre-WWII. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
Jan 11, 2012
I wished it was the great american novel, but there was too much talk about baseball for me.
Aug 29, 2011
Susan
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read it for a class in college on current fiction long ago. One of my first forays into Roth's works.
Jan 30, 2010
Nicole
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Satiric baseball novel; I don't care much for baseball, but this book has enough in it to keep me interested beside.
Sep 17, 2007
I've started this, but the introduction contains a lot of what I like to call 'acting-up' for the readers, and is very smug. The kind of smug that deserves commemorative merchandise, like a T-shirt or a badge or...a mug, a smug mug. A smug mug full of smug mug bugs on smug mug bug rugs. Smug mug bugs on rugs with their arms outstretched so they can give you smug mug bug rug hugs. Smug mug bug rug hugs which are as nice as jugs of drugs sold by thugs...
...annoying, isn't it? Now you'r More...
...annoying, isn't it? Now you'r More...
