Summerland

Jul 19, 2011 Benjamin Duffy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: children-ya, fantasy-sci-fi

The perfect love child of Shoeless Joe and American Gods, and one of the best tween-age novels I've come across.

This is the first of Michael Chabon's books that I've read, but it's obvious on every page that he isn't a children's author, but simply a great writer who decided to write a children's book. Better than merely utilitarian, Chabon's language is a joy to read: accessible enough that my then-9 year old stepson enjoyed it, yet I was kept on my toes by the rich, sharp imagery and inventiv...more

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Jan 20, 2011 Alan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone who sees a touch of magic in the world

Recommended to Alan by: His more adult-oriented work

"Yet we know that no branch is utterly severed from the Tree of Life that sustains us all."
—Peter Hewitt, as quoted in a Unitarian hymnal.

Michael Chabon's Summerland offers a tale both staunchly traditional and boldly imaginative, weaving elements of Norse mythology together with Native American legends, tall tales, and just a dash of science fiction. And baseball... more than anything else, this book is about baseball. But don't let that put you off, even if you don't care for the game (and I m...more

"Yet we know that no branch is utterly severed from the Tree of Life that sustains us all."
—Peter Hewitt, as quoted in a Unitarian hymnal.

Michael Chabon's Summerland offers a tale both staunchly traditional and boldly imaginative, weaving elements of Norse mythology together with Native American legends, tall tales, and just a dash of science fiction. And baseball... more than anything else, this book is about baseball. But don't let that put you off, even if you don't care for the game (and I must admit I'm nothing like a fan myself). After all, as it's written in Peavine's How to Catch Lightning and Smoke, "a baseball game is nothing but a great slow contraption for getting you to pay attention to the cadence of a summer day." I've read this book through three times now—once for myself, once to my son, and once more to my daughter—and each time through I've found it more rewarding.

Ethan Feld is the center of the book, an ordinary boy growing up in more-or-less ordinary circumstances out on Clam Island, a relatively remote locale in the Pacific Northwest which is only reachable by ferry, ever since the spectacular collapse of the Clam Island Narrows Bridge in 1943. The bridge has never been rebuilt; as the residents believe and Chabon explains, "Islands have always been strange and magical places; crossing the water to reach them ought to be, even in a small way, an adventure."

Clam Island has a piece of that magic: Summerland, a park at the tip of the island containing Jock McDougal Field, where somehow it never seems to rain whenever there's a game to play.

Not that Ethan's overjoyed by this. He plays catcher on the Clam Island Roosters, but it's mostly to please his recently-widowed father, Bruce Feld, the inventor of picofiber and the personal zeppelin—Ethan just can't seem to pay attention to the game, or hit a ball to save his life. In fact, he's just about ready to quit the team, although his best friend Jennifer T. Rideout, the pitcher for the Roosters, tells him that's "Not going to happen."

But then... the magic comes, inescapably. Mr. Feld is kidnapped by Coyote the Trickster, and Ethan, Jennifer and Thor Wignutt, another Clam Island Rooster who sometimes goes by the android name TW03, are taken scampering by the werefox Cutbelly among the branches of the world-spanning Tree (Yggdrasil, in all but name), on a desperate quest to rescue Mr. Feld, and almost incidentally to avert Ragged Rock, the prophesied end of everything.

The details of their quest are... well, they matter, of course, but in a way they're not even the point. Ethan learns how to play baseball from its inventors, the ferishers (don't call them faerie) and the whole book comes crashing to a very satisfying and cathartic crescendo. Happily ever after is, while not really a possibility, certainly hinted at.

As a father, Chabon knows what will hit home. I was unable to read this antepenultimate paragraph to my daughter without breaking...

"It was the kind of promise a father makes easily and sincerely, knowing at the same time that it will be impossible to keep. The truth of some promises is not as important as whether or not you can believe in them, with all your heart. A game of baseball can't really make a summer day last forever. A home run can't really heal all the broken places in our world, or in a single human heart. And there was no way that Mr. Feld could keep his promise never to leave Ethan again. All parents leave their children one day."
—p.480

While that may be true, it is devoutly to be hoped that you can hang around at least long enough to finish this book with them.(less)

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May 19, 2008 Von rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: brilliance, classicsworthreading, biscuits-and-gravy, unabashedunapologetictruth, sheer-brilliance

"They traded in their hell-hammers for bats, and their iron slippers for lace-up leather spikes. That's how all the demon virtues-patience, deception, quick hands, craftiness, an eye for the mistakes of others-they all got dragged deep into the game."

No, Mr. Chabon wasn't talking SPECIFICALLY about the New York Yankees...but we all get the reference, right? You know the feeling you get when you start reading something and internally you're going, "yeah, what he said, uhhuh, yup, oh yeah" and you...more

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Jan 04, 2008 ExterminationXIII rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Summerland, by Michael Chabon, is a baseball-themed novel about Ethan Feld and his friends'(Jenifer T. Rideout, Thor Wignutt, Cinquefoil the ferister, Taffy the sasquach, Cutbelly the werefox, Grim the giant, Pettipaw the wererat, and Spider-Rose the ferisher) attempt to defeat the evil Coyote (he's not a coyote, that's just his name). In this novel, Ethen starts out as a kid who is not that good at baseball and is on the worst team in Summerland. His dad loves baseball, so Ethan tries harder to...more

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Jan 02, 2008 Steve rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: you

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author take a stab at writing for young adults. A very clever fantasy incorporating our ‘real’ world with a parallel one that most mere humans don’t know about, this is adventure and fantasy in brilliant colorful language and solid, interesting characters, mostly young or not human. Ethan Field, the protagonist young fellow, is wonderful as he embarks on the challenge of rescuing his father from evil Coyote, and ends up working to save the world while he’s at it. The f...more

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Nov 23, 2007 Don rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: children who love wild adventure

While I had trouble falling into the story, the writing, as would be expected with venerable Mr. Chabon, was superb.

I read this book on the recommendation of my daughter and my wife as they both really loved the book. As a kids book goes, this thing is packed with everything that make children's literature memorable and stuffed with so much more that I hope children everywhere get the opportunity to read this book.

Using baseball as The Creation Story, Michael Chabon delightfully spins every co...more

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Jan 28, 2008 Joe rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Imagine Lord of the Rings if the characters stopped every couple days to play baseball.

Working within an amalgamation of Norse, Greek, and Native American mythology as well as American tall tales, Chabon tells a not atypical coming-of-age/quest story tied inextricably to baseball. Baseball, as it turns out, is not only America's pasttime, but also a sacred institution on the other planes of existence.
Ethan, a kid who hates baseball, must learn to love it as he battles his way across the Summerl...more

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Feb 18, 2009 Kerry rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fans of Harry Potter, of Chabon's other books

Shelves: fromthelibrary, ya, fantasy, messiah_complex

MAN I really liked this book! It was better in the middle than the end, but that's okay, that might be how I feel about all kid-goes-on-a-magical-journey, Joseph Campbell type stuff.

So! The storyline was familiar, as I already sort of alluded to above. But I didn't mind, because the writing is clever, the ideas are cute, and the characters were likeable, and not too cliche'. Most importantly, the story was FUN. Hooray for Summerland and also for baseball!

Everyone who liked Harry Potter should re...more

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Dec 09, 2007 Sarah Pi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fairy-tale-myth-fable, speculative-fiction, favorites

I loved this book. Not quite as much as Kavalier & Clay, but still in the five star range. It had a kind of Neil Gaiman-y take on myth. I love books that explore myth or archtypes in a modern context, but this was a really good example. I have to admit the characters were far more likeable and accessible to me than many of Gaiman's characters. I enjoy baseball but I can't say I'm a big baseball fan' this really conveyed a sense of what the true fans see in it. I haven't read Chabon's works o...more

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Jun 20, 2007 Samantha rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My favorite quote:
“A baseball game is nothing but a great slow contraption for getting you to pay attention to the cadence of a summer day"
(So, so, true.)

Summerland was difficult to get into, but I did enjoy it. The descriptions of baseball are great, the characters amusing, but the plot takes a while to develop and I found myself impatient while reading. The "baseball-ness" and the fantasy are well mingled, and this was great as these are two of my favorite genres.

As always, Michael Chabon pr...more

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Sep 03, 2012 Hannah Notess rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ya

A great summer novel and a great baseball novel and a ripping good yarn. Bonus points for being set on a mythical island in Puget Sound, Clam Island, so a perfect book for a lovely Northwest summer. Meanwhile, it's so pleasurable to read a story where, even if characters are traveling through strange lands and meeting mythical creatures, they are still characters first and foremost, and they grow and change as the story goes on (for contrast, see The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship ...more

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Aug 29, 2012 Πέτρος rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Summerland is your basic children’s adventure where some kid is summoned in a fairy land as a champion and given the task to save it from some villain. A twist is that it is supposed to do that by playing baseball instead of using magic swords or spells.

A lot of effort is given to flesh out the setting. Clam Island, the place on which the story takes place, feels very lively and memorable thanks to the numerous descriptions of how people live and work. Aesthetically speaking, I didn’t like it m...more Summerland is your basic children’s adventure where some kid is summoned in a fairy land as a champion and given the task to save it from some villain. A twist is that it is supposed to do that by playing baseball instead of using magic swords or spells.

A lot of effort is given to flesh out the setting. Clam Island, the place on which the story takes place, feels very lively and memorable thanks to the numerous descriptions of how people live and work. Aesthetically speaking, I didn’t like it much because it’s just too American for my tastes. Baseball, or any other sport, leaves me completely indifferent as well. It may feel very keen to the American readers but most others will probably dislike a pluralistic society where people eat clams and play baseball but are otherwise just a mismatch of elements from every civilization you can think of.

I can say the same thing about Summerland and the other fairy lands. They are a patchwork of mythologies and most of their elements are breezed through without much effort to flesh them out in any significant way. They are magical and have fancy names and lots of stuff happened in them thousands of years ago, and that is all there is to them. When the heroes walk through them, you only get someone talking about these places but they are otherwise not interacting or affecting them in any way. In fact, the world feels empty despite saying it is full of life. You get the main characters, their antagonists, and an empty background.

So I ended up disliking its constant infodumping, since so many pages were spent to describe a fancy fairy land that eventually had no importance plot-wise. It was supposed to just make you think “Whoah amazing images are going through my mind” but other than that zero interaction with all those images. Also, many of those descriptions are so messy, such as how Ethan originally went to Summerland. It will feel like he was grabbed by the neck and thrown on a new world where some mythological creature started to dictate how everything works without foreshadowing or even asking the poor kid if it wanted to take part in all this mess in the first place. This happens in many parts of the book and you basically get a lot of talking about epic matches that happened centuries ago amongst thousands of monsters and yet the plot itself is always about a bunch of kids playing short and friendly baseball matches with mythological creatures. Hardly exciting stuff.

Another thing I found stupid is how the characters always look for answers in books. They have these booklets that seem to contain the knowledge of the universe, pretty much like that one Donald Duck’s nephews have. Every time they are in a pinch, they look inside the book and in a few seconds they know exactly what to do and even how to beat elite baseball players with centuries of training. Talk about an easy way out…

There is another issue that you won’t realize unless you read the whole book. Most of it was describing events that had no significance. Basically you have these kids moving from one place to another, playing baseball with the local antagonists as means to solve their disputes in a civilized and sophisticated way, and after they win easily by reading some quote in a booklet, they leave and take an extra ally with them who is supposed to be part of their team in the final match in the end of the book. At first you are made to think all these extra characters that are constantly added to the gang will play an important role later on, or maybe they will affect the plot in a significant way. And sadly nothing happens; they remain as nothing more than eccentric comic relief minor characters with fancy names, weak characterization, and no purpose in the plot whatsoever. I got infuriated with how most of the book was pointless plot-wise and was there just to mention fancy places and eccentric minor characters without development or importance. All the main heroes ever needed were their booklets of infinite knowledge, and that hax club Ethan is using in his matches that can split seas and turn crap to chocolate mousse. Everything else? Fancy extra.

Another thing which disappointed me was how weak the main villain ended up being. For the lord of all that is evil, and for someone with his cunningness he was beaten quite anti-climactically. I loved how he was constantly exploiting everybody, and how he was always willing to kill and destroy anything that wasn’t important to him anymore. I also liked how elaborate was his plan to reset everything. He was so delightfully ruthless and cunning! And yet by the end of the story his schemes which took centuries of preparation just… fall apart with a breeze. What a drag!

So in all, the finale left me completely disappointed. It was rushed, cop-out, had a huge build-up with very little pay-off. And what a surprise, all of a sudden the world turned to a paradise just because we need a good ending. Lame!

I understand that it’s a children’s story but it could have been so much more if it was being more serious with what it has. I am pretty sure kids will like a lot its mythological setting and Americans will feel keen reading about something close to their society. It is a light read and makes your mind travel and has lots of cute moments and important life lessons. Other than that, it runs way too much on convenience and ends disappointingly, not because it has a bad ending but because it has very little to no pay-off. If seen as a story full of pretty images it is great but if seen as a story or character based plot, it sucks. Not that you should expect such things within the conventions of the genre but it could have been so much more with all the effort the author gave into creating such an elaborate world. It was like spending fifty pages to describe the piglet’s straw hut, only for the wolf to puff it down and never care about it afterwards. In all, I didn’t like it much. (less)

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Jul 04, 2012 T rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed reading this book. And I respect Chabon’s interest in exploring genre fiction, I really do. It’s just that there is something a little off about him when he does.
I have now read everything he has written except his book on fatherhood, which I will probably avoid. And the streak of truly inventive cleverness, the spark of ingenuity that illuminates all his writing is impressive. That is perhaps even more in evidence here than usual, as Summerlands is a book f...more Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed reading this book. And I respect Chabon’s interest in exploring genre fiction, I really do. It’s just that there is something a little off about him when he does.
I have now read everything he has written except his book on fatherhood, which I will probably avoid. And the streak of truly inventive cleverness, the spark of ingenuity that illuminates all his writing is impressive. That is perhaps even more in evidence here than usual, as Summerlands is a book for a younger audience, and so is meant to be fun. The fusing of textual tidbits and mythology and miscellany and cultural detritus is so thorough that you don’t know what is coming next. This along with a commitment to look steadily at the balance that is life, the expression of bad things as well as good, and meanness and charity, are the strengths of the book. And of course, there is the ability to write with an aptness, with the dexterity and finesse that create moments – to borrow a simile from Summerlands – that are like the ball hitting the sweet spot on the bat. No shortage of those here, as everywhere else in Chabon’s fiction. So what is missing?
I kept asking myself that. And I kept feeling it. I like the characters, and if anything, there are some who are underdeveloped, not rising to their potential. Pettipaw the Wererat, for example, is like an old bit actor stealing the show with five lines. The plot is as meandering as the mythic-pastiche form should be, and the baseball theme is as relentless as it is useful. It’s not as if you don’t know after the first fifty pages that the whole shebang will boil down to a game of baseball with cosmic significance.
When I read the Yiddish Policemen’s Union, I was blown away. The depth of invention, the blurring of lines between a hardboiled detective atmosphere and the modern novel was beautiful. And the variety and richness of all the things that got caught up in that net! Perhaps a little extreme and art filmy occasionally, with all the heaviness of the messiah hanging over everything; but I felt no hesitation in plunging into that world.
Summerlands is a very different case, of course. And I did plunge as far as I could. I was not put off by the anything-is-possible convention. Instead, it was a lingering sense that Chabon was not really committed, an air of insincerity, a feeling that the story never really put down roots. In the sense that this is a tale (overlong for such things but) with a moral, like a fairy tale, I suppose it is appropriate that it not get too rooted. But it has a much broader scope than that, it creates a world into which fairy tales are placed. I loved the characters, and I carried them around in my head for days, but when it came down to it, the story did not hit me in the stomach, but in the head. Here is the (spoiler alert) moral delivery paragraph itself:
“…I don’t want you ever to go away again.”
“I won’t,” said his father.
It was the kind of promise a father makes easily and sincerely, knowing at the same time that it will be impossible to keep. The truth of some promises is not as important as whether or not you can believe in them, with all your heat. A game of baseball can’t really make a summer day last forever. A home run can’t really heal all the broken places in our world, or in a single human heart. And there was no way that Mr. Feld could keep his promise never to leave Ethan again. All parents leave their children one day. Ethan knew that better now than he had ever known it before. But he was glad to have the promise nevertheless.”
It is not a particularly touchy-feely happily-ever-after, you must admit.
And now a curious note – the character who seems to have the genuine interest and magical creative juju of the author is the villain of the piece: Coyote. The thing is, having created a great avatar for the random unfairness that is life, in all his grinning horriblness and fun, he just gets flinked away at the end by a finger that comes out of a window in the sky! I’m sorry, but in all the glorious human creativeness in this book, the one figure you don’t expect to see is Christ, or either of his other pesky triumvirate personas either. Coyote may be sent packing with his tail between his legs, but he should get to keep the ball – foil his plans, yes, but even if they involve poisoning the very tree of life – no pearly gates beyond which no bad people can go, no Deus in the ex machina.
Just one atheist’s opinion.
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May 31, 2012 Sophie Friedland rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 4th-quarter

I read and reviewed this book for 4th quarter.

I really liked this book! It is so easy to picture in my head and even though it is a long book, the author did a great job writing it because I never got bored. Also, this is probably one of the best sports books I've read.

Summerland is a fiction/sports book about a boy named Ethan. The book takes place in the summertime on Clam Island, Washington and all Ethan's father wants him to do is play baseball. But Ethan is not good at baseball. Ethan's be...more

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Nov 15, 2011 Sarah Schulz rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Summerland – Michael Chabon

"A baseball game is nothing but a great slow contraption for getting you to pay attention to the cadence of a summer day.” – Michael Chabon

Summerland depicts an intricate and unique story of a boy, Ethan Feld, who has lost his mother to cancer, and seemlingly his father, who is completely engrossed in building a perfect, personal airship. Ethan is then uprooted from his home and moved to Clam Island, Washington. Little League baseball is a vital and essential pastim...more Summerland – Michael Chabon

"A baseball game is nothing but a great slow contraption for getting you to pay attention to the cadence of a summer day.” – Michael Chabon

Summerland depicts an intricate and unique story of a boy, Ethan Feld, who has lost his mother to cancer, and seemlingly his father, who is completely engrossed in building a perfect, personal airship. Ethan is then uprooted from his home and moved to Clam Island, Washington. Little League baseball is a vital and essential pastime at Clam Island, so it is quite unfortunate that Ethan happens to be terrible at the sport. Although he is not the best player, his teammates (Jennifer T. Rideout and Thor Wiggnut) do not hold it against him. It is known that most of Clam Island is rainy, especially in the northwest, but the baseball field that the team plays on is part of the Summerlands, which is magically graced with eternal sun and happiness. Nevertheless, eventually things become dark even at the magical field, which is when Ringfinger Brown recruits the young Ethan to become a hero to all the worlds. Ethan is told he will be working for the Ferishers, also known as faeries, in an attempt to stop Coyote, a deceitful devil, who is trying to sever the connection between the worlds by poisoning the Lodgepole. Ethan and his friends must defeat a host of baseball teams in order to save the day from the evil Coyote.

Although Chabon’s writing style and language can be difficult to understand at times, his technique was flawless. Chabon utilizes imagery to create completely new worlds that one could not have imagined before reading his book. The description of the other worlds (Summerlands, Winterlands, and the Gleaming) was extremely vivid and I felt as if I were standing alongside Ethan and his friends for the whole journey. I enjoyed how Chabon used American folklore (such as Paul Bunyan and Sasquatch), as well as Native American lore and Norse mythology.

Another technique Chabon uses in Summerland is the element of setting. Although the reader is where ever Ethan goes, the idea of Lodgepole, a giant tree that essentially is the universe, gives the reader a sense that the setting is much bigger than one could even imagine. The overall effect this has on the reader is that there could be other beings out there in a different world; we just need to open our eyes.

I believe these two techniques that Chabon uses tie back to the book as a whole because it allows the reader to better understand what is happening in the story by painting an extremely detailed picture. The setting description ensures the reader understands where the story is taking place as well as gives the reader an idea of what exactly Ethan must face. The wonderful imagery throughout the novel also helps the reader see and feel what the other worlds have to offer.

Summerland is a great book not only for young adults, but also for any baseball-loving child and adult. I would recommend this book to anyone.

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Nov 15, 2011 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It’s a game to go down in history books.

“Summerland.” Michael Chabon. Hyperion Books, New York, 2002.

In “Summerland,” Michael Chabon successfully creates a novel that mixes the fantastical and surreal with the real world that we know, all the while intriguing the reader to delve deeper into the mixture of worlds. Chabon uses various sources of mythology, such as Coyote from Native American mythology, to create the fictional surrealistic realm in which Ethan Feld, the main character, live. In add...more It’s a game to go down in history books.

“Summerland.” Michael Chabon. Hyperion Books, New York, 2002.

In “Summerland,” Michael Chabon successfully creates a novel that mixes the fantastical and surreal with the real world that we know, all the while intriguing the reader to delve deeper into the mixture of worlds. Chabon uses various sources of mythology, such as Coyote from Native American mythology, to create the fictional surrealistic realm in which Ethan Feld, the main character, live. In addition to these things, Chabon incorporates something that makes the story all the more realistic—America’s favorite past time, baseball.

While reading, the world and characters lead the reader to believe this is a book for young adults, yet the context is geared more towards adults. Ethan Feld is an eleven year old boy, forced to take on the fate of a race in a parallel world, a concept that only adults will fully understand—the cliché concept of keeping the weight of the world on the shoulders. The age and mannerisms of the characters lead to an expectation of this novel being geared towards the younger generation, yet the previous concept, in addition to the references, including mythological references, leads to the assumption that the novel is developed for a more mature audience. The execution in his ability to mix young adult story with adult concepts has inspired me to work on this in my own writing, so that stories can be geared toward differing age groups.

Chabon uses history, including mythology, to round out characters and plot line so as to make it more believable. Some of the most obvious mythology Michael Chabon incorporates is Native American and Norse mythology. The Native American mythology included in this novel varies from Coyote, used as the antagonist, to the Gleaming—which, I believe, is a spirit realm in Native American mythology. Norse mythology is also predominant in this novel, ranging from the name of the zepplina, Skidbladnir, to Loki, the name Coyote calls himself by—which in itself mixes the two differing mythologies into one. The research needed to correctly accomplish including mythological concepts is one that can be admired by fellow and aspiring writers alike, as it is a good example of the importance of research before writing.

Baseball is the device used to unite the two worlds—ours and the mythological one Chabon creates—together in “Summerland.” The ferishers, the little people of the other world, choose Ethan to play ball for them to save themselves in a game of the ages. To emphasize the roll of baseball in the story, and how this in itself becomes a conflict with the central character, the story begins with Ethan declaring “I hate baseball” (Chabon 3). Chabon provides an example of a technique to tie the entire story together; without including baseball, there would have no link between the worlds and it wouldn’t have made sense. It is this example that inspires me to take a closer look at pieces I have written to see if a uniting device should be added to benefit the story.

Altogether, “Summerland” is a literary masterpiece. Michael Chabon has accomplished in not only writing this for young adults, but incorporates techniques that only more mature audiences would understand and appreciate. Chabon also did thorough research to include mythology from different cultures, using them to create the characters and world that exists in this amazing novel. Baseball is the game that not only brings varying people in our own world together, but brings different beings from different worlds together for this story, it is the thing that is consistent in our world and Chabon’s. Bringing all these concepts together is what creates such an amazing story that Michael Chabon should be praised for creativity and literary excellence.
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Nov 14, 2011 Jordan Rigsby added it · review of another edition

Summerland is a book that takes you on a magical adventure that excites your imagination. Michael Chabon uses every page to take his readers into a world that most of us haven’t been in or thought about since childhood. It is obvious that Chabon is not normally a children’s writer, but a very talented adult writer who chose to show his imagination in a book focused toward children, but that can be enjoyed by adults as well. The story is one random, sporadic, wonderful rollercoaster of imaginatio...more Summerland is a book that takes you on a magical adventure that excites your imagination. Michael Chabon uses every page to take his readers into a world that most of us haven’t been in or thought about since childhood. It is obvious that Chabon is not normally a children’s writer, but a very talented adult writer who chose to show his imagination in a book focused toward children, but that can be enjoyed by adults as well. The story is one random, sporadic, wonderful rollercoaster of imagination and legend that takes one back and reminds us how to believe in fairies and giants again.
The main character is Ethan Feld, who lives on an Island off the coast of Washington with his dad. His mother had died a few years before, and his father, following a dream, moved them to Clam Island. His father is an engineer who is developing a type of material that is impenetrable, and doesn’t react to anything. He uses this material to create an envelope for a type of blimp. His father loves baseball, along with a most of the island. Ethan is on a team called the Roosters, along with his best friend Jennifer T. However unlike his father and Jennifer T, Ethan does not love baseball, he wants to quit but feels like it would disappoint his father too much.
The story really begins when Ethan meets the farisher’s, little fairie Indian people who live in the woods in Summerland. Summerland, where they play baseball and it never rains, is a gall, a place that joins two worlds. In this story the universe is held up by a giant tree, on this tree there are four branches; The Middling, Summerland, the Winterlands, and then a fourth world that has been lost. Ethan’s father is soon kidnapped by Coyote, who is the “Changer”. He has been around since anyone can remember, and is always trying to change things. He lies, cheats, and steals, and now is trying to bring the universe to an end so he can start it over. He needs Mr. Feld to create him a substance that can hold the most vile and poisonous substance in the Universe, Nothing. The story consists of Ethen, Jennifer T. and Thor start an adventure that will take them to giants, to be kidnapped by fairishers, to meet wearats, and wearfoxes. They become a makeshift traveling baseball league, because it is impossible to go through the summerlands without playing baseball, they call themselves the Shadowtails. They make their way through all of their adventures to Murmury well, the well that feeds the tree that holds the universe. Coyote plans to poison it. In the end Ethan saves the day by hitting a home run that releases Old Mr. Wood from where Coyote trapped him in the fourth world. The release lets out a flood that heals the world.
Michael Chabon did an amazing job writing this novel. It was almost like he took all the myths and legions he could find, and then combined them with imaginations of an entire class of six year olds. This combined with his beautiful prose and style; you get a book that makes you feel as if you are a child again. I hope that one day I not only have the talent, but the imagination to be able to create a novel or piece half as amazing as this.
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Nov 10, 2011 Ann rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novel, young-adult

Summerland was the uber-anticipated children’s novel of 2002. Essentially a 500-page baseball metaphor, it marked Chabon’s first foray into children’s literature, as well as his first novel after winning the Pulitzer in 2000 for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Harking back to C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy classics, Chabon taps 11-year-old Ethan Feld, “the worst ballplayer in the history of Clam Island, Washington,” to be MVP of the most important ballgame ever played in...more

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Sep 13, 2011 Cheryl rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Life is like baseball. Ethan Feld a less than enthusiast little leaguer dreads telling his father he doesn’t want to play baseball. Ethan and his inventor father who developed a new fiber to use in dirigibles moved to Clam Island WA after Ethan’s mother died of cancer. At the tip of Clam Island lies an enchanted baseball field where it never rains during baseball, where generations of Clam Islanders have played baseball. When Ethan has decided that he can’t face another humiliation on the ball f...more

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May 22, 2011 Neil rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

(A review from 2002 and the Washington Post, written before Coraline was published.)

It is possible to look at the growth of the phenomenon of “crossover” fiction – essentially, Children’s or Young Adult fiction which is enjoyed and consumed in quantity by adults – in several different ways. You could view it as a sad symptom of the creeping infantilisation of the culture. You could see it as a triumph of marketing. Or, more optimistically, you could view it as a need by adults for Story, without...more (A review from 2002 and the Washington Post, written before Coraline was published.)

It is possible to look at the growth of the phenomenon of “crossover” fiction – essentially, Children’s or Young Adult fiction which is enjoyed and consumed in quantity by adults – in several different ways. You could view it as a sad symptom of the creeping infantilisation of the culture. You could see it as a triumph of marketing. Or, more optimistically, you could view it as a need by adults for Story, without which children will not read. Engines of story drive the books of Diana Wynne Jones, Philip Pullman, and the rest of the recent crop of crossover authors. Many of their books are, by any standard, good books, and perhaps adults simply needed to be told that it was socially acceptable to read them in order to be coaxed to pick them up.

I wonder though if there isn’t another phenomenon at work here. Fiction only seems capable of existing in one ghetto at a time, so if your book is in what used, rudely, to be known as the kiddylit ghetto, then it is children’s fiction no matter what else it might be (fantasy, historical, horror, SF, humour, romance, and so on.). As a result of the enormous success of authors like J.K. Rowling and Pullman, adults in their millions have now read and enjoyed fantasy novels without ever having had to browse the fantasy shelves. For the most part, after all, the crossover books tell tales in which the joy of story is also the joy of the fantastic without apology, a freedom of children’s literature that can be lost at adulthood, where metaphor becomes literal, and genre restrictions apply.

But whatever the reason, the former kiddylit ghetto has become fashionable, the cool people are moving in, and property prices are starting to climb.

It’s hard to get cooler than Michael Chabon, whose last novel, the Pulitzer prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay displayed a love for and perception of popular culture and an understanding of the engines that drive the teenage mind. In Summerland he uses that understanding to tell a very different kind of story,.

Ethan Feld is a terrible baseball player. His widower inventor father builds airships. Ethan plays baseball in Summerland, on the tip of Clam Island, Washington, where it never rains.

When Feld Sr. is kidnapped by the evil Coyote, in order to bring about the end of everything, Ethan and his not-a-girlfriend Jennifer T. Rideout, accompanied by their odd friend Thor and Cinquefoil (an Indian “ferisher” -- not quite a fairy, inspired, one assumes, by the Native American tales of tribes of very small, magical people) have to follow him across the many worlds while putting together a baseball team.

The first hundred pages of set-up are less assured, in tone and style, than the rest of the book. But as soon as the kids flee Summerland, and head off into a great beyond to put their team together and save the universe, the story finds its game. That they will succeed is never in any doubt. That there will be reverses and alarums, setbacks and treacheries and fine lessons to be learned is also a given from the off. Ethan must learn to save himself and, ultimately, the world.

Coyote, whenever he appears, which is too seldom, steals scenes with ease and aplomb. He’s Coyote, sure, and he’s Loki and Prometheus and probably Bugs Bunny and the Squire of Gothos as well: a force unto himself, who is having too much fun trying to bring about Ragnarok – delightfully Hobson-Jobsonned by Chabon into “Ragged Rock”.

Standout sequences include a magnificently gory chapter involving some unfortunate werewolves and the queen of the shaggurts – frost giants with “appetites vast and bloody” [p 410], and a storyline set within the Tall Tale tradition, where Ethan and his team meet the Big Liars of Old Cat Landing, the tall tale people, all “lies and legends made flesh...[who] hung around Old Cat landing, haunting its bars and brothels” [p 346], now sadly shrunken by time and disbelief: Pecos Bill and Paul Bunyan and John Henry, Annie Christmas and the rest of them. It’s the place that Chabon comes closest to a genuine American mythopoeia and it is very fine indeed.

As a reader I sometimes felt shortchanged. It’s a thick book, but it could comfortably have been thicker: I wanted the better setpieces to go on longer, and to get more of a sense of what made the other members of Ethan’s baseball team tick -- with the exception of Ethan, Jennifer and the tragic she-sasquatch, Taffy, they seemed sketched, not painted. I wanted to see the games they lost. I wanted more.

But the engines that drive Summerland are real story engines, and they work hard to deliver: it’s a fantasy with a young protagonist, which fuses baseball, Native American tales, Norse myths and sundry shaggy god stories into a tasty, quest-driven stew. Whether this is enough, as the marketing material that accompanies the book trumpets, to make it “clearly and indisputably a classic” is much harder to judge, and one that time and popular taste will decide, not I. But it’s a rollicking and fine tale, well told and with moments of real magic, peril, adventure, terror and triumph in the mix, not to mention what is, I am certain, the most delightful sound of a window breaking in all of fiction. And that ought to be enough.
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Jan 12, 2011 Lis Carey rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: f-sf

This is a children's book addressed to relatively sophisticated young readers, and to adults who aren't embarrassed to be caught reading children's books. It's definitely not for children who are struggling with their reading skills, or adults who are going to be put off by Chabon's periodically directly addressing his presumed young audience, or who have forgotten how difficult it can be for intelligent children to communicate some things even to the most sympathetic of adults.

Summerland is set...more This is a children's book addressed to relatively sophisticated young readers, and to adults who aren't embarrassed to be caught reading children's books. It's definitely not for children who are struggling with their reading skills, or adults who are going to be put off by Chabon's periodically directly addressing his presumed young audience, or who have forgotten how difficult it can be for intelligent children to communicate some things even to the most sympathetic of adults.

Summerland is set on Clam Island, in Puget Sound, and tells of one harrowing summer for eleven-year-old Ethan Feld, his friends, his father, and the magical little creatures who call themselves ferishers. The summer starts badly for Ethan because the religion of Clam Island is children's baseball, and Ethan is really, really bad at baseball. Because it's a source of constant humiliation and disappointment for him, he naturally hates it. Of course, his father, a gentle if somewhat distracted soul, is the biggest baseball fan on Clam Island, making it difficult for Ethan to simply quit. And on the day when Ethan's baseball humiliation becomes unbearable to him, he starts seeing and hearing impossible things--first a bushbaby, or maybe a fox, or a lemur, or maybe something else, on the road to the game; then a strangely little black man who makes audible comments to Ethan from too far away, and whom no one else seems to notice at all, and finally strange men tearing up the land around an abandoned resort hotel on the most magical and perfect part of the island, when Ethan runs away from the humiliating experience of the baseball game.

The little black man is Chiron Brown, a talent scout of a very odd kind. The bushbaby, or fox, or lemur, is Cutbelly, Ethan's guide to the world of the ferishers. The ferishers need Ethan's dubious talent as a champion, to save their world, the Summerland, from being completely severed from our world, the Middling, by Coyote and his minions--the sinister gang Ethan saw at the abandoned hotel. Ethan is naturally reluctant to believe that any of this is anything other than a weird delusion, but when his father is kidnapped by Coyote's chief minion, Robin Padfoot, he has to do something. What he does is recruit a couple of his teammates, Jennifer T. Rideout (the best pitcher the Ruth's Fluff-n-Fold Roosters have), and Thor Wignutt (who is convinced he's an alien android) and follow Cutbelly to the Summerland.

Coyote's ambitions prove to be much greater and more dangerous than merely severing the Summerland and the Middling, and Ethan and his painfully recruited band of would-be heroes (Grim the [little] Giant, Spider-Rose the ferisher princess, Taffy the Sasquatch, barnstorm their way across the Summerland, losing most of their games and falling further and further behind in their struggle to reach the root of the Tree in time to stop Coyote, save the universe, and rescue Ethan's father. It's all grim and frightening enough to satisfy bloodthirsty young minds, without being so scary as to terrify their parents into snatching it out of their hands. Recommended.(less)

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Sep 14, 2010 Margaret rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The best I can describe this is Narnia meets "Field of Dreams." Except that where Narnia has that ineffable air of England, this is pure Americana - cowboys and Indians, tall takes, the Wild West, and of course, baseball. Really it feels like parts of it should be narrated by James Earl Jones, the way he did the paean to the sport in the Field of Dreams.

Ethan Feld lives on Clam Island in Puget Sound, and hates baseball. He's the worst player on his team, though his teammates don't hate him for i...more The best I can describe this is Narnia meets "Field of Dreams." Except that where Narnia has that ineffable air of England, this is pure Americana - cowboys and Indians, tall takes, the Wild West, and of course, baseball. Really it feels like parts of it should be narrated by James Earl Jones, the way he did the paean to the sport in the Field of Dreams.

Ethan Feld lives on Clam Island in Puget Sound, and hates baseball. He's the worst player on his team, though his teammates don't hate him for it, including his pal Jennifer T. Rideout, a budding pitcher. While most of their island is the typically rainy northwest, the ballfield lies in the mythical Summerland, favored by a quirk of weather to be enternally sunny and pleasant. But when things turn dark even there, Ethan is scouted by Ringfinger Brown to be a hero, working for the ferishers, or faeries. Ethan, along with his father and Jennifer, are taken to their mythical world to help fight Coyote, who is trying to end the connections between worlds, poison the great tree that supports the world, and end the Universe. It's the bottom of the ninth, last out, and Ethan and his rag-tag gang must play a host of teams on their travels to save the day.

The book features a plethora of American myths and stories - including Native American lore, the tall tales of Paul Bunyan, and Sasquatch. History factors in too, but mostly as it ties to baseball, with stories of the Negro Leagues, and depictions of sport as the popular pastime of the working-class.

The language can be difficult at times. Chabon has many of his characters speak a sort of faux-wild west patois that takes some getting used to. And the story can be a bit slow-moving - like baseball. But while the language can be complex, the basic story is a bit young, your basic hero's quest, through faraway lands and with faithful friends and amusing sidekicks. There are a few more complex issues dealt with: Ethan's mother died years ago, and his father never really recovered. More complex is Jennifer's story - a ne'er-do-well father and absent mother, along with racial issues (she's part Native American). Chabon touches on this all very lightly, but that might be a good way to approach the issues with younger children.

The book is so closely tied to baseball that I doubt very much that a child who is not a fan of the game would enjoy it at all. I'm not sure what to do for a what to read next: Harry Potter if they haven't already read it, and fantasy fans can move on to Terry Pratchett maybe. Baseball kids could try Kinsella's "Shoeless Joe" or maybe some of Mike Lupica's work (no fantasy but plenty of sports).(less)

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Nov 29, 2009 Kali rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adventure, dorky-boy-books, fairy-tales-and-legends, fantasy, teen

Ethan Feld plays Little League baseball at the Summerlands, a little peninsula of land where the weather is perfectly idyllic year-round (though Ethan’s game doesn’t match the climate—he holds the team record for most errors and fewest hits). The Summerlands also provides a link between our world and other worlds, and it is through this path that the trickster Coyote creeps to kidnap Ethan’s inventor father. Much to Ethan’s surprise, he is recruited by the Ferishers, the fairy-like tribe of base...more

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Jun 27, 2009 Taejas Kudva rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: good young readers with stamina

Recommended to Taejas by: the cover (forget that addage)

Shelves: a-bit-older-than-kids-books

This book wanted to be a five. I wanted to give it a five. Despite my difficulty finding kids to read it, I can't give it a three.

First, mythology rocks. Mixing mythologies is satisfying, and much more socially conscious than mixing metaphors.

Second, action/adventure has become synonymous because of movies, but adventure is still really it's own thing. Saving the world from Ragnarok via baseball, sans sword and fire? Adventure!

Third, tough female protagonist not simply relegated to sidekick or t...more

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Jun 11, 2009 Libby rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, young-adult-fiction

I was intrigued by an author who writes in a variety of diverse genres. Most writers stick to one and get really good at it, but Chabon likes to jump around. Even within the young adult genre, this is the most unique book I've read. The story is almost indescribable, but familiar at the same time.

Based in four interconnected worlds with characters of all shapes and sizes, the one linking factor is baseball. Baseball, literally, rules all the worlds. Significant events in our world (the Middling)...more

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Feb 17, 2013 Maggie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Technically a 3.5 star rating.

There was all of the beauty, magic and wonderment that children's literature gets to revel in that I miss greatly from most of adult literature. If there's any magic in adult fiction, it's automatically categorized as 'fantasy' or 'sci-fi,' as if its appeal is limited as a result, while magic is an automatic assumption/given in children's/YA literature.

Of course, I also very much enjoyed and appreciate the celebration of baseball as a fundamental fabric of life and...more

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Aug 09, 2012 Margaret rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: author-to-look-for

Something prompted Penny Alistair to deliberately crash her boyfriend's jeep after attending a graduation party on the beach at Nantucket. She dies promptly, but her twin brother is pulled from the wreckage with multiple broken bones. Her boyfriend is unharmed and Demeter, the last person to have a conversation with Penny before the accident is also unharmed. On an island where it is common for everyone to know each other's business, it turns out that there are many secrets that have been well k...more

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Apr 09, 2011 Stacia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-for-kids

READ THIS BOOK. Then read it to your children, especially the boys, or the girls who've yet to fall under the Twilight spell. Read it them while they are still young enough to believe in fairy tales (per CS Lewis), and then let them read it again on their own. Read it if you or they love baseball; read it if you're put off by Chronicles of Narnia and A Wrinkle in Time> because of their underlying Christian theology and wish there was something as magical as those books without the baggage; re...more READ THIS BOOK. Then read it to your children, especially the boys, or the girls who've yet to fall under the Twilight spell. Read it them while they are still young enough to believe in fairy tales (per CS Lewis), and then let them read it again on their own. Read it if you or they love baseball; read it if you're put off by Chronicles of Narnia and A Wrinkle in Time> because of their underlying Christian theology and wish there was something as magical as those books without the baggage; read it if you love those two books and wish there was something as good as those for our time; read it with a fox, in a box,in a house, with a mouse, read it here or there, read it anywhere. Just read this damn book, okay?

Indebted equally to E.B. White (master stylists who turn their hand to children's literature); CS Lewis (children crossing into magical lands and encountering all that which is rumored to be just rumor); Joseph Campbell (the universality of heroes), Michael Chabon has created a piece of literature for the still-able-to-believe-in-magic set that is meant to reside on the bookshelf with those-considered-classics, and which yet demands its own spotlighted space. Interweaving multiple mythologies and legend strains--baseball, Native American, Scandinavian, Celtic faerie, 19th century American Tall Tales and a brief nod to Greek -- Summerlands proffers not only all are stories true, but that all stories are one. To wit: Chiron Brown has scouted heroes ranging from Achilles, to Moses, to the current protagonists Ethan Feld and Jennifer T. Rideout; the book's villain, Coyote, is variously know as Loki, Shaitan, the Raven, among other incarnations. Faeries (fair folk, ferishers), Sasquatches, Yetis, werewolves, shapeshifters and the Three Fates all make their appearances; one is, thankfully spared the appearance of either Shoeless Joe Jackson or a vampire for the entire course of the book.

There's more than enough for the moderately well-read adult (parent, aunt, uncle, fairly oddparent) to gnaw upon -- ranging from subtle reference to Arthur Dent's packing (Ethan takes a toothbrush, but, surprisingly, not a towel), or a bittersweet allusion to David Foster Wallace (one character cannot eat lobster because they can not distance themselves from the thought of whether the lobster feels pain as its immersed in boiling water), to guess-which-Big-Liar-is-which-American-Tall-Tale-Character. (If you can't at least establish who is Paul Bunyan, John Henry and Pecos Bill, you have some supplemental reading to do.) And, claiming its space in geek literature, the book is immensely quotable. But while the grown-ups are chewing over those flavorful pieces of gristle, the young'uns will be captivated by the main plot. Which is (as distilled for my son, before handing the book off to him): A boy and his best friend (a girl, but one you'd like to hang out with) save the world by playing baseball. And that alone is probably on the only reason one needs to read this book.

A word of warning, however: It could, perhaps, be the source of any number of senior's theses in American Studies/Comp Lit come the year 2022.

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Jul 23, 2010 Joanna Vaught rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

name a writing gimmick that is used in fantasy, particularly young adult fantasy, and i'm sure it was employed here. an alternate reality that is tied to our reality that explains all the mythological and fantastical characters in our collective mythos? yes. time works differently in this world, so you can be there and be gone for a lifetime or only a few minutes or SHOCK even go back in time? yes. a powerful nemesis who is actually the embodiment of every known evil since the beginning of time,...more

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May 28, 2010 Leslie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult

THIS is what a young adult book should be! Fantastic writing, compelling story. I almost didn't check it out because it's 500 pages long and I wasn't in the mood, but I'm ever so glad I did. It turned out to be a quick read.

I need to stop saying I'm not a baseball fan. Just about every book I read or movie I watch with a baseball theme (carefully chosen) turns out to be a joy, and this is no exception. I should start saying I don't follow baseball, because it's boring.

This story is definitely a...more

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avg rating	preview: Summerland Goodreads rating: 3.51 (6527 ratings)
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