one of the many qualities that sets michael chabon's writing well beyond the realm of his contemporaries is his obvious love of craft. throughout his works it is apparent that he finds sheer joy in the art of storytelling. chabon's enthusiasm for literature is far-reaching, as is evidenced by his ability to write engagingly well in many a different genre. no two chabon books are ever all that similar, and as his career evolves, he seems set on authoring works entirely unlike their predecessors. literary fiction, speculative fiction (sci-fi?), swashbuckling adventure tales, short stories, autobiographical essays, and a young adult novel; it appears chabon's talent and imagination are nearly limitless.

summerland is a fantastic and inventive tale which, while written for a young audience, would find favor with anyone who admires a well-told, creative work of fiction. much has been made of summerland and its comparisons to tolkien and cs lewis are more complimentary than anything. commingling many a different mythology (norse, greek, native american, and american folklore) with his own imaginative and interdependent worlds and chimerical characters, chabon has conjured an epic tale like no other. with baseball as the common thread that weaves the story together, summerland is an homage to youth, play, discovery, imagination, and belief in one's self. like many great works of fiction, chabon's mythical world opens us up to the spectacular possibilities inherent in our own.

"to grasp the fundamental truth: a baseball game is nothing but a great slow contraption for getting you to pay attention to the cadence of a summer day."

and in that moment he felt- for the first time that optimistic and cheerful boy allowed himself to feel- how badly made life was, how flawed. no matter how richly furnished you made it, with all the noise and variety of Something, Nothing always found a way in, seeped through the cracks and patches. mr. feld was right; life was like baseball, filled with loss and error, with bad hops and wild pitches, a game in which even champions lost almost as often as they won, and even the best hitters were put out seventy percent of the time.