Rick's review of The Natural
The Natural by Bernard Malamud
A darker novel than the film based upon it but despite some brilliant moments still a disappointment as a baseball novel or simply a novel, including its say it ain’t so, Joe/Mighty Casey strikes out ending. The blend of mythic epic and gritty realism never quite blends. And Hobbs, the hero, isn’t particularly likable. In the movie he hits the big homer and ends up with Iris; in the book, bubkus dissolving into tears. Both, however, have shallow invention in common.
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