In his debut novel, The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach examines the lives of 5 people and the ways in which their paths intersect at the fictional Westish College in Wisconsin. Henry Skrimshander, the main character, is a socially awkward yet preternaturally good shortstop. Mike Schwartz in the dedicated catcher for the Westish Harpooners who discovers Henry during a summer league game and persuades him to attend Westish. Guert Affenlight is the president of the college, and Pella is his daughter, recently returned to Wisconsin (and her father) after having left her domineering husband in California. Lastly, there is Owen Dunne, Henry's room-and teammate.

The Art of Fielding is about baseball. The title of the novel refers to Henry's bible, a book of wisdom for infielders written by Henry's favorite player. One of the main story lines of the novel concerns the progress of the Harpooners through the season. In the 100 year history of the college, they have never won a conference championship, but they have never had a player as good as Henry, either.

The Art of Fielding is not really about baseball. The relationships between the 5 characters mentioned above (in addition to some well-rounded secondary characters) bind the various plotlines together, and these relationships--especially in the late chapters of the novel--form the center of Harbach's considerations of love, loyalty, and identity.

I enjoyed The Art of Fielding a great deal. It is, at just over 500 pages, a long novel, and some parts--in the middle third, say--drag a bit, but it is a quick read with short chapters. For the most part, Harbach keeps the action moving. Harbach's characterization is a strength of the book, as we always know the thoughts and motivations of the main characters. The most recent book I completed before this one was Jeffrey Eugenides The Marriage Plot, and I am tempted to say that Harbach draws his secondary characters more sharply that Eugenides does his main characters.

I read a lot, and I read--I think--a lot of good stuff. Still, it is not often the I pause during reading to admire how good the writing is. But I did for this book. After I finished chapter 73--a turning point, even climactic for one of the characters--I just shook my head, not believing (except I had just read it) how good, how lovely the chapter was.

My favorite quotation from the book: "You loved it because you considered it an art: an apparently pointless affair, undertaken by people with special aptitude, which sidestepped attempts to paraphrase its value yet somehow seemed to communicate something true about The Human Condition. The Human Condition being, basically, that we're alive and have access to beauty, can even erratically create it, but will someday be dead and will not."