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Four-Finger Singer and His Late Wife, Kate: A Novel of Life, Death & Baseball
In the tradition of W.P. Kinsella’s Shoeless Joe ( Field of Dreams ) comes a darkly comic novel of life, love, death, and baseball. The only son of overachieving parents, Jake Singer goes from left-handed Little League legend to pro baseball prospect at Stanford. When a freak accident involving mob enforcers and a case of mistaken identity interrupts his budding career, he retreats to law school (“I’m not sure what’s having your index finger forcibly amputated by a mob goon or spending three years at Harvard Law School”). Years later in Cambridge, he meets Kate, lately arrived from Iowa, a perky twenty-year-old waitress with a secret past. An unlikely romance blossoms into an unlikely marriage—one quickly plagued by a parade of blunders and revelations. Haunted by her missteps and in the throes of leaving her husband, Kate suffers a catastrophic rendezvous with a runaway truck. While Jake finds solace in an improbable return to baseball, Kate transcends her sudden, tragic death, resolving to redeem herself posthumously, interceding in her widower’s life in a well-intentioned but often hilarious campaign to ensure his success on the ball field and in the bedroom.
286 pages, Paperback
Published May 15, 2019
About the author
Arthur D. Hittner
12 books18 followersARTHUR D. HITTNER, author of the art-related historical novels "Michelangelo of the Midway," "The Caroline Paintings" and "Artist, Soldier, Lover, Muse;" the rambunctious coming-of-age in the Sixties novel, "The Amorous Adventures of Charlie Meyer," and the humorous baseball novel "Four-Finger Singer and His Late Wife, Kate," is also the author of "Honus Wagner: The Life of Baseball's 'Flying Dutchman'" (McFarland, 1996), winner of the Seymour Medal awarded by the Society of American Baseball Research for the best book of baseball history or biography published in 1996; "At the Threshold of Brilliance:The Brief but Splendid Career of Harold J. Rabinovitz" (The Rabinovitz Project, 2014), a biography and catalogue raisonne of a newly rediscovered master of American art of the Depression era; and the irreverent travelogue, "Cross-Country Chronicles: Road Trips Through the Art and Soul of America." Mr. Hittner has also written about fine art subjects for Maine Antique Digest, Fine Art Connoisseur and Antiques & Fine Art and has served as a Trustee of the Danforth Museum of Art and the Tucson Museum of Art. For more information, visit his author website, www.hittnerbooks.com. The author is always available to participate in book club discussions over Zoom upon request (please contact via author website).
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 15, 2020
This is an engaging, light-hearted book about redemption and the pursuit of the American Dream - with a twist.
Jake is an overachiever and Harvard trained lawyer married to Kate, a girl far below his social status, who carries a secret from her past.
Their marriage is far from harmonious bliss and when fate intervenes, Jake sees his whole world turned upside down.
Unhappy at work, Jake finds his old fastball at age thirty-three and re-ignites his baseball career, which had abruptly ended years earlier when he lost a finger on this pitching hand.
An unexpected but familiar voice from the grave helps him achieve the success on the diamond he always longed for.
There are romantic entanglements, including between Jake and a voluptuous neighbor, and humorous scenes both on and off the baseball field.
Told mostly from the perspective of Jake and Kate, this a well-written book with fairly well-developed characters.
Jake is an overachiever and Harvard trained lawyer married to Kate, a girl far below his social status, who carries a secret from her past.
Their marriage is far from harmonious bliss and when fate intervenes, Jake sees his whole world turned upside down.
Unhappy at work, Jake finds his old fastball at age thirty-three and re-ignites his baseball career, which had abruptly ended years earlier when he lost a finger on this pitching hand.
An unexpected but familiar voice from the grave helps him achieve the success on the diamond he always longed for.
There are romantic entanglements, including between Jake and a voluptuous neighbor, and humorous scenes both on and off the baseball field.
Told mostly from the perspective of Jake and Kate, this a well-written book with fairly well-developed characters.
May 14, 2019
This book will appeal to three kinds of readers: those who admire good writing, those who love baseball and want to see more of it from the inside, and fans of Neil Gaiman.
Arthur Hittner’s two novels, as well as his multiple non-fiction books, encompass two of his main passions: baseball and art. The first, Artist, Soldier, Lover, Muse, I re-viewed in mid-2018. In pre-retirement life he was a corporate lawyer in Boston but now has time to follow his muse — much like Singer, his four-fingered lefty. The short-age of one finger on his pitching hand is a big part of the story.
His non-fiction has covered baseball (Honus Wagner), art (Harold J. Rabinovitz, the model for his first novel), and cross-country travel, which he does frequently be-tween his two bases in Massachusetts and Arizona.
Jake Singer is a lawyer in Cambridge having a drink or three with his buddies when he meets Kate, “A little wisp of a girl in a starched white blouse and a short black skirt,” who arrived to take his order. In one short paragraph he sums up her first day on the job and a page or two later — goaded by his drinking buddies — he’s asked her out. He starts out, as he narrates in one of the alternating first-person chapters, looking like a clerk in a Brooks Brothers store but Kate redirects him toward his more casual side. Along the way she rekindles his interest the promising baseball career that fizzled with the loss of his finger.
They marry, try and fail to conceive, which brings serious strains between them, and Kate dies, victim of a hit-and-run just at the time she’s preparing to leave him. Except that she doesn’t really leave, and it’s her role as the late wife that guides him to a reinvigorated if short baseball career.
This is the part that reminded me of Neil Gaiman’s 2001 opus American Gods. In that classic work the protagonist Shadow is released from prison a few days early be-cause Laura, the wife he’s spent his entire sentence anticipating, is killed in an auto accident. Except that she, like Kate, hangs around.
Hittner is a good writer, so I expected an easy-to-read novel. But I was surprised at the pure skill displayed in the first chapter. Read it and you’ll read the rest.
—
I read an advance PDF and have ordered the Kindle edition.
This review first appeared on my blog PartTimeParisian.com, where I also reviewed his first novel, Artist, Soldier, Lover, Muse.
Arthur Hittner’s two novels, as well as his multiple non-fiction books, encompass two of his main passions: baseball and art. The first, Artist, Soldier, Lover, Muse, I re-viewed in mid-2018. In pre-retirement life he was a corporate lawyer in Boston but now has time to follow his muse — much like Singer, his four-fingered lefty. The short-age of one finger on his pitching hand is a big part of the story.
His non-fiction has covered baseball (Honus Wagner), art (Harold J. Rabinovitz, the model for his first novel), and cross-country travel, which he does frequently be-tween his two bases in Massachusetts and Arizona.
Jake Singer is a lawyer in Cambridge having a drink or three with his buddies when he meets Kate, “A little wisp of a girl in a starched white blouse and a short black skirt,” who arrived to take his order. In one short paragraph he sums up her first day on the job and a page or two later — goaded by his drinking buddies — he’s asked her out. He starts out, as he narrates in one of the alternating first-person chapters, looking like a clerk in a Brooks Brothers store but Kate redirects him toward his more casual side. Along the way she rekindles his interest the promising baseball career that fizzled with the loss of his finger.
They marry, try and fail to conceive, which brings serious strains between them, and Kate dies, victim of a hit-and-run just at the time she’s preparing to leave him. Except that she doesn’t really leave, and it’s her role as the late wife that guides him to a reinvigorated if short baseball career.
This is the part that reminded me of Neil Gaiman’s 2001 opus American Gods. In that classic work the protagonist Shadow is released from prison a few days early be-cause Laura, the wife he’s spent his entire sentence anticipating, is killed in an auto accident. Except that she, like Kate, hangs around.
Hittner is a good writer, so I expected an easy-to-read novel. But I was surprised at the pure skill displayed in the first chapter. Read it and you’ll read the rest.
—
I read an advance PDF and have ordered the Kindle edition.
This review first appeared on my blog PartTimeParisian.com, where I also reviewed his first novel, Artist, Soldier, Lover, Muse.
June 10, 2019
A well-written, comedic, and not-to-miss novel by Arthur Hittner. Once again, Hittner hits it out of the park with this semi-chicky, sports fiction commentary on life and death. You'll nod in agreement over modern day issues as well as laugh yourself to tears over giant reproductive inducing underwear. Full of warmth and love, Four-Finger Singer is one of my favorite reads this year.
Get the full review on The Uncorked Librarian here (and support your local indie authors): https://theuncorkedlibrarian.com/four...
(I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review.)
Get the full review on The Uncorked Librarian here (and support your local indie authors): https://theuncorkedlibrarian.com/four...
(I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review.)
April 2, 2020
What a treat. It was almost worth being forced to stay inside as I had the time to read this delightful book. I'm always skeptical of novels that involve baseball because baseball is never the focus of the book but here, baseball is front and center. The clever use of baseball and the author's obvious knowledge of the game, mixed with a great story and well-drawn characters, bring this to the pantheon of baseball novels. The story never lingers, and there isn't a wasted word, as it propels to a wonderful finish. It's "The Lovely Bones" meets "Shoeless Joe" and more. I loved this book.
April 4, 2020
Won as Goodreads Giveaway. That I enjoyed this book as much as I did surprised me, as I am not a baseball fan. Yet I found myself rooting for the characters throughout this take on love, and the chance to follow one’s dream.
March 26, 2020
A goodreads giveaway.
An interesting mix of baseball, life drama and paranormal. A good read that is very well written. The baseball is a fun approach to every boy's dream of baseball.
An interesting mix of baseball, life drama and paranormal. A good read that is very well written. The baseball is a fun approach to every boy's dream of baseball.
April 7, 2020
Kept my attention throughout
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews