Shoeless Joe by W.P Kinsella

[Logan]

Baseball, Ghosts and a Trip to the past, present and future
Shoeless Joe – W.P Kinsella
Review by Logan Sitkin

The book Shoeless Joe tells the story of a baseball crazed man named Ray Kinsella, who lives on a farm in Iowa. Ray is obsessed with the story of Shoeless Joe Jackson, who many people believed he was wrongly banned from baseball. One night when out on his cornfield, a ghostly voice from the sky urges Ray to convert his cornfield into a baseball field. The voice says, “If you build it he will come”. Later, the voices calls to Ray “Ease his Pain”. At great financial risk, Ray converts his cornfield to a baseball field, so Shoeless Joe can return from the dead and have a chance at redemption. Shoeless Joe encourages Ray to embark on a journey around the country to find other ghosts of baseball players, coaches and writers so they can return and enjoy the game of baseball. Ray had given up baseball at a young age refusing to play the game his father loved. Why was Ray compelled to take this journey? What will “ease his pain”?

I found the book was a very enjoyable read. However, at some moments, I felt the plot was a little drab, and the ending was predictable but overall, it kept me interested. The character development of Ray during his endeavors building the field, chasing ghosts of baseball past, and dealing with personal problems that shows that he is not just a baseball crazed lunatic, but he is someone trying to connect with his past (his deceased dad), his present (his wife) and the future (his daughter). Baseball is the vehicle that allows Ray to take this journey that connects his past with the present and the future. A quote from the book tells us the connected storyline of baseball and Ray, “I don't have to tell you that the one constant through all the years has been baseball. America has been erased like a blackboard, only to be rebuilt and then erased again. But baseball has marked time while America has rolled by like a procession of steamrollers.” SPOILER ALERT! At the end of the story, as Ray tries to understand why he built the field and these deceased famous baseball players where playing on his field, he started to play catch with a young catcher who is the ghost of his father. Playing the simple game of catch with the ghost of his father with his wife and daughter watching brought peace to Ray. The journey through baseball was for Ray to ease his own pain.