The Art of Fielding

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

In a small Division III school, the Westish Harpooners baseball team have doggedly trained, with lackluster results, for the duration of their existence.  Henry, an unassuming, scrawny speck of a shortstop, was keenly scouted by his team captain Mike ,who is a man about campus with a talent for football, baseball, beers and literary history.  Henry soon rockets his team into national visibility.  Henry comes across as simple, especially compared to his erudite and eminently scholarshipped roommate Owen, who is a fellow teammate (although with an entirely more casual attitude towards practice), but Henry's transcendental understanding of Aparicio Rodriguez's baseball bible, reveals the talent of Henry's sporting mind.

Intertwining with the players are Guert Affenlight, the enigmatic Westish president, and his disaster-courting daughter Pella.  Affenlight's beautiful affair with a student leaves one grappling with preconceived ideas of morality, while Pella's bohemian approach to life and love which leaves many messes in her wake ultimately makes her less lovable.

Wonderfully intertwined into this book are spot-on literary references, which were never over done.  There is a lot of Melville in this book, which imbues the pages with a bit of a literary affair.  Harbach's prose is crisp and succinct and rich with subtext, and he has placed himself in the esteemed footsteps of the American literary giants.