Castro's Curveball [Hardcover]

Tim Wendel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 9, 1999

Fresh, original, and peopled with a rich cast of colorful characters, Castro's Curveball captures the passion of baseball and the vibrant flavor of Cuba in a grand-slam work of fiction.

Whether you believe in fate, the stars, a Supreme Being, or Mr. Coincidence, you can always count on one thing--life will throw you a wicked curveball or two. Billy Bryan has seen his share. A former minor-league catcher for the Washington Senators, Bryan is now a retired high school teacher, widowed with a grown daughter, and "coming to the end of many things." Then a long-forgotten scrapbook stirs memories of a distant past--and beckons him on a reluctant journey to relive his own extraordinary role in history. . . .

In 1947, Bryan is playing winter ball in Cuba, immersing himself in the decadent nightlife of Havana, and dreaming of someday "making it" to the majors. But his future on the diamond is as uncertain as Cuba itself, a country where rumblings of revolution hang in the air like a high fly ball to left. Then one fateful night Bryan witnesses a young student radical named Fidel hurl pitch after amazing pitch. So begins Billy's tug-of-war with destiny--to score a victory for the game he worships, win the heart of the woman he loves, or make his mark in a world racing toward revolution. . . .

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Everybody has a past; some are more intriguing than others. When retired schoolteacher Billy Bryan's daughter begins cleaning his house a few days after his wife's death, she finds in the forgotten pages of his dusty scrapbook part of a past she's never known. The memories they invoke send the grieving Billy--"I think God has fed me a breaking ball to keep me off balance"--and his daughter on a remarkable journey back to his youth, where, as a major-league hopeful, he played winter baseball in Cuba half a century ago. It was there that his life changed when he crossed paths with a young student radical with a dynamite curve and a revolutionary's fire named Fidel Castro.

Wendel's lustrous prose and imaginative storytelling paint a vivid portrait of a life not just lived, but inhaled against a backdrop of a nation mad for baseball and not far from political and social upheaval. Having caught Castro's extraordinarily feathery curveball in an exhibition, Billy befriends the future leader, falling under his charismatic spell and enormous dreams for a new nation. Billy also falls, deeply, for a beautiful Cuban photographer who is so caught by Castro's visions that destiny deems the strands of their lives can never twine. "Castro was a hurricane unto himself," Billy recalls. "When I first met him, that side of him seemed refreshing, almost funny in a strange way." But the closer he got to Cuba's future leader, the more that would change. Just how much--and at what personal cost--is the secret that Billy, now an old man on a return trip to his past, must confront as if it were a fastball down the heart of his life, and make his peace with it at last. --Jeff Silverman

From Publishers Weekly

In a touch of iconoclastic ingenuity, Wendel builds on evidence of the youthful Fidel Castro's athletic prowess and pitching ability to construct an outstanding sports novel that also closely observes Cuban society and politics. In fact, he casts the Cuban dictator in what American sports lovers consider a heroic role: baseball player. The account opens in the present with septuagenarian Billy Bryan and his daughter, Cassy, arriving surreptitiously on the island. The trip is inspired by Cassy's discovery of a 1947 photo that shows her father, then an aging winter leaguer, in a friendly pose with a youthful Fidel. Flashbacks return Billy to the halcyon days of prerevolutionary Havana, when nightclubs, casinos, mobsters, prostitutes, secret police and baseball thrived in a nation on the brink of upheaval. Billy recalls his last season with the Havana Lions, and also his love affair with the beautiful Malena Fonseca, photographer of the revolution and friend to Castro. In possession of a phenomenal bender that flummoxes the best hitters, Castro has a future in the game that Billy himself, sadly, does not, and Billy is commissioned to sign and seal the promising star for the Washington Senators. Wendel's knowledge of baseball?the jargon, the players?enlivens the novel with some of the best game-action sequences in fiction. (The players' conversation, alas, lacks the casual profanity endemic to the sport, and thus is less credible than it might be.) Wendel also has a demonstrable feeling for Havana, then and now, and an understanding of the revolution and what it meant to both its leaders and its once hopeful, now hapless adherents. The love story, however, is a little too pat, focusing more on steamy looks, silly spats and lightweight sex than on powerful emotion. Castro comes off as an egocentric but not entirely bad fellow. But USA Today Baseball Weekly journalist Wendel (Going for the Gold) writes smooth, sometimes elegant prose, and his portrait of Cuba is multifaceted and intriguing. (Feb.) FYI: In an author's note, Wendel provides background about the youthful Castro's athletic prowess and his pitching ability.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 286 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1st edition (February 9, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345424417
• ISBN-13: 978-0345424419
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,424,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tim Wendel is the author of nine books -- novels and narrative nonfiction. His writing has appeared in Esquire, GQ, Gargoyle, The New York Times, The Washington Post and USA Today, where he is on the op-ed page's board of contributors. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University, he teaches nonfiction and fiction writing there. More of his stories can be found at www.timwendel.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Even the casual baseball fan will enjoy it., September 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Castro's Curveball (Hardcover)

Tim Wendel is an excellent writer. I am not a baseball fanatic, but I certainly had more of an appreciation for the game after reading this well written, intriguing book. The writer's passion for baseball oozes out of every page. He also gives the reader an interesting tour of Cuba --its culture, history, politics, landscape and love of baseball. The whole premise of the book is creative and imaginative. Wendel is successful in making the reader believe that Fidel Castro really did had a wicked curveball that could have landed him in a major league baseball career if he hadn't been such a die-hard revolutionary. It was interesting to see an author tackle the challenge of writing a book of fiction about a current political figure like Fidel Castro. I will closely follow Tim Wendel's writing career and will be eager to read his next book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A cult classic, January 6, 2000

By 

Tom Stanton (Detroit, Michigan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Castro's Curveball (Hardcover)

Wendel weaves a wonderful baseball love story, as magical in its own way as W.P. Kinsella's Shoeless Joe. For years, I've admired Wendel's pieces in national publications. This debut novel shows him to be a versatile, deft writer. Castro's Curveball pulls you in and holds you until the last page. This work will resonate with anyone who's ever looked deep into his own heart and revisited his past. I look forward to his next book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Baseball in Cuba in the 1950's, April 5, 2005

By 

Mary F. Blackwell - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Castro's Curveball (Paperback)

If you enjoy baseball, history, and like good writing, you will enjoy reading Castro's Curveball. It is set in Cuba during the 1950's, tells the story of a U.S. ballplayer who plays winter ball in Cuba and meets a young Cuban, Fidel Castro, who is a would-be pitcher. It is a well written and intersting story about baseball, about the players, about the Cuban people, and about Cuba in the 1950s.