Customer Reviews

Castro's Curveball

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Wendel captures Cuba at its crossroads - the Carribean Las Vegas about to become a third world nation, frozen in time.

The story line is one of hope - the hope of a career minor leaguer trying to make it to the bigs, as well as the hope of a revolutionary trying to change a country. Both characters brought together by the love of the game of baseball.

Wendel captures the struggle of each, complete in the knowledge that a price has to be paid before the goal is ever, if ever, attained. The minor leaguer paying the price of having to play winter ball to improve; the revolutionary paying the price of having to gain momemtum from true grass roots politics.

Wendel is masterful at showing how the love of baseball can bring together radically different people in a peaceful setting, and afterwards, just as at games today, everyone goes their own ways, each with a different opinion of what was the best thing about what happened that day at the ballpark.

A great book that showed me why a person like Castro, so villified today, could reach out and gain the love and trust of his fellow countrymen.

I recommend the book highly.

This well-written book examines the question of whether Fidel Castro ever signed a contract to pitch in the major leages. Of course, it's a fiction book, but seemingly based on some facts. The author concludes that Fidel did sign such a contract, but you must read the book to get all the details, and how and why it happened.

Reading this book is almost like having a tour of Havana in the late 1940s.with all its glitter, glamour, and sinfullness. It's almost as if the author had been there during that time, and visited the places about which he writes. Of course, he was too young to have done that, so his imagination and research appears quite excellent.

We have a story of an early 30s (in years) American ball player working in the winter league in Cuba, who happens upon an interesting young college student who has an excellent curveball. That student is Castro, before he became the leader of the revolution that brought him to power in the late 1950s. In this book he is just beginning his anti-government journey, and it shows him in a somewhat human way, with both virtues and vices.

There is a love story, and a nostalgic journey back to Cuba by the now much older player, which takes place in the late 1990s. It's a bittersweet story of love, longing., loneliness and revolution. It's well worth reading, if only for the views of old Havana, and the idea of what might have been if Fidel's contract had actually existed, and he came to America to play basll.

I found Castros' Curveball a wonderful ride through an amazing journey. Whether you are a history buff, a romantic, a sports fan or just an avid reader, there is a strong enough story to keep those pages turning. Tim Wendell should be comended for bringing these characters to life. I found myself wordering throughout the book -- is this fact or fiction?

I HIGHLY recommend it. An excellent Bookclub selection!

This is the first summer where I've spent any time at all following baseball: I initially picked this book up purely because of the ball and glove on the cover. A few pages in, I was completely intrigued by Wendel's elaboration on the legend/myth of Castro being signed by the major leagues. This book was interesting in much the same way as Julia Alvarez's "Year of the Butterflies"; that is, it drew me into a part of history that I know little about and made me intrigued enough to want to read more on the topic.

"He wore thick, black-framed glasses and slipperlike shoes, with a white dress shirt and ruffles and frills coming untucked from his black pants. He looked like a combination of a maitre d' and a matador." But oh could he pitch. Thus Castro makes his appearance in Wendel's fine first novel. And from that point Wendel had me hooked. No escape. Castro's Curveball is fast paced, a joy to read and to remember."

Mr. Wendel has certainly driven one deep. This book is a great read, both in its storyline and also in Mr. Wendel's depiction of the Cuba that was, a delicious mix of beauty, deception, and unrest that would soon boil over and destroy the nation. Mr. Wendel does a great job in giving us Billy Bryan's perspective- a seventy-plus year old man, educated by the world and its cruel lessons. His narrative is simple, yet very insightful, and it struck a nerve. The baseball scenes are on the money, and Billy's true love, Malena, shows just enough of herself to make the reader want to know more. Castro,despite what others have said, gets about as much character analysis and development as he needs. Can anyone say "opportunist"? We see his type every day in the news. Again, Mr. Wendel has done a great job.

I have Tim Wendel's book sitting on my bookshelf waiting for it to become a movie. It is an adventure into the 'old' baseball era where players were still hometown heroes and fans carried on a love affair with their favorite team. The author's set, windup and pitch delivered a great little story that entertained me through the final words and left me wishing for just one more chapter. I am a fan.