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Cooperstown: A Novel
 
 
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Cooperstown: A Novel [Paperback]

Eugena Pilek (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Price: $22.95 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
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Paperback, June 28, 2005 $22.95  

Book Description

June 28, 2005
An exceptional debut novel lovingly probes the values of faith, family, community, and America's favorite pastime, baseball -- from a captivating new voice in contemporary fiction.

Cooperstown, New York, in 1979 (the year Willie Mays was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame), is a close-knit community where gossip is sovereign and baseball is the great American religion. Seen through the eyes of Dr. Kerwin Chylak, a psychiatrist who has recently moved to town with his family, the citizens of Cooperstown are a wildly eclectic team of players that includes an alcohol-befuddled mayor determined to be more than a footnote to history; the town busybody who pitches missiles of miscommunication; a disillusioned ex-ball player turned warrior; and a sports writer who detests baseball. Little do these ordinary people know that they are about to be thrust into an extraordinary situation as the construction of a baseball theme park threatens their quaint way of life. Teetering on the cusp of a decade in which commercialism could swallow them whole, they are spurred to action -- with unexpected, poignant, often hilarious results.

Full of baseball legend and lore and featuring an unforgettable cast of unconventional characters, Cooperstown probes the hearts and minds of small-town America. It is a celebration of life in all its struggles, sorrows, and sudden slides into victory.


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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cooperstown, N.Y., home to the Baseball Hall of Fame, is also home to folks whose lives have been shaped (sometimes to their detriment) by America's favorite pastime. As in any small town, there are those who love it and those who rail against the invisible chains that keep them there. Pilek's citizens include a psychiatrist at least as interested in medicating himself as helping any of his patients; a former high school baseball star who seems to have collapsed mentally; a sportswriter who hates baseball; and an eccentric, tippling mayor who will do just about anything to preserve his town's image. It's 1979, and though the local storefronts are slowly turning into souvenir shops, the town still retains its old magic—but a proposed baseball theme park may change that. Pilek, US Weekly's book editor, gathers her characters together around the mystery of a missing letter, a device that can't quite meld such disparate, dense and interesting story lines, but she has a real feel for the rhythms of smalltown life, even as it's in the throes of change, and a fine hand with her characters and the game of baseball itself.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Cooperstown is a loopy tribute to both baseball and the small-town upstate novel."

-- Stewart O'Nan, coauthor of Faithful and author of The Good Wife

"A hilarious farce matching up oddball characters, national myths, local politics, historical forces, psychoanalysis, high school sports legends, gossipy neighbors, explosive secrets, and damn good writing."

-- Kevin Guilfoile, author of Cast of Shadows


Product Details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Touchstone; Original edition (June 28, 2005)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0743266943
  • ISBN-13: 978-0743266949
  • Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,642,093 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Starts off slow, but features interesting characters and small-town intrigue, January 9, 2006
This review is from: Cooperstown: A Novel (Paperback)
Being a baseball fan and having visited Cooperstown several times myself, I was curious about this book, especially since one of the main characters is a psychiatrist (I'm a psychologist). However, during the first half of the novel, I almost gave up on it several times, as the author is prone to providing ecruciating detail in the form of long, rambling prose. The story opens in 1957, when the four members of the town's self-appointed ruling cabal discover something about Coopertown's history that could change their lives forever (the reader doesn't find out exactly what until the very end of the book). The author then fast-forwards to the late 1970s, the summer that Willie Mays was inducted into the Hall of Fame. At this point, two of the town's elders have died, and the village's secret kept by the remaining two--plus a younger, forced-honorary member--is starting to unravel.

Author Pilek presents an interesting cast of characters which spans two generations (namely, the original four keepers of the Cooperstown mystery and their children). However, in the first half of the book, she spends too much time delving into the minds of each character while the reader is compelled to wait patiently for the plot to continue. I stuck it out, and in the second half of the novel, there is definitely more story development and thus much more to hold the reader's interest. However, the final revelation of the town's secret is somewhat disappointing, which sheds some dissatisfaction over the conclusion as well. This is a book best suited to fans of quirky, small-town comedies such as NOBODY'S FOOL, and not necessarily for baseball fans.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars an upstate NY "confederacy of dunces", September 5, 2005
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This review is from: Cooperstown: A Novel (Paperback)
hilarious book, great characters and a solid evocation of Cooperstown's true character. (helps that i grew up there.) A worthwhile read
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great small town comedy, July 31, 2005
This review is from: Cooperstown: A Novel (Paperback)
Pilek creates great characters and slapstick situations, like John Irving at his most absurd.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
The psychiatric ward of the Selma Wellmix Sanitarium in Cooperstown, New York, sits back on a hill on a cozy street called Fair. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
historical guild, baseball museum, snow dome, induction ceremony, old stone bridge
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Hall of Fame, Main Street, Baseball Library, Doubleday Field, The Journal, New York, Little League, James Fenimore Cooper, Terry Daulton, Willie Mays, Duke Cartwright, Hall of Heroes, Abner Doubleday, Babe Ruth, Bobblehead Joe, Amos the Fuss, Frank Paquette, Chuck Daulton, Fair Street, Farm Stead, Johnny Fusselback, Manny Barrett, River Street, Stanley Auffswich, Town Library
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