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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Working through the Pain, June 10, 2004
Double Play introduces a new Parker hero, Joseph Burke, who barely survived a machine gun at Guadalcanal while serving as a Marine in World War II. Back in the states, he doesn't know where he is . . . but he's sure someone's out to get him. After a long physical recovery, his emotional recovery just begins as the story opens. Burke is a tough guy, and (like Spenser) takes up boxing. But he's better at pounding away and surviving a punch than "floating like a bee" and he soon has to find another line of work. Having scruples makes him a poor enforcer, so he finds himself becoming a body guard. His first job is for a woman who needs to be protected from an abusive boyfriend who's connected . . . and her own bad habits. When that job ends, Burke finds himself in Brooklyn being asked to play the same role for Dodger rookie Jackie Robinson. The book reminds me of Huckleberry Finn with Jim on the Mississippi in many ways, as Burke finds himself not fitting into either the African-American or the WASP communities as he does his bodyguard work. Burke's awareness of what Jackie Robinson is going through grows, and the reader finds himself taken back to a world that we are hopefully leaving behind as fast as possible where race counted rather than what you did. Atop of this setting, Mr. Parker overlays gangland vendettas, a love story and his own perspective as a 15 year old on that fateful season in Brooklyn. For secondary entertainment, you can match up each character in the story to a character from the Spenser books. Although I think Susan would be annoyed to be matched to many of these female characters.
The book has a weakness though that's annoying. It's a little too glib and easy about dealing with the racial hatred of the times. You end up feeling like you are reading about hazing rather than hate. Any Spenser fan will enjoy seeing the variety of seeing the challenges of doing the right thing from the perspective of pain and numbness rather than from joy and happiness.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
At the top of his form, July 7, 2004
This is Parker on the stretch, away from his favorite characters, away from his Boston setting, plunged into the past. When he's stretched he's at the top of his form and demonstrates his moves on every page. Most of all, the Jackie Robinson story is a story about a time and the first third of the book is background. Parker does the postwar period masterfully and the interspersed personal chapters are a nice, innovative touch. They've drawn some criticism, unwarranted in my opinion. The characters are fresh, the plotting and dialogue as economical as the best Parker, the resolution touching. I read it straight through, disrupting all of my prior plans for the day, and not regretting a moment of it.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of Parker's best, September 30, 2004
I loved "Double Play." It's been a long time since a book has so resonated in my consciousness. Let me tell you why.
Robert B. Parker and I are about the same age. We were both 14 in the summer of 1947 when most of his book takes place. Like Mr. Parker, I spent my youth listening to ballgames on the radio. I, too, had been a Brooklyn Dodgers fan (until the summer of 1946 when they were supplanted in my affections by the St. Louis Cardinals - but that's a story for another time). I, too, listened to all the wonderful old radio shows of the day, Jack Benny, Fibber McGee and Molly, and on and on that Mr. Parker discusses in his "Bobby" sequences. I saw Jackie Robinson play against the Cardinals in St Louis in that summer of his rookie year, 1947 - I wonder where Burke was? Mr. Parker's mother, a spirited woman who he describes as, "often wrong, but never in doubt," and his father, who dealt with his wife's bossiness with slightly bemused tolerance, reminded me of my own parents' personalities and relationship. Even the unconscious racism of 1940s Springfield, Mass. was reminiscent of the racism that prevailed in Oklahoma City at the time.
The exciting story of the developing respect between Burke, the tough WW-II combat veteran, failed boxer, and body guard; and Jackie Robinson is well told and a lot of fun. Sure their relationship has overtones of Spencer and Hawk but, what the heck, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." And we can always count on a Robert B. Parker novel to give us three dimensional characters and smart, endlessly entertaining dialog. For example, Burke, although only about 22 in 1947, is older than his time on earth would indicate - and infinitely sadder, too. I think I would have liked "Double Play" a lot, even without its connections to my own childhood but the combination of Mr. Parker's formidable storytelling talent and the time in which his book is set served to make it doubly rewarding for me.
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