A Flatland Fable [Hardcover]

Joe Coomer (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

His third novel (after Decatur Road and Kentucky Love, establishes Coomer as one of our most talented young writers. If A Flatland Fable has a moral, it could be this: even in the dullest of places, unexpected and wonderful things can happen. There is certainly not a lot to do in Eckley, a town whose largest employer is the Eckley Grain Elevator. But the flat land is perfect for baseball; the events of the novel take place on the day of the big Little League game. Horgan is the Little League coach, the town fireman, and an unambitious but likable guy. Vaguely dissatisfied, he feels he has spent his life waiting for things, as if some momentous event is always just about to occur. By the end of the day, he is no longer bored. In the meantime, he tries to make his wife Kidder pregnant, visits his dying father in the hospital, and attends to some fires. Coomer also affectionately describes the activities of Sickopoose, Pillsneck, Shrugsby et al., the endearing, pint-sized members of the team, as they prepare for the evening's game by sliding into chickens, throwing balls at roofs and mothers, and setting fires. Coomer brings Eckley to life with a loving eye for detail, an original, dry humor, and a strong sense of story and rhythm. Written to a human scale, this fable is absorbing, astonishing, and lovely.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Horgan's observation that "life is what happens while you are waiting for something else" summarizes this beautiful novel by a young Texas author. Horgan, at 40, has been waiting for life to happen. As Eckley's fireman and Little League baseball coach, he waits for a fire; he anticipates a win. As a devoted family man, he awaits the impending death of his father; he anticipates news that the long-awaited first child is finally conceived. He awaits some things without realizing that he waits. Then, without warning, the waiting ends, and this one day in Horgan's life makes up for all the others. A story for everyone who has ever anticipated an eventa life. A Flatland Fable combines a wonderful prose style and striking imagery into a thoroughly enjoyable tale. Highly recommended. Thomas L. Kilpatrick, Southern Illinois Univ. at Carbondale Lib.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 167 pages
• Publisher: Texas Monthly Pr; First Edition edition (April 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877190445
• ISBN-13: 978-0877190448
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,451,667 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Flatland Fable easily rates in my top 5 novels of all time, November 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: A Flatland Fable (Paperback)

I hate baseball. Even with liberal helpings of beer and good company, I can't sit through more than a couple of innings without pining for hardwood with squeaking sneakers, or pads cracking, or a good ol' fashioned foot race. However, I understand its niche in the American culture and in the hearts of so many of us. That must be the reason I am such a sucker for baseball novels and movies. A Flatland Fable by Joe Coomer is truly about the nuances of baseball as cultural diety and moral backdrop.

Horgan is a 40 year old fireman in the smallest and flattest of small, flat towns. In the course of a day he learns his place in the grand scheme of things. He has been waiting for life to happen and, finally, it does. (Or has it been happening all along?) Questions are answered concerning his dying father, his lost mother, his uninsemenated wife and the nearly-mediocre baseball team he coaches.

The spiritual and emotional lift I experienced when first reading this novel left me baffled. This short novel compressed the thoughts of a character's lifetime into a single day and a couple of hundred pages. To experience something with the kind of impact this provided , I've had to read many more pages to appreciate the character's plight. A Flatland Fable is terse, like a poem, short and jammed with meaning.

Joe Coomer's other early works--The Decatur Road, Kentucky Love, and The Loop-- evoke similar emotional responses to a tale of everyday life, while stirring philosophical musings.

Sometimes the story unfolds in a Dickensian fashion with secrets being revealed and new questions arising as the old ones are answered. That is, however, only a vehicle for the larger purpose of animating the main character who is so much like most of us that the reader will adore him for the undiscipined, lifeless Everyman that he is. He's George Baily without the idealism, Andy Taylor without the Wisdom, Huckleberry Finn, old and burdened with pseudo-responsibilities.

Do not pass this monumentally great read even if the undercurrent of an anticipated baseball game makes you squeamish.