Magic Time (History & Heritage) [Hardcover]

W. P. Kinsella (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 2001 | Series: History & Heritage

Magic Time is vintage Kinsella. It is a novel of hope and promise and baseball that becomes humorous, enchanting fiction.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

reviously published in Canada and optioned for film by the producer of The Natural, this is a warmhearted, homespun novel by the award-winning author of 30 books including Shoeless Joe, which was made into the Academy Award-nominated Kevin Costner movie Field of Dreams. When LSU's phenomenal second baseman Mike Houle turns down a signing bonus from the Montreal Expos in order to complete his senior year and graduate, his performance on the field declines, and he is passed over in the next draft. Desperate for another chance, he accepts his agent's offer to sharpen his skills, playing the next season for Grand Mound, Iowa, in the conspicuously anonymous semipro Cornbelt League. While the semipro circuit pays a modest salary plus room and board with a local sponsor, it also requires the players to work at regular day jobs, usually provided by the local businessmen sponsors. Mike soon discovers that the town is populated by former players who married local girls and stayed on to raise families, and it just so happens that his sponsor has a beautiful daughter. During the preseason, Mike falls for the girl, and the plot thickens when his widower dad comes to see him play and is invited to stay at the home of a comely widow. Is this paradise, or is it an all-too-comfortable prison? Feeling betrayed, Mike takes another offer, but soon finds that the grass is not always greener. This soft lob of a novel doesn't fly quite as high as the author's previous home-run hits, but satisfies with its endearing characters and baseball lore. (Nov.)Forecast: Kinsella's fans should respond well to this title, and if the promise of a film version is realized, look for even bigger sales later on.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Still dreaming of a major-league baseball career, Mike Houle signs on with Grand Mound, Iowa, of the semipro Cornbelt League. He lives with the Powell family and in the mornings works in Emmett Powell's insurance office; in the evenings, he sits on the porch with Emmett's daughter. The rhythms of small-town life are seductive, but something is wrong: the team only plays intrasquad games; somehow the real games keep being rescheduled. Numerous former players--recruited as Mike was--have married local girls and stayed on in Grand Mound. Gradually, it become clear to Mike that he was enticed to Grand Mound for reasons that have nothing to do with baseball. Kinsella, author of Shoeless Joe (1982), which was made into the movie Field of Dreams, once again paints a very attractive if idealized portrait of pastoral small-town life. It's as though Rod Serling borrowed Frank Capra's plot to create a Twilight Zone episode called "It Could Be A Wonderful Life." A sentimental but clear-eyed parable about how we make the choices in our lives. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Voyageur Press (November 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0896585751
• ISBN-13: 978-0896585751
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,240,913 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Home Run, January 7, 2002

By 

S. A. Cartwright "Stu Cartwright" (Wayland, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Magic Time (History & Heritage) (Hardcover)

The Publisher's Weekly review above pretty much misses the central thesis: Does Mike Houle want to live an assured life "in the fairway" or take his chances that he might "drive out of bounds?" It's classic risk/reward that we all face in our lives, written eloquently in a well told tale. The mini-stories within about the conflicted slugger Barry McMartin, the rules- bending Roger Cash, and the protaganist's father Gil Houle are rich and imaginative. Between the covers, this one is better than Shoeless Joe.

[Incidently, I am a big Kinsella fan ever since he flew across the continent to appear at openning day of Pupque Park...a miniature replica of Fenway built by 2 enterprising high school boys in their backyard in Wayland, MA. A great day, Kinsella was the star of this Jimmy Fund event despite appearances by Spaceman Bill Lee and Rich Gedman. Thanks for coming,WPK!]

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars interesting, if not a little disjointed, February 8, 2002

By 

Daniel Reade (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Magic Time (History & Heritage) (Hardcover)

While I'm normally a fan of W.P. Kinsella, I found this book to be very disjointed. Its important for potential readers to know that the book is built around various short stories that Kinsella has written at various times. The central story itself is an expansion of an earlier short story, "The Dixon Cornbelt League". While I found the central story fascinating, the whole experience of the book suffered because entire chapters are devoted to old short stories that have nothing to do with the central plot of the novel. While I recommend this book, I think potential readers should beware that instead of getting an independent novel, you're getting a group of repackaged short stories.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Is This Heaven? No, It's Iowa (and a pretty good book), May 13, 2002

By 

Winslow Bunny "Winslow_Bunny" (Rockledge, Florida United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Magic Time (History & Heritage) (Hardcover)

W.P. Kinsella, transplanted from Canada to Iowa, writes about two of his favorite topics in Magic Time: Iowa and baseball. As those are two of my more favorite subjects, I read Magic Time and came away a little less satisfied than I would have hoped to be. The story opens with the background/childhood of Mike Houle, hustling baseball player (in a good sense). The first few chapters are consumed with an oft-told story concerning baseball distances; if you haven't heard the story before, I won't spoil it for you except to say that it has been around and used in stories over the years. Mike goes on to make himself into a minor star in college but didn't quite have enough "talent" to be drafted into the minor leagues, to put it politely. His agent lands him a spot in the Cornbelt League in Iowa, with the Grand Mound team. The other teams in the league, spread out along U.S. 30 in eastern Iowa, also appear to draft players, give them day jobs and have plenty of time for the players to practice. Eventually, though, the secrets of the Cornbelt League are discovered: there's more sociology taking place here than league baseball games. While the book does have its moments of disjointedness and pleasure, I found the most enjoyable part of the book was in considering the notion of what the people of Grand Mound were trying to do, and what a baseball player would do in the same situation: stay or go? Accept what I was or prove everyone wrong? Having lived in a small town in eastern Iowa up the road aways from U.S. 30, and having loved living there, I think Mike was getting a heck of a deal - if he could appreciate it. But then, that's part of the fun of reading, placing ourselves in the character's position. Magic Time can certainly give you the opportunity to do that - and it does it pretty well.