Customer Reviews

A Nice Tuesday: A Memoir

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4 star:		(2)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is not about baseball, and it is not a sequel to "A False Spring," which was a classic in its own right. It is also not about dogs, cigars, fast cars or South Florida, although all of those things figure prominently in the book. Instead, "A Nice Tuesday" is a deeper, fuller portrait of an unusually talented guy living out his life as best he can despite a nagging feeling that he has failed.

That may not sound particularly interesting, but Pat Jordan himself is a far better subject than 99% of the atheletes he usually writes about. He is an intelligent guy, with a wide range of interests. His writing captures that struggle we all go through of being able to perceive our shortcomings and only have limited success trying to change them. But, at least he does try. In this book, he's completely unafraid to reveal himself through his writing.

Beyond this, Jordan is a very skilled writer. He has a great sense of judgment as to what will capture and keep the reader's attention. He doesn't abuse this gift by lingering on his stories too long. There are dozens of memorable scenes and vignettes in this book, but it does not come off as being choppy or disorganized. The connections make sense to Jordan, and he convinces the reader that they should make sense.

Although this is non-fiction, the book "A Nice Tuesday" resembles most closely is "The World According to Garp" by John Irving. I mean that as a compliment; Garp is one of my favorite books of all time. For me, the similarities are in how Jordan and Garp are both fascinating individuals who have improbable life experiences -- much more interesting than the rest of us -- develop a unique way of looking at life, surround themselves with unusual, even quirky companions and still manage to come off as average guys. Just as John Irving novels have wrestling, dancing bears, New England prep schools and scenes in Vienna, Austria, Pat Jordan's life has baseball, dogs, cigars and Florida. We can relate to these elements, but the books are more than the sum of the elements. Neither Irving's novels nor Jordan's memoir are about these things. They just give the writer an excuse to display talent, skill and a unique way of looking at the world.

"A Nice Tuesday" also conveys Jordan's sense of inevitable doom -- this obviously comes from the heart -- which reminds me of the "Under Toad" in Garp. Jordan knows that he always drives the people he loves away from him, but can't figure out why and can't seem to stop the process. How honest and uncommon to admit this secret fear that so many of us have.

A Nice Tuesday is an excellent choice for any adult reader, male or female, young, middle aged or old. It has humor, insight and poignancy. It is much more rewarding than any sports book I have ever read and should not be cheapened by that label. It would have been just as good a book if he had not pitched in the minor league game.

This is a wonderfully intimate look into the life of a failed baseball pitcher who comes to embrace life's reversals and use them to his advantage. Without fully realizing the success he had become, author Jordan sought, after thirty years, to find his lost baseball career. Instead we read how he comes to find peace in his family, friends, and pets. The author's sensativity is not eclipsed by his gruff personality - it is enhanced. He is nothing if not a contradiction. Child pitching star and professional baseball failure. Father to five children who do not speak to him, and patriarch to a group of loving "usual suspects". A husband of questionable value to his first wife, but of ultimate worth to his second. A dog-owner who through a lack of sensativity allowed his childhood pet to die of lonliness, but who in his middle age devotes himself to a pack of noble hounds who teach him more about life than his parents were able to do. Author Pat Jordan takes us into places most people would not invite us to visit. We learn more of life than of baseball in A NICE TUESDAY. A pitcher's tunnel vision, his ability to focus only on the throw, was something lacking in Jordan's sports career - he saw too much. What was a flaw for him as a pitcher is what makes him a great author. This story has as its backdrop the game of baseball. But at its core it is a story of a man's journey through life and all the pains and pleasures that life brings. This book will appeal to baseball fans, but its reach is far broader.

This book sneaks up on you. Jordan writes not just of baseball, but of life, death, failure, dog-packs and teenagers, cigars and smugglers, estrangement and reconciliation. One paraphrase stays with me about his life...when signed for a $50,000 bonus in 1959, Jordan cried because he did not break a record for bonus signings. Nevermind that the amount was more than either his father or brother had seen in a lifetime! He says in retrospect, "I never appreciated the gifts I was given, because I was so busy paying attention to the gifts I wanted!" At 56, and considerably more humble, Jordan writes of a life that is about redemption, and has a message for all of us. His writing is raw, but resonant. Read this if you are a fan of baseball, love it because he is a true storyteller.

I don't think I can add much to the praise bestowed upon this book by the previous reviewers, other than to mention two things I found special about this memoir (come on Amazon proofreaders, get it right!).
1. I found the book an incredibly interesting portrait of a man that is eerily DISsimilar to myself, yet I could relate and empathise with his life and dreams.
2. Chapter Three, which is a self-deprecating look at a typical day in the life of a man "...rooted in his routine." is one of the best individual chapters of any book I have read recently. He describes an unremarkable S. Florida day with such clarity and humor that I found myself thinking as I read, "yeah, and then what did you do?"

I am moving on to A False Spring with anticipation...

This was a well-written memoir, up to a point, by a well-known jerk. The author cruelly betrays the confidences of the teenager he hires to catch him. He thinks about noone but himself.

Nevertheless, the book is very readable until his emotional breakdown in the closing chapters: after exhibiting a near-complete disregard for most of the human beings he encounters, he completely falls apart at the death of his dogs, dissolving into near hysteria.

What a mess. What a jerk.

Stick with A False Spring, which also shows Jordan up as jerk, but remains a classic nonetheless.

I bought this book because I enjoyed a False Spring many years ago. I was truly not disappointed. Pat Jordan is so honest that it doesn't matter whether you are reading his books as a sports fan or not, you become interested in his life. Unusual events happenn to him and he writes about them unusually well.

It must have been my lucky day when I found this gem in a remainder bin. I picked it to peruse from idle curiosity about the cover and title, not because I knew anything about Pat Jordan. Boy, was I ever ignorant.

I read a sentence, then a paragraph, then a page, and when hypnotized, I didn't want to stop there; so I bought it for the quality of its prose. I couldn't wait to start reading from the front and found it as funny, and occasionally profound, as it was well written.

First off, this is a memoir or autobiography written by someone that knows a lot about baseball, not a baseball book per se. Only the extremely obtuse would read it solely in the context of some imagined "baseball comeback" genre. The "Nice Tuesday" of the title is the day the author works towards in all his life relationships...baseball paralleling the personal stuff.

Jordan reflects on his Connecticut childhood, brief baseball celebrity, drag racing, gambling, father/son, brother/brother, dogs, Florida, writing, aging and yes, pitching with this engaging narrative. Above all else it is a book about how a man works out how to handle himself within the context of family (for better or worse) and career. It's a book about how to write the script of your own life. I don't know whether I'd get along with Jordan, the man, but he is a gifted, intelligent, honest writer.

In spirit, a Cross between Jim Bouton's classic 'Ball Four' and a novel by Hemingway of Salter. As soon as I finished this book I ordered his earlier work "A False Spring" and forced a close friend to read my copy of "A Nice Tuesday." Don't be afraid to pay full price, it's worth twice the cover!

I was on the field and helped warm up Pat Jordan in the bullpen before his appearance on the mound during his game with the Waterbury Spirit. His description of the locker room, stadium, and mentality of the players was accurate.

I hope that he still enjoys his memory as an independent baseball player as much as many of us do. The book is a fun read, and the chapter of his time right before the game is hysterical!

Dear Pat,
I finished reading your book, A Nice Tuesday, today while waiting in the dentist's office - a bit of pleasure before pain. Because it was a real pleasure reading your story. I found myself laughing out loud in many parts of the book. My wife kept asking me what was so funny. But then when I'd read the passage to her, she often just didn't get it. Too often, it was "a guy thing." The truth is, at 65 I'm not the "guy" I once was, but I like to remember those times, and your book kept bringing them back, particularly your rowdy and irreverent attitude towards all things sexual. It made me remember all the "war stories" and lies my buddies and I used to tell each other in the barracks so long ago my first time around in the army, when most of us were actually still virgins and knew very little about women. (See Soldier Boy: At Play in the ASA) Sports, fast cars and women were always popular subjects for those sessions. You cover all those subjects, along with dogs. Speaking of dogs, I have to tell you one of the most popular films at Sinop (Turkey) the year I was stationed there (a hardship tour) was Soldier in the Rain, and one of the scenes that hit us all the hardest was when the protagonist (Steve McQueen) got a letter telling him his dog had died. The army theater, so often filled with rude catcalls at the screen, became deathly silent. So yeah, the stories you share of your beloved Shiba Inus hit home here too.
The thing is, your stuff all rings pretty true. I read A False Spring twenty-some years ago and pressed it on everyone who loved baseball, pestering them until they read it - or told me they did. Somewhere in there, I never got the book back - and now I want to read it again. Guess I'll have to buy one - to go with this sleek Bison edition of A Nice Tuesday - a matched set.
When I told my wife about how you'd left your wife of twenty-some years and five kids, she dismissed you as just another prick. But I kept reading, mostly I think because you don't really make excuses. You just make an honest effort to tell your life. I admire that. But there's more than just brutal honesty here. There is craft. This is just some of the best damn writing I've run across in years. I'll bet when I go back to your first memoir, I'll find that it's not as well-written as this one. Writing is like baseball - practice, practice, practice. And I can tell you've been practicing.
I am not an athlete. I was mildly successful in basketball in high school. I was 6'3" and still growing when I graduated, so pretty uncoordinated. Baseball? I was lousy. Bad eyes, bad hand-eye coordination. But I admire a good ball player. I admire even more the way you finally exorcised those baseball demons of yours by crafting a "comeback" at 56 years old. Very ballsy, Pat. I salute you. Wish I coulda been there.
Some of the stuff you did in your life I don't particularly admire. Probably you don't either. But I admire your guts and honesty in owning up to your own particular failings. My own view of life: mostly we all do the best we can. Sometimes we don't succeed, and sometimes we do. But by the time we get to this age - and I think you and I are pretty close in age - we start to recognize what we did wrong. And maybe we learn to be kind in the process, as you did.
I admire both your memoirs tremendously. A Nice Tuesday is one helluva good book. I'll probably start pestering my friends to read it now, just like I did with your first one. Thanks for writing this second book. I hope you live a long time - long enough for another sequel. I'll be watching for it.
All the best,
Tim Bazzett, author of the Reed City Boy trilogy

Pat Jordan's sequel to his decades-earlier classic baseball portrait of a young man, "A False Spring," outdoes the original. No longer the fool on the hill he once was, unable to corral his emotions and channel them into the pitching success he should have achieved by virtue of his god-given talent but never did, Jordan determinedly defies F. Scott's Fitzgerald's claim that "there are no second acts in American lives" by working himself back into fighting trim in order to pitch for a pro baseball team at age fifty-six. Nearly forty years after his infinitesimally brief minor league career ended without fanfare or any understanding of its demise, Jordan took to the mound once again, hurling a half-inning for the independent league Waterbury Spirit. In "A Nice Tuesday," he writes about the experience with all the inside knowledge and self-deprecating humor that has made his style so appealing throughout hundreds of stories and magazine articles. Jordan's writing is concise, succinct, unadorned, and stands on its own without frills or flourishes, yet still manages to explore the psychology and emotion of baseball and the characters who inhabit its universe with a profound and passionate perspicacity. The supporting characters in his delightful odyssey, most notably second wife, author Susan Ryan Jordan, and their beloved menagerie of Shiba Inu dogs, are rendered as quirky and memorable as any in modern literature by Jordan's luminous, compact prose. You don't have to be a baseball fan to appreciate the caustic wit and illuminating insights into human (and canine) nature served up so beautifully in "A Nice Tuesday."