Perfect Silence [Paperback]

Jeff Hutton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2002

A novel of baseball and the Civil War, and a love story. Joseph Tyler is a baseball-loving Virginia farmboy swept into fighting for the Confederacy. Wounded and left for dead, he rises from the burning battlefield, rescues a dying Union soldier from the flames, and is captured. Sent to a foul Union prison in New York, he bears a letter for the dead soldier’s fiancée. He escapes from the prison with a dramatic sprint from center field during a baseball game. Sheltered by a kind widow, he waits until the war ends, and then finally delivers the letter. In a Hudson River town he starts playing semi-pro baseball, and meets and falls in love with the intended recipient of the -letter.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hutton's amateurish but entertaining debut combines three of America's favorite topics. It starts as a historical tale about baseball, becomes a novel of the Civil War and ends up as an unlikely love story. Young Joseph Tyler spends the first three years of the War Between the States working with his father on their small Virginia farm. His only pastime there is a newly invented game called "Base," which his best friend Terence brought home from the North. Then the boys impetuously join John Pegram's Confederate brigade; in the confusing Battle of the Wilderness, Joseph is wounded and left for dead. Waking up in the burning woods, he discovers a mortally wounded Union soldier, in whose pocket is a letter to his sweetheart, Sarah Kingsley, of Rocker Falls, N.Y. Seized as a prisoner of war, Joseph is shipped off to prison in Elmira, N.Y., where he ingeniously uses his "base ball" expertise to escape. After the war is over, Joseph joins the Terryville (N.Y.) Niners, where he becomes the star player called "Rebel Joe." Just down the river from Terryville is Rocker Falls: what will happen when Joseph finds Sarah there? Readers of Frazier's Cold Mountain may see in it one inspiration for Hutton's plot and for his sometimes out-of-control prose. History buffs may admire Hutton's research, but they might also wince at errors: 1860s ballplayers (for example) didn't use gloves and didn't compute batting averages. If Hutton's prose and scholarship sometimes founder, his storytelling finally succeeds, producing delights for baseball and history fans, as well as a tender story of self-discovery.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"A splendid debut novel. . . . A work of beauty that throbs with wonder and longing." -- Bob Willis, The Roanoke Times

"Jeff Hutton writes vividly about war and lovingly about baseball." -- Kirkus Reviews

"PERFECT SILENCE is about a zest for life, a love for baseball, and remembering the cost of war." -- The Civil War Book Review

To the shelf containing Malamud’s THE NATURAL and Kinsella’s SHOELESS JOE -- Jeff Hutton’s PERFECT SILENCE can be safely added." -- Nimble Spirit, The Literary Spirituality Review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Breakaway Books (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891369342
• ISBN-13: 978-1891369346
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,122,972 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect Silence, September 16, 2000

By 

Mary Jane Weber (New Jersey,USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Perfect Silence (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful first novel for students of the Civil War and lovers of baseball. Through the eyes of a young Virginia man, we see the spread of baseball from the cities in the north to the country farms in the south. We also experience the mass confusion of the battle of the Wilderness from the perspective of the typical young inexperienced soldier. You feel the perfect silence that comes over a meadow just before a battle begins or a bat hits a ball. Things come full circle when the young man grows up to play baseball and the game grows from pleasure to a business. At that point the young man returns home to the Virginia farm. This is a touching well told journey through a life, a war and a bit of history.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Growing Up Twice, October 29, 2000

By 

Mark Shapera (Mansfield Center, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Perfect Silence (Hardcover)

This book is the story of a boy and a man. The boy is captured in the Wilderness battle of the Civil War after seeing the horrors of battle. He then experiences the hell of internment. He survives by re-examining his youth, his relationship with his parents, mainly his father, and a game of his youth - baseball. Then, he must reflect on the war and adjust to his trauma in order to once again enjoy life.

The background of early baseball is a fantastic reminder of the roots of the game. Baseball was played by farmers and factory workers after they had worked 12 to 14 hours a day. Exhausted, they still loved the excitement of playing the game. Baseball is the hero of this book. Anyone who has ever played baseball will enjoy reading this novel.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Savory treat, November 10, 2000

By 

Karen Ostermann (Bayport, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Perfect Silence (Hardcover)

Perfect Silence by Jeff Hutton should be savored like a box of Godiva chocolates. Each page bursts into prose so delicious that it is difficult not devouring it in one sitting. His masterful descriptions have you hauling rocks in Virginia farmland, or gazing at the first dogwood bloom along the forest edge, "...glorifying the spring sun and wrapping the still dark woods with white and then pink translucent blossoms." Jeff Hutton writes with the soul of a poet, historian, romantic and baseball enthusiast. His Joe Tyler is a wonderful Cooperesque character whose life is forged by his emotions, beliefs and fate.

The new game of base ball had stirred Joe's passion to do something more than work the Virginia farm and build stonewalls around it. His father had buried his emotions along with Joseph's mother. During the day he worked alongside his silent father, but whenever their chores were done, young Joe and his friends played ball. His natural talent defined him within his circle of friends.

The siren's call of the Civil War lured Joe away, despite his father's objections. He and his buddies joined up but soon became disillusioned with the horror and futility of the war. Their vows to stay together were not to be kept. In what was to be his last battle, Joe awoke to find one of his friends sitting against a stonewall, "with the eyes turned upward, inward."

Alone, wounded, he began walking across a meadow, drawn toward flaming woods. He moved deep into the woods. As the smoke thickened, he turned from it but thought he heard a human voice. "The war had taught Joe to ignore the screams, the groans of wounded and dying men but this time he could not." "...he turned again in the direction of the fire." A boy in a Federal shirt lay dying and Joe pulled him from the fire. Their brief encounter would affect Joe forever.

This is more than a story about war. It is about one man's life, his courage, love of nature, relationships and search for a future. Though similar to Cold Mountain in the beauty of the prose and time setting, Perfect Silence stands alone.