Play for a Kingdom [Hardcover]

Thomas Dyja (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 8, 1997

In this “brilliantly imagined and neatly plotted” Civil War novel (Boston Globe), two battle-scarred companies-one Union, one Confederate-embark on a series of baseball games amid the carnage at Spotsylvania. “Wonderfully conceived and eloquently executed” (Caleb Carr). Maps.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

At first glance, the storyline of Thomas Dyja's Play for a Kingdom story sounds corny: a Union company from Brooklyn encounters an Alabama company while on picket duty after the Battle of the Wilderness (May, 1864) and proceeds to challenge them to a series of baseball games before all hell breaks loose in Spottsylvania. The first-time novelist, however, has surprises up his sleeve, and the vividly described sporting matches set up a series of betrayals and double crosses which test the camaraderie of the Union soldiers, calling their commitment to the war effort into question.

Dyja has a gifted understanding of the powerlessness one faces in combat. War in this novel is not tragic merely because it kills and maims good men; it is dispiriting because it robs them of their identities. He handles the multiple points of view of his Brooklyn protagonists superbly, differentiating them by class, social standing, and ethnicity, and aptly shows how the war frays their senses of themselves. Commanders become followers, Irish racists hide amongst black gravediggers, and staunch abolitionists measure their belief in liberty against their gut instincts concerning the corruptibility of human nature. If the sectional crisis of the first half of the 19th century was settled on the fields of battle, the class struggle of the second half was forged in the streets of Brooklyn--making Dyja's company all the more fascinating for the way they illustrate the transition. Although the novel's climax abandons historical materialism for genre convention, the tense mixture of espionage, betrayal, and vivid battle scenes in Play for a Kingdom should please discriminating fans of Civil War fiction. --John M. Anderson

From Library Journal

As this first novel opens, the 20 remaining men of Company L, 14th Brooklyn regiment, have only 18 days remaining in their three-year enlistments. As they are pulling out, they discover a field, unscathed by war, on which they begin to play baseball. Suddenly, a group of Confederate soldiers emerges from the surrounding woods, holding rifles but declaring a truce. And so the Union and Confederate soldiers who have met before and who will meet again on Civil War battlefields begin a series of baseball games. Dyja effectively juxtaposes the horror and chaos of war with the familiar routine of the game. He explores the theme of war and games as natural activities of man, as battles of pride and place, and as testing grounds of moral and physical honor. Dyja writes that "a ball field was a world within the world," and so too a baseball game is a world within a war. An engrossing story, told within the context of actual events. Recommended for most libraries.
-?Caroline M. Hallsworth, Cambrian Coll. Lib., Sudbury, Ontario
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Brace; 1st edition (August 8, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151002673
• ISBN-13: 978-0151002672
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #572,139 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Baseball, War, and Some Intriguing Characters, September 21, 2000

By 

David Savage - See all my reviews

This review is from: Play for a Kingdom (Hardcover)

First of all, why did I read this book? Well, I came across this book one evening while browsing my local library. I was immediately intrigued by this book that combines two of my favorite subjects: baseball and the civil war.

The basic premise: a company of Union soldiers from Brookline, with less than three weeks to go in their active duty, struggle with the hellish reality of war, the personality conflicts with one another, and the unavoidable need to complete a covert five-game series of baseball games with a group of Rebels.

The characters in this book are complex and well thought out. The company is a collection of very different men at odds with each other and the cause they are fighting for. The butcher's son, the Irish ruffian, the aloof lawyer, the Hungarian immigrant must all come together to survive the final days of their duty.

What I liked most about this book is the evolving attitudes of most of the characters. After the company shares a couple of games of baseball with their Rebel enemies, a few of the men begin to realize that the Southerners are much like them. I particularly liked the situation the Irishman found himself in when a company of black men (he despises the Africans) comes to his rescue when he is trying to desert his own company.

If I have one complaint about the book, it is that the story and the characters are fictional. Knowing that this story was not based on a real account, diminished the experience for me. That said, I still highly recommend this book. The characters are very intriguing, the accounts of the baseball games are fun, and the depiction of the battle scenes are vivid and intense.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique, January 29, 2000

By 

J. G. Heiser (Sunninghill, Berks) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Play for a Kingdom (Hardcover)

18th Century historical fiction is becoming a popular genre, but this one breaks the mold. A description cannot do it justice. It suffices to say that Dyja interweaves the Civil War, espionage, and baseball in a completely believable and engrossing way. It is moving, suspenseful and exciting. A great story!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read the book: it is worth your time, July 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Play for a Kingdom (Hardcover)

Thomas Dyja writes an entertaining novel about humans tested under the strain of war--all revealed through baseball games...And the first two reviewers can think of nothing but complaints over the dust-jacket photograph; or the fact that the 14th Brooklyn had no Company L??? Come on, Gentlemen, nobody cares how high-speed your educations are--Just enjoy the Novel.