Scooter [Hardcover]

Mick Foley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 23, 2005

A powerfully moving new novel from Mick Foley, filled with the same heart and imagination that made Tietam Brown so distinctive (“It makes you laugh so hard sometimes it makes you cry” —Chicago Tribune).

The time is 1969. Scooter Riley is a regular kid growing up in the Bronx, on Shakespeare Avenue, just north of Yankee Stadium. His father, Patrick Riley, is a New York City cop; his beat is Harlem, streets that are getting rougher by the day in the wake of the assassinations of Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy. Riley’s Spartan code of ethics and unwavering sense of duty to his neighborhood and the Force will carry him through; neither homicide nor drugs are going to get in his way, even if his wife does want them to get the hell out of the Bronx and for him to take a “safe” job somewhere in the suburbs. He’s happy with things as they are and wants to make time stand still, going to Yankee games in the neighborhood as he did growing up (as a boy he’d waited for hours to meet Joe D.—the great Yankee Clipper—and collected two decades of Yankee autographs of Yogi, Larson, Lopat, Mantle, too; on yearbooks, scorecards, ticket stubs, Spaldeens). Riley wants his son, Scooter—named after Yankee shortstop Phil Rizzuto, MVP, 1950—to have a childhood just like his own.

Scooter doesn’t get the same thrill his father gets from going to Yankee Stadium and watching the players “punch it through the hole,” or “spray it all around.” He loves his father but yearns for his own style—in baseball and in life.

His grandfather, a fireman for thirty years and horribly scarred, harbors a dark secret that has caused a deep rift between him and Scooter’s dad. Scooter’s grandfather sees the game of baseball as the game of life itself—to him all of life’s great lessons are explained in baseball lore, and he teaches Scooter to play the game in a way that’s different from how his father wants him to play. He teaches Scooter as well that life can be defined in a few extraordinary moments—moments of courage, of cowardice—when the ability to act, or not, defines who you are, and who you will become.

Into this world, a world that becomes increasingly less kind to Scooter, the defining moments his grandfather has warned him about come at a rapid pace, and as the years pass and Scooter grows up, it is through baseball, and its timeless rhythms, that the defining moments in Scooter’s life are played out—and that the boy he is now, and the young man he will become, are shaped.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Former pro wrestler Foley proves his authorial chops with this hard-edged coming-of-age tale (after Tietam Brown) about a turbulent childhood amid the decay of the Bronx in the late '60s and '70s. Scooter Riley's comfortable existence disintegrates in sudden, steep drops, mirroring the fall of the Bronx as it transitions from working-class stability to urban desolation. Scooter's dad, a drunken yet good-hearted Irish-American cop stuck on the Harlem beat, accidentally shoots his eight-year-old son in the leg during a beer-fueled 1969 Mets-Orioles World Series fracas, saddling the boy with a bad limp. Growing up on the streets of the Bronx, Scooter weathers racial violence, dabbles in heroin and eventually turns his rage on his father, crippling him with a baseball bat. Soon, mom runs off, and the tense household, already beset by family secrets, struggles to regain traction. The family—Scooter also has a mentally handicapped younger sister—manages to rally in the late 1970s when they move to Long Island. Scooter, named after Yankee shortstop Phil Rizzuto, ultimately finds a form of salvation in his life's passion: baseball. With adroitly drawn characters, dark humor and a plot that never loses momentum, Foley shapes a story of resilience and courage. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Former wrestler Foley's first novel, Tietam Brown (2003), was an energetic, frustrating mess that nonetheless left some doubt as to whether the hackneyed narration was the protagonist's or the author's problem. With Scooter, the question is answered: it's Foley who's wrestling with language--and often losing. The plot, a first-person coming-of-age story about a physically disfigured kid fighting his dysfunctional father, is remarkably similar, too. This one's set in New York City during the 1960s and '70s, and though Foley tries to make the city a third character, his digressions read like cribbed history notes footnoted with a laundry list of pop-cultural touchstones. The through-line is frayed, the point-of-view is fractured, and the reality often broken: Foley has yet to learn the art of the telling detail (he prefers to summarize everything, sometimes twice). Readers may actually become nostalgic for Tietam Brown, which at least featured a clear conflict and one unforgettable character. But, again, expect demand because of print run and publicity--and because the author once terrorized the ring, not readers. Keir Graff
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Knopf (August 23, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400044146
• ISBN-13: 978-1400044146
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,383,702 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mick Foley grew up on Long Island, New York. He is the author of the genre-defining #1 New York Times bestsellers: Foley Is Good: And the Real World Is Faker Than Wrestling and Have a Nice Day!: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks. Foley has wrestled professionally for over fifteen years and was the three-time World Wrestling Entertainment Champion. He currently wrestles on TNA. Foley lives with his wife and four children on Long Island.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars terrific historical saga, August 24, 2005

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Scooter (Hardcover)

In 1964 four year old Scooter Reilly grows up in the Bronx, a borough in flux with the working white middle class fleeing to Long Island. His grandpa, a retired firefighter who lives nearby, is around more than his dad, who works a police beat in Harlem. Dad has two interests: beer and the Yankees; ergo Scooter is named for legendary player Phil Rizzuto.

In 1969 dad gets drunk over the Mets not his Yanks winning the World Series. He fires his revolver hitting Scooter in the leg. For the rest of his life Scooter will limp.

In 1973, dad's partner is murdered. Raging out of control fueled by beer, he hits his daughter Patty; who suffers permanent brain damage. Upset with his father, Scooter breaks his dad's leg. Four years later they relocate to Long Island, but fastball pitcher Ferraggo faces Scooter on the field while bullying Patty off the field; at the same time Feraggo's sister seduces Scooter. Confrontation and reckoning are coming.

Though there is a bias as I grew up in the 1960s Bronx (terrific place) and was still there as the Cross Bronx Express (see THE POWER BROKER: ROBERT MOSES AND THE FALL OF NEW YORK by Caro) and the fire line (SEE LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE BRONX IS BURNING by Mahler) destroyed the middle class West Bronx by the 1970s, Mick Foley captures the essence of urban decline. The story line is fabulous when it focuses on Scooter growing up just north of Yankee Stadium (Bronx Deco tenement buildings with classic relief and Dutch stoops). The tale loses some momentum towards the end when teenage Scooter has to confront his demons in Long Island, but remains a terrific historical saga worth reading.

Harriet Klausner

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mick Foley Is My New Favorite Writer!, July 14, 2007

By 

Jody Day "toy-addictdotcom" (Milwaukie, OR USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Scooter (Paperback)

To date I have read all of Mick Foley's books. I have enjoyed each of them. They cover a wide range from children's books and novels, to memoirs. Each book, and this one is no exception, are easy to read and you easily begin to genuinely care for the characters. There is a smooth, almost conversational, tone to the books. Thanks Mick!

2.0 out of 5 stars Foley Hits a Sophmore Slump, July 27, 2010

By 

Michael P. Ferrari "Author, 'Assault on the S... (Conshohocken, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Scooter (Paperback)

Oh, Mick Foley. I like you, I really do. And I really like you as an author, maybe even more so than I liked you as a professional wrestler who used to do ridiculously over-the-top stunts (Hell in the Cell, anyone?) just to shock your audience. When I read your first novel, Tietam Brown, I praised it everywhere I could and commended you on your impressive ability to put a little sweet cherry on the heartbreaking beats that populated your coming-of-age story set in the 80s. I was so impressed that you could take these outlandishly tragic elements and tether them to such real emotions to make what should seem like attempts at pure shock seem so much more poignant and sincere. And then you wrote "Scooter," and for the first 50 or so pages you had me. But then you had to go back to your old bag of tricks, which now appear much more stale than they did the first time you used them, mainly because they lost all that genuine emotion that grounded them in the first place, leaving "Scooter" as just a hollow list of stunts in order to shock the reader and nothing more.

Although, maybe that first paragraph is being a bit harsh on Mick Foley's second foray into adult fiction. As I mentioned, "Scooter" starts off nicely. The story focuses on the growing years of a boy named Scooter (after the nickname of the legendary Yankee Phil Razzuto) as he matures through the l970s while living in the deteriorating Bronx. The son and grandson of two men wholly in love with baseball, Scooter grows up relating everything to the sport, including the tragedies that come his way. And boy, are there tragedies. Lots of `em, in fact. So much so to the point that the reader is wondering if Foley was actually trying to write a novel or just out do himself in coming up with a list of the crappiest things that can happen in a person's life. And there in lies the main tragedy of this book--it starts off wonderfully flawed enough as is. The characters come off so real and ruined from the beginning that they are already quite interesting. Scooter's father is a hard-working cop with a drinking problem trying to be the best man he can while providing for his selfish, shopaholic wife and their two kids. Scooter's grandfather is a deformed old man trying to repent for his sins from decades past. And Scooter himself provides some real genuine drama as a boy trying to understand the world around him as the only neighborhood he has even known sinks into poverty and crime. Despite all these problems, Scooter and his family preserver and it makes for a damn entertaining and emotional read. But then, as if he ran out of motivation for the story, Foley starts putting this family through the ringer in the most over-the-top ways possible. It's not that the events (which I wont spoil) that happen aren't realistic, but they are not "organic." They're outlandish in regards to the story and the direction it's going. Some of the trials and tragedy endured by this family--and Scooter, in particular--made me shake my head and spit a defiant "Seriously?" in the pages. It was almost as if Foley was sitting there saying, "You think that's bad? That's nuttin'! Wait until THIS happens, hahah! Pretty messed up, huh? But not as messed up as THIS!"

To make matters worse, when it appears that Foley can't carry the story on shock value alone anymore, he begins to write Scooter into one of the most annoying and insufferable characters imaginable--something that feels very accidental, seeing as Foley is clearly (and quite desperately) trying to get you to root for his protagonist. Unfortunately, towards the last third of the book Scooter's internal monologue turns into a text-book display of underdog syndrome--that unbearable "you think you're better than me?!" kind of attitude that really makes it hard to lend any sympathy since the character is too busy trying to prove how much better he is than you via a "Pity Me" contest.

This isn't to say the book is without any saving merits. There are a lot of scenes between Scooter and his grandfather or Scooter and his family where we get a feel for the great novel that could have been. And to be fair, as I mentioned earlier, the characters as they were introduced were so flawed and interesting that it would have been more fun to see them develop normally instead of simply "cope" with ridiculously over-the-top tragedy. Also, the dialog is strong and fresh, particularly in the beginning. Plus, as a baseball fan, a warm, glowing smile splashed across my face when I saw Scooter and his paternal figures getting the same child-like thrill out of the Great American Pastime as I did growing up.

Overall, though it wasn't unbearable, I can't recommend this book. Not only does it try too hard (and fail) to have its desired dramatic impact, but it also makes Foley's last book look worse. "Scooter," despite its good parts, devalues Foley as a writer and makes him look more like the shock artist his wrestling fans are more familiar with.

Michael P. Ferrari
Author of Training the Problem: Stories and a Novella