Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa: Stories [Hardcover]

W. P. Kinsella (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Most of the stories in this collection by Kinsella are about men grappling with significant life choices and often blurring the line between fantasy and reality in the process. An aluminum-window salesman who routinely picks up women while traveling on business, inventing new identities for himself and for them during whatever time they have for escaping from everyday life, meets someone who instinctively knows how to play the game, and his ordered existence is threatened. A widowed father, visited by a childhood friend with rapidly dissipating magical powers who needs his help for one last trick, commits a series of small crimes and ends up in the J. Walter Ives Institute for the Emotionally Disturbed, trying to convince the staff he really is crazy. These tales (the title story grew into the novel Shoeless Joe , which in turn was the basis for the film Field of Dreams ) are best when they venture into the fantastic and the narrative supersedes heavy-handed description and shallow characters. Most compelling is the story of the appearance of Sister Ann in an Iowa cornfield; she claims she's waiting for a miracle. She is revered and feared until she melts a foolhardy boy who exposes himself and the villagers come after her.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The poorly chosen title might lead readers to believe that this is a collection of recycled baseball stories, but in fact only one of these weird and wonderful tales is sports-related. The title story contains the germ of Kinsella's novel Shoeless Joe ( LJ 4/1/82); not as deep and rich as the longer work, it remains pure and perfect in itself. Among the other gems: "Fiona the First," a portrait of a man doomed to spend eternity picking up girls at airports; "First Names and Empty Pockets," in which a doll-mender saves the broken Janis Joplin; and "The Grecian Urn," a tale of people traveling in time by becoming part of works of art. Few writers can match Kinsella's ability to establish tone, character, and a complete reality in just a few paragraphs, then sweep the reader into his imagined world. This book should be in any serious fiction collection.
- Marylaine Block, St. Ambrose Univ. Lib., Davenport, Ia.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 141 pages
• Publisher: Southern Methodist University Press; 1ST edition (October 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870743554
• ISBN-13: 978-0870743559
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,706,640 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the best book I have ever read., April 26, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa: Stories (Paperback)

I first saw the movie Field of Dreams when I was in the 3rd grade, I loved the movie so much. Then in the 6th grade my teacher started to read us the book, but never even came close to finishing, I was disappointed. Then, this year (10th grade) I read it over Christmas break, and I couldn't put it down. I have never read a book that could calm me down and not make me sleepy. I had to get my wisdom teeth out and I was currently reading that book, everytime I got nervous I read the book and it relaxed me! I recomend this to anyone who likes baseball or just loves to read. Even if you don't like to read I still recomend it! It is better than the movie and I still think the movie is good, there is just to much to capture. I could read that book again and again! So, I recomend it to everyone!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Some very good stories..., May 31, 2000

By 

Michael Delaware - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa: Stories (Hardcover)

I enjoyed this book as any Kinsella fan would. I found some of the stories true gems, but others I found somewhat uninteresting. This is not Kinsella's greatest selection, but it shows a different side of the author and some of the stories are more adult oriented content. I enjoyed the stories 'Fiona the First', 'Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa', 'A Picture of the Virgin' and 'A Blacksmith Shop Caper' as the real good ones. Those alone are worth the book, so you won't be disappointed overall.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chapter 1 of novel SHOELESS JOE is this book's title story!, September 30, 1998

By 

ANN KNIGHT - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa: Stories (Paperback)

"Fiona the First," the opening story in this collection, was cited for excellence by Stanley Elkin and Shannon Ravenel in the 1980 edition of BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES.

Speaking to bibliographer Ann Knight in 1983, Kinsella admitted that a few details from this story are semi-autobiographical: "The lady who keeps saying, 'He can put his shoes under my bed,' I saw at a Vancouver Mounties game in Seattle in 1954." And, "the business about the stewardess trying to give away a baby happened to me and a young lady at the Vancouver International Airport in 1970 or '71."

These stories celebrate particular relationships: between father and son, brother and sister, perfect strangers, a spiritual icon and her admirers, doctor and patient, father and daughter, bowling buddies, etc. They are classic Kinsella. No fan of his opus will want to overlook these initial, "adult-oriented" adventures into the regions of Magic Realism. These tales are Icarus flyers; they tempt the sun to melt their wings.