Customer Reviews

Slouching Toward Fargo:: A Two-Year Saga Of Sinners And St. Paul Saints At The Bottom Of The Bush Leagues With Bill Murray, Darryl Strawberry, Dakota Sadie And Me

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is one of the funniest books I've read in a long time. Neal Karlen was a writer for Rolling Stone, sent to St. Paul, Minnesota to "get the dirt" on Bill Murray, iconoclastic actor and part owner of the St. Paul Saints. The Saints are a minor league baseball team, part of the independent Northern League, and operated by Mike Veeck, son of the legendary Hall of Famer Bill Veeck. (Casual baseball fans will most likely recall the senior Veeck for having sent midget Eddie Gaedel up to bat as a pinch hitter. It was only one of many colorful stunts by the games' most creative promoter ever).

Karlen sticks around for a couple of years; the story for Rolling Stone never materializes, but along the way this book emerges, as much about Karlen's crisis of spirit as it is about the Saints and the zany cast of characters surrounding them. But along the way we meet many of those who have given the Saints and the Northern League their unique cachet: on the field performers like former Mets slugger Darryl Strawberry, who temporarily redeems his life and career during a two-month stay with the Saints; former pitching star Jack Morris, seeking one more taste of glory, but on his terms only; Ila Borders, the first female to play in a professional game; and Wayne "Twig" Terwillliger, player and coach for 50 seasons and quiet representative of so much that's right with the game.

There are also wonderful portraits of Sister Rosalind. the nun who offers massages at games; a blind radio announcer convinced he's on his way to the big leagues; an employee of one of the Saints' rivals who earns the title "Most Beloved Woman in the Northern League" and others who find solace, healing and a chance to keep dreaming dreams in this strange, wacky, wonderful firmamenent. I really hated to come to the end of this one. The empty feeling was almost as bad as the night the World Series ends.

Totally winning, both as a portrait of a team (and town) with heart and of a freelance writer who's struggling with the angel (good, real reporting) and devil (fat Rolling Stone paycheck) on his shoulders. The angel wins, and the reader can't help but cheer. Sex, strong women, kooky characters, fiercely loyal fans, minor-league silliness, bratwurst and the honest-to-God love of baseball, which weirdly enough persists no matter how disillusioning the world gets--this book's for anyone who likes Bull Durham, scrappy writers, or independence of spirit in any form. Ignore the minor editing errors; the book's worth it.

I picked this up at my boyfriend's house, read the first few pages, and stayed home on the sofa for an entire weekend because I couldn't put this book down. I'm not a baseball fan, and not from the Midwest, but Karlen's hilarious and equally moving tale of his two years following around this team of wanna-bes, has-beens, and dreamers (some who "made it," some who didn't) had me chortling out loud and even getting teary-eyed at times. This is really a book about Karlen's own search not just for material for his Rolling Stone article (how this book began), but for his own soul as well. Karlen's writing is always entertaining, leaving you wanting more. I'm buying a bunch of these as late Christmas presents -- it's the best gift I can think of. Uplifting, thought-provoking, and one of the funniest books I've read in a long time. You'll never find characters like this in fiction -- what's amazing is they're all real. It should be a movie.

This book was tremendously fun. It's a tale of redemption and growth and second chances, which reflects the topic of the book. What stands out are the characters Karlen depicts in the book - Darryl Strawberry, coming back despite being blackballed from baseball, and proving to be a good guy. There's Jack Morris, who wanted to come back to the majors but only on his terms. There's Ila Borders, fighting to be a professional woman baseball player in a world where women are seen almost exclusively as sex objects. There's Bill Murray, the man Karlen came to St. Paul to hate but who ended up being a man he admired. Most of all the book is about author Neil Karlen, and how in the improbably story of the Saints he finds happiness again.

If this book were fiction, it would be unbelievable. As fact, it's wonderful.

I loved the new Neal Karlen book "Slouching Toward Fargo". It captured what life is like in the unique Northern League of Baseball. I should know, I was a memeber of the 1996 St. Paul Saints - I was the infielder born without legs - Dave Stevens, and it was a dream of a lifetime to play alongside Darryl Strawberry and Jack Morris - Please read this book for an incredible unprecidented inside look at the oddball life and times of the rennegade league and why that team in St. Paul can outdraw it's ugly step sister - the Twins - just two miles away - on any given summer night

This book has some incredibly intriguing subject matter, from the redemption of Darryl Strawberry in 1996 to a nun who gives backrubs and advice in the stands, and many other enjoyable and colorful characters besides. But the author spends so much time hand-wringing about his own angst (over whether he, as a journalist, will write a "hatchet" piece for Rolling Stone), that he rarely focuses on the actual game. Perhaps that's because he himself was so distracted by his angst that it was all he could really write about. By halfway through the book, I was wishing to hear less about Neal Karlen and more about the game itself. The scenes that take place on the field are few, despite the annoying sense that Karlen gives that a drama is being played out there... we're only seeing glimpses of it. Karlen also repeats himself often--as if he intended different chapters to stand alone as articles?--causing him to tell the same stories and trivial facts repeatedly, and yet often seemingly skip the meat of the story. His editors should have done a more careful job. It's a shame Karlen gets in the way of his own story--maybe Rolling Stone ruined him as a writer.

Nonetheless, I still recommend this book because its subjects are so unique and so worth hearing about! What a wild tale! Every baseball fan should know of some of the unique characters and history associated with the Saints.

This is a great sports book and people book. Neal Karlen tells a tale that is a story of the human spirit and the lessons we all have to learn. It's real life tales exemplified by folks of all stripes from the wealthy celebrities like Bill Murray and Jack Morris to the everyday folks who work for the St. Paul Saints. Neal spins a humorous and captivating book involving all of the above and more into a work that you enjoy and, at the same time, think about after reading it. Too bad there aren't more books of this ilk. Hopefully, this will give writers a path to follow.

I learned A LOT more than I bargained for when I purchased this book. What started out as a hatchet job on Bill Murray by a writer employed by a vindictive Jann Wenner turned into a beautiful story about how the lives of people can still be positively affected by the power of sport. One couldn't ask for a more unusual cast of characters or a better person to tell their story. Mr. Karlen, as a result of this book's publication, I truly hope that you'll no longer need to drive your "Northern League" car. And as for Mr. Wenner and his all-too-cool publication? I will certainly have doubts about the objectivity of any article, profile, or review printed in "Rolling Stone" from now on.

The author took a terrific story and butchered it by letting his petty bitterness take over. His personal vendettas and biases are too obvious. The players are interesting, but don't buy this book expecting a baseball book. It is the story of a lost middle-aged man and his partial recovery. It is written like a long magazine article (which is what it started as) and that is where it should have been published.

I love baseball and minor league baseball especially, and I love Bill Murray, who is one of the owners of the wacky team the St. Paul Saints this book is about. So when I heard this book when the Casey award for best baseball book of the year I got it. This team is nuts, but there's a point to all the nuttiness. They have a pig that delivers balls to the umpires! It was kind of amazing to read about the 3 foot tall second basemen with no legs, and really sad about Darryl Strawberry, especially when you know what happened to him. And all the women in the story seemed to fit in too. The writer kind of bugged me for the first 50 pages, but when I figured out he was looking for something in his own life as much as the players, I thought he was pretty cool and brave to be so upfront about his life. I'd rather see a game then read about it usually, but this really isn't even about baseball in a ton of ways. I gave it to some friends who don't even like baseball and they really liked it too.