Is This Heaven?: The Magic of the Field of Dreams [Hardcover]

Brett Mandel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 23, 2002

More than a decade ago, the film Field of Dreams made grown men cry with its tale of a son's quest to know his father through the magic of baseball. The mystical baseball field of that movie continues to attract thousands of visitors and here is the story of a make-believe place made real, its incredible lure, and its effect on the people who have stepped between its chalk lines.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It makes people feel like they want to be kids again." Once he finished pitching batting practice and taking a few cuts at the plate, Mandel dug out his tape recorder and notebook and started talking to visitors. a book that tells the stories of people who found peace, hope and renewal at the baseball diamond carved out of a cornfield. (Chuck Schoffner Cincinnati Enquirer )

In a fascinating blending of reality and fictions, the field has become a shrine to those qualities and to nostalgia itself. The stories shared there are so memorable that Philadelphia writre Brett H. Mandel compiled them in a book. (Diane Daniel Boston.Com )

Will appeal to all those like him who find soul and fulfillment in all things sentimentally baseball. Is this Heaven looks at the remarkable appeal that draws roughly 75,000 people a year to visit the baseball field. (Robert Strauss Philadelphia Inquirer )

Will appeal to all those like him who find soul and fulfillment in all things sentimentally baseball. Is this Heaven looks at the remarkable appeal that draws roughly 75,000 people a year to visit the baseball field. (Robert Strauss Philadelphia Inquirer )

If you are willing to suspend disbelief for a second, you can almost convince yourself you've stepped into the film. (Redford Observer )

"Some of the stories, when I encountered them it was almost like I had to pinch myself," Mandel said. "I's find myself saying, 'this is great'. (Chuck Schoffner/AP The Post and Courier )

A book that tells the stories of people who found peace, hope, and renewal carved out of a cornfield for the 1989 movie "Field of Dreams' (Idependent Mirror )

Senior citizens bring a glove even though they haven't thrown for ages. Somebody in a wheelchair is bein pushed around the bases. There's something very neat about htis field. It brings out something in people. (Hattiesburg American )

The hit movie appealed to Mandel immediately for its themes of redemption, its look at baseball and for unleashing feelings of hope which reside in us all. Mandel finds fathers reconnecting with sons at the site; he sees the final trip for an aging man and his family; and he meets tourists from all around Iowa, Chicago, and get this, Japan. The people who read this are charmed by the stories and they come away feeling Iowa is some special place. (Tim Gallagher Sioux City Journal )

A book dedicated to examining whether the magic found in a popular Hollywood movie is fact or fiction. Looks at the effect traveling to America's heartland for the sake of running around the bases, shagging fly balls and knocking a few out of the park has had on countless fans of America's pastime. (D. E. Kern Express Times )

About the Author

Brett Mandel is a director in the Office of the Controller for the City of Philadelphia, where he lives with his wife and daughter. He is author of Minor Players, Major Dreams, which offers the inside story on minor league life.This is his third book.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing (September 23, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1888698411
• ISBN-13: 978-1888698411
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,427,053 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Is This Heaven? - Well, Almost, April 18, 2003

By 

donald stuhlman (Dover, DE United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Is This Heaven?: The Magic of the Field of Dreams (Hardcover)

First the good news: if you loved the movie, you'll like the book. The bad news: with only 155 pages of actual text, you can't help but feel you've been rained-out in the top of the 6th - pricey. If you've bought the DVD and have watched the interviews, much of what's here is familiar ground. Still, there are interesting items - did you know Jimmy Stewart was the first pick to play Moonlight Graham? There are moving stories of the visitors, a good description of the surrounding area, but the book suffers from making too much of the psychology involved in the place, for example: "...religious historian Mircea Eliade explains that the history of religions is constituted by the great number of occasions when something shows itself as sacred...the sanctified can present itself as something wholly other than the secular ..." - you get the idea. Why try to explain the lure of the "Field" - some things are best left unexplained. The book is at its best when it stays with the stories of real people (and the trivia will interest movie fans).

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brett Mandel's American Journey, September 21, 2005

By 

Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Is This Heaven?: The Magic of the Field of Dreams (Hardcover)

As the ordinary man on the street, you'll be envious of Brett H. Mandel and his pilgrimage to America's greatest natural resource, the magical "Field of Dreams" built as a movie set in Dyersville, Iowa.

Everyone wants to go, but few of us (comparatively speaking) can afford to get up from our lives and leave our jobs and do as Brett H. Mandel did, for he stepped out onto the plate and felt like a kid again. You know how, in the movie, the famous line goes something like, "If you build it, they will come"? That's what happens here.

In our lives, friends come and go, lovers leave, children grow up and parents say goodbye, and we put our poor little cat to sleep, but baseball is forever.

The book is half like a nonfiction account of the making of the Kinsella book and the Costner movie. You will probably be surprised at how much passion all the actors put into filming the thing, not knowing at that time how much the movie would strike a responsive chord in the hearts of many who have seen it. Not only men, and not only Americans either. Yes, thousands of people travel from all over the world to see this imaginary field, and to have their photograph taken like the "children of the corn." And why? Mandel explores some of the reasons in the other part of the book, which is sort of like a pop psychology guide the kind of this Dr. Joyce Brothers might give you if she were a guy.

And then, Mandel gives you the other stories, the people who flock to Dyersville the way people flock to Lourdes in France, hoping for a cure, a cure not necessarily for disease but for a deeper angst, and they come away from Iowa feeling connected, part of the great hub of being. If you're looking for a gift for Dad, look no further. This is the jackpot. This is hardcore.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Okay Book With Not Enough Passion or Original Reporting, January 16, 2009

By 

Mediaman "TVviewer" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Is This Heaven?: The Magic of the Field of Dreams (Hardcover)

This book covers the actual Iowa property where the movie was shot and uses a lot of second-hand sources to rehash material that is commonly known. It is written by a researcher who doesn't claim the film as his favorite--this is merely a job that he was asked to do. And he admits up front that much of his material was from research he had done four years before he got someone to publish it.

The book starts poorly, with the author telling the story of a boy who died in a Sioux City plane crash. It was a depressing and uninspiring way to begin the book and for the first few pages it makes no sense as to why he is even telling it. Other stories are woven throughout the book--and often out of nowhere the writer will quote a line from the movie and tie it to what has happened in Iowa. Romantics and sentimentalists may enjoy that, but if you are looking for a lot of solid, fresh material you won't find it here.

Overall this covers most of the basics about the movie and the property. Because this is research-based, there are some obvious errors in the book that Iowans will find humorous. The author also refuses to get into the battle between the two property owners. The owner of the left field property plows it under in a reported fight with his neighbor, but here it is spun as just an innocent choice to plant more corn that year.

The best part of the book are the pictures, which are a nice overview of the property from pre-filming to tourist attraction. It would have just been nice to have a passionate lover of the film write this story, one who spent more time with primary sources that using secondary material.