Customer Reviews

Is This Heaven?: The Magic of the Field of Dreams

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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).

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.

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.

Mr. Mandel is able to strike a cord in the heart strings of his readers in this masterpiece. This book not only tells the true stories of pilgrimages to quaint Dyersville Iowa to explore the movie site for the movie "Field Of Dreams", but lets the reader know that sometimes feelings and dreams can come true in the most unlikeliness of places.

Although the book is documenting the reasons and emotions felt while visiting the Field of Dreams, you don't have to be a baseball fan. You don't have to be a fan of the movie. The only thing you need is a good seat, nice reading light and sit back and enjoy. Keep in mind, be prepared to have difficulty putting it down and keep some tissues handy.

Mr. Mandel thanks his wife in the acknowledgements, but he should also be thanked for bringing to life a bounty of feelings. "If you build it...he will come" so the movie says. Well, he wrote it you need to go get it. It is magic.