From Publishers Weekly
The small Maine town of Waterboro has two noteworthy attractions: a minor league farm team for the Cleveland Indians and an enormous Air Force base. When placed in the context of the Vietnam war, the New York Mets, the moon-landing and the general commotion of the last summer of the 1960s, they take on a larger symbolism. Snyder's fine novel, the first of a projected trilogy, has some strong and interesting characters: a dying potato farmer; his daughter and granddaughter; several members of the farm team including a star pitcher on his way to the majors; and a black first baseman on his way anywhere. But it is the town of Waterboro, the vignettes in the fields, the used-car lots, the motels and the diners, that make this work memorable. Although the author tries to wrap things up a bit too neatly at the end, and although the heroine indulges in too many philosophical cliches, Snyder's tight and often lyrical prose more than compensates for these flaws.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
More than simply another baseball novel, this first novel is the complex story of a family in Waterboro, Maine, where the highlight each summer is the Triple A season. Page Mullens at 69 is a marginal farmer who lives and breathes baseball. Daughter Bobbi Ann is fonder of the young men who play it. Both lament the day their wife and mother abandoned them for a writing career. Into their lives in the summer of 1969 comes Brad Schaffer, a Princeton grad and the star pitcher for the local franchise, who falls in love with Bobbi Ann. What follows are a number of strange twists which involve Bobbi Ann posing for "stag videos" and Brad fixing a game, she to save her father's farm, he to save her reputation. Even stranger is the epilogue, which carries the story several decades further. Somehow, it all seems a bit contrived. Still, Snyder has a good feel for life in small town America. Brian E. Coutts, Western Kentucky Univ. Libs., Bowling Green
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
