Customer Reviews

The Year of the Buffalo: A Novel of Love & Minor League Baseball

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I'm a female who has no interest in sports, so you wouldn't think this book would appeal to me. However, I love a good yarn about a group of memorable, loveable people pulling together to save their team and their town, and searching for love in its many forms along the way, and this book was that. But baseball fans would love it, too. I hear the author has written a sequel. I will be among the first in line to read about the ongoing lives of Tommy Lee, Dutch, the Chief, Billie Jo, and my personal favorite, Bruce Kelly, the wise and caring newspaperman.

In this delightful tale Cook takes us deep into the heart and soul of small-town U.S.A., its residents and its minor league baseball team, the Buffalo. "The Year of the Buffalo" is a wonderful read--and not just for baseball fans. Cooks tremendous insight into people, love of baseball and mastery of the written word will grab your attention and keep you turning the pages! You will find yourself walking the streets of Beymer, having breakfast at the diner and rooting in the stands.

This small volume grabs you from the opening (a minor leaguer's unexpected entry into Beymer) and holds you till the exciting conclusion (I'll never tell!). It is a very warm and human tale set against the backdrop of America's Game in a small town that could be anywhere. I would truthfully recommend this read (and do) even if Marshall were not my younger brother

Cook using the icons of the baseball diamond tells a story about a bunch of people who are hitting that midlife crisis point in their lives and how they deal with it.

Cook utilizes the small fictional town of Beymer, much as Garrison Keillor uses Lake Wobegone, he skillfully establishes a relationship with the reader that lets us imagine our own little town or the one we wish we came from.

Using the baseball team as a metaphor for life and the season as the struggle for respectability in this age of style over substance, he blends the drama with the actions of four likable and wonderfully believable characters.

The washed up pitcher looking for redemption, the alchoholic manager looking for respect, the local newspaper editor wondering if his sacrifice of staying in this small town was worth it and the local gal that runs the dinner trying to remember when she decided to run a dinner in a failing town for the rest of her life.

Cook works this drama out on the field and off as the characters help each other find what they are looking for, not unlike Dorthey, the Tim Man, the bashfull lion and the scarecrow searching for OZ.
Oz in this case is the quest for championship baseball season in the lowest of the minor leagues by the team that comes from "the smallest town in the U.S. that has a professional baseball team".
The land of Oz is the small towns of Wisconsin that are home to the other teams in the league.

Rich in humor, feeling, and entertainment, this book is a great summer read