Praise for Calico Joe
“Grisham knocks it out of the park.”—The Washington Post
“An enjoyable, heartwarming read that’s not just for baseball fans.”—USA Today
“Grisham has hit a home run.... Calico Joe is a great read, a lyrical ode to baseball, small-town America, youthful innocence and a young boy’s search for heroes.”—The Buffalo News
“[A] pleasure . . . Suffice to say [Grisham] knows his way around the ballpark as well as he does a courtroom.”—The Washington Times
Praise for John Grisham
“Never let it be said this man doesn’t know how to spin a good yarn.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Grisham may well be the best American storyteller writing today.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
Paul Tracy, a fan grown up, tells the tale—fact and fiction woven seamlessly by Grisham—of phenom Joe Castle, who mesmerizes baseball fans for a brief time in the 1970s. Tracy watches Calico Joe burst into the majors to captivate fans. Erik Singer makes the most of the story’s few characters. He doesn’t miss a pitch, so to speak—all vocal tones, from Southern lilts to snarling disgust, sound fully credible. He especially excels with the characters of a boy and his father. In sum, Singer’s narration more than distinguishes the characters—it gives them identities, like players on a team. M.B. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
Only one player in Major League Baseball history has been hit and killed by a pitch, but bean balls—balls thrown near the head—have ended careers. Grisham's (The Litigators, 2011, etc.) novel imagines the act and its consequences. It's 1973, another magic baseball season. The National League East has six teams contending, among them the traditionally hapless Chicago Cubs, soon jinxed once again when its first baseman is injured. Now the Cubs must add a minor leaguer to the roster. That's Joe Castle, a kid from Calico Rock, Ark. Calico Joe immediately begins to set rookie records, leading the Cubs to the top of the standings. Watching from New York is Paul Tracey, a baseball fan as avid as only an 11-year-old boy can be. In fact, Paul's father pitches for the New York Mets, but Warren Tracey, "accustomed to getting whatever he wanted," is a jerk. Warren is a journeyman pitcher, solid in an occasional game, kicked around from one team to another, never an All Star. Warren also abuses his family, drinks and chases women. The novel unfolds from Paul's adult perspective, with flashbacks. The crucial plot point comes in a flashback when Calico Joe, putting up "mind-boggling" numbers over 38 games, meets Warren in Shea Stadium and hits a home run. During his next at bat, as part of some unwritten "code," Warren goes head-hunting and beans the young player. Calico Joe's career is over, and he drifts home to Calico Rock, partially paralyzed, speech impeded, to work as a groundskeeper rather than earning a plaque in baseball's Hall of Fame. Decades later, long estranged from his father, Paul learns that Warren is dying of pancreatic cancer, and he decides to force his father to confront what he did to Joe Castle. Interestingly, the novel's most fully formed character is Warren, and while the narrative and settings are solid, the story drifts toward a somewhat unsatisfying, perhaps too easy, conclusion. A reconciliation story, Hallmark style.
