Life Could be a Dream: A Meditation on Life and Death in the Fifties

The summer of 1954 begins a pivotal year in nine-year-old Robby Barnaby's life. On the last day of school, he breaks his arm sliding into home plate while playing for the fifth graders in an all-star game against the sixth graders.

Baseball is his passion, and Robby excels at it, though he is younger than his classmates. He lives in a new suburb of Los Angeles called Watertown, an idyllic childhood spot with open fields and well-equipped schoolyards.

He and his older brother Cyrus are entrepr...