Andrew K. (kuligowskiandrewt) - , reviewed on 6/30/2013 + 569 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

John Grisham made a name for himself writing novels about lawyers. I've read a few and enjoyed them, and I'm sure that their success has helped him attain some level of financial security. However, after listening to the audio version of Calico Joe, I realize that Mr. Grisham's talents would have been well served had he instead become a baseball writer / columnist.

Calico Joe is the story of a budding baseball superstar and a journeyman pitcher, and of the circumstances that tied the two men together. Told by the latter's son, who is an active participant in the story, Calico Joe is mostly a love letter to the sport of baseball. To listen to Grisham's text as read by Erik Singer is to evoke memories of listening to the finest baseball announcers describing a game in the early 1970s. No, it's like listening to the finest baseball announcers describing THE game in the 70s the ideal / idealized game before the best players shifted teams thanks to free agency, before the greatest players of that era were forced into retirement by the passage of time.

I would like to complain that the book is too short but in reality, it's not. This novella is not padded with extraneous words, scenes, or subplots; it tells the story it needs to tell and then allows the reader move on with his or her life. Hopefully, a life at least slightly changed for the better by having read Calico Joe.

This book gets my highest recommendation.

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