Friday, March 9, 2018

101 Books, Number 17


Favorite Books Throughout My Life


17: The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, 1986, by W. P. Kinsella (1935–2016)

Since boyhood I have always loved
A good old baseball tale.
I read a thousand of them then—
There were no more for sale!

And later on—an adult now—
I read some now and then—
And really liked those special ones
That dealt with Way Back When—

Or with a bit of fantasy,
Like Malamud and Roth.*
And Charyn** and some others—
Some novelty and froth.

And this one deals with baseball myth—
Because there is no clock
A game could reach infinity—
Which could be quite a shock.

This game goes on and on and on—
And I was mesmerized,
Admired Kinsella’s talent, which
To me seemed super-sized!

*Bernard Malamud, The Natural, 1952; Philip Roth, The Great American Novel, 1973
**Jerome Charyn, The Seventh Babe, 1979

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