Product Description
From the actor, director,and writer Ethan Hawke: a piercing novel of love, marriage, and renewal.

Jimmy is AWOL from the army, but—with characteristic fierceness and terror—he’s about to embark on the biggest commitment of his life. Christy is pregnant with Jimmy’s child, and she’s determined to head home, with or without Jimmy, to face up to her past and prepare for the future. Somehow, barreling across America from Albany to New Orleans to Ohio and Texas in a souped-up Chevy Nova, Christy and Jimmy are transformed from passionate but conflicted lovers into a young family on a magnificent journey.

Ash Wednesday is a novel of blazing emotion and remarkable grace, a tale that captures the intensity—the excitement, fear, and joy—of being on the threshold of the mysterious country of marriage and parenthood. Powerful, assured, large of heart, and punctuated by moments of tremendous humor, it represents, for Hawke the novelist, a major leap forward. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (62)

I made it through the entire book
This is not an easy task with Hawke's book b/c the characters are narcissistic and stifling. The writing is not revelatory, but there is a heart to the book and that is offered quite sincerely. Neither character is one you'd necessarily like to sit down with for dinner (well maybe Christy, b/c she is depicted as being very sexually-attractive and her mood changes are interesting).But this is a book I felt like putting down a couple of times b/c it doesn't have a real strong narrative drive, but I stayed with it, found the male character endearing and honest, and ended up enjoying it pretty much.

You've got to deliver the goods if yer gonna write a "road" novel
This novel is what would happen if a jazz-less, dyslexic Jack Kerouac collided head on with an adolescent version of Tom Wolfe. Hawke's prose hustles along in a cute, jingly-jangley sort of way stuck somewhere between immature versions of the above mentioned authors. This novel isn't bad, but it isn't good either. We see genuine flashes of exceptional writing, but a lack of consistency.The story is occasionally graceful, but the characters often present themselves as clichés. Hawke manages to tell his story but at no point does a definitive, individualized style present itself. Ethan never puts his stamp on this one and we're reminded that good writing simply has to move beyond what we've read and experienced before.

Sexy and cool as expected but no soaring heights
Ethan Hawke's novel is sexy, dry and cool, as two likeable characters road trip through America, the inner workings of their relationship and self-knowedge.It is a little too trying to be Catcher in the R for me at times, and although both characters are reasonably strong and real, it eventuated for me as merely an insight into the developing self-understanding (with sometimes-inspired philosophical revelations attached) of two young people and how they relate to each other, and not much else.I need my novels to soar higher than that, Hawke.Three stars.

Because love ain't always perfect...
Jimmy is far from perfect, but he now knows that Christy, who he'd recently split up with, is perfect for him and that he's ready to commit to her.

What he doesn't know is that Christy is carrying Jimmy's baby, and that she's not going to let him back into her life that easily.

As they travel across America, Jimmy tries to show Christy that he loves her and how far he's willing to go for them to be a family.

Hawke seems to really care for his characters: he represents them honestly, but without being critical or judgmental of them, and that made the characters really come alive for me. All in all, a touching read.

Utter Waste of Time!
I was extremely disappointed with this novel. After reading Hawke's, The Hottest State, and loving it...I was expecting to have a similar experience with Ash Wednesday. Boy, was I ever wrong! I didn't even want to finish the drawn out book that seemed like 200+ pages made up entirely of pointless dialogue. I found myself skimming the exaggerated, neverending chapters. Please, don't waste your time on this one. ... Read more

Product Description
A debut novel from an acclaimed young actor follows the story of young William Harding, who unexpectedly finds himself falling for Sarah and, in three short months, feels the joy of first love and the heartache left behind when it ends. 100,000 first printing. Tour.Amazon.com Review
Yes, it's "that" Ethan Hawke. Ethan Hawke the actor. In thisslim debut novel, he tells a coming-of-age tale of a fairly unpleasant youngactor from Texas named William who lives in Manhattan and is working his waythrough an ugly little relationship with a singer/songwriter named Sarah.William's parents married young and split up early and he's not too happywith the world at large. Sarah can't quite make heads or tails of her mother.The pair has sex in the bathroom and talks quite a bit about theirrelationship. It all has a certain ring of truth, but at this point it'sprobably safe to say that Hawke's movie agent will probably make a betterliving off the young actor/writer than Hawke's literary agent. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (159)

10 out of 10 Stars: Ethan Hawke's "The Hottest State"
I found this book at Goodwill one day when I was scourging for used books. Most of the titles there are really weird (Reaching Heaven: You and Your Ways with God and the People Surrounding You. No thanks). But I found this one and saw the back cover. First of all, Ethan Hawke is quite the hunk (seriously). Maybe not anymore, but back when he was all hip and young, yeah. I didn't even know he had written novels, so being a fan of his movies, and his picture, I purchased the book for 12.5 cents (they were four books for 50 cents. Seriously! That's a good deal if I ever saw one. I highly recommend you go to your local Goodwill the next time you're in need of a good read. It's like a treasure hunt; most of the books there are slightly rubbish, but every once in a while, you find a real gem. Plus, you could save a fortune off of Barnes and Noble). I'm glad I did. Here is Ethan Hawke's The Hottest State:

Blurb: When William meets Sarah at a bar appropriately called the Bitter End, he is a few months short of his twenty-first birthday and about to act in his first movie. He is so used to getting what he wants that he has never been able to care too deeply for anyone. But all of that is about to change. And it is Sarah --bold and shy, seductive and skittish-- who will become William's undoing and his salvation.
William's affair with Sarah will take him from a tenement on the Lower East Side to a hotel room in Paris, from a flip proposal of marriage to the extremities of outraged need and the wisdom that comes only to true survivors.

Ethan Hawke really will break your heart. The Hottest State chronicles one year in the life of young, dashing William Harding: aspiring actor and charming lover. When he first meets Sarah, a girl unlike any he's ever seen, he knows from the beginning that he's a goner. She's beautiful. She's elusive. Every little thing she does strikes William greatly. The passion the two share, the chemistry; it's all so surreal, that even he can't believe it. He knows right then and there, that she is the one, that she's the one that he'll love forever, but little does he realize that though she may be the pursuit of his pleasure, he is just a twenty-year-old fool in love, and by time he's twenty-one, he'll just be a broken-hearted man.

The way Hawke captures your interest in enthralling. He makes you become William Harding. I by all means, am not a helpless twenty-year-old boy in love, but throughout reading the book, I really felt like I was. All of William's movements and thoughts, I could relate with. It was so eerie. When William cried, I felt like crying, and when he got psychotic over his breakup with Sarah, I could feel the pain tugging inside of him. There's this one funny scene where he throws furniture around, and it's not funny like "haha!", but funny because, it's a scene where it should have been a turning point. I should have said "Wow, this William is nuts". But I didn't say that. Instead, I found myself cheering him on, because as crazy as he was, the emotion that was seeping throughout all of it, was so legitimate.

This novel was by far one of them most entertaining novels I've ever read, and not only because I feel like it's something straight out of my own past, or future, for that matter. Ethan Hawke will make you laugh, and he'll make you love William's story, but in the tragic end, Ethan Hawke will break your heart.

Rating: 10 stars out of 10.

Thanks for reading :)
Stephanie!

welcome to life kiddies
Hawke accuately captures the emotions we go though when we are just gaining our independence from our parents and experimenting in serious romantic relationships.He doesn't cut the embarrassing elements from the main character, but still manages to allow the reader to root for them.And he avoid the cliche ending, but rather give us a real ending.He just shows us that a non-Hollywood ending is ok.I was surprised by how good a book this was, and actually read it again recently after many years and still found it enjoyable.His second book was a disappointment, but based on The Hottest State I'd probably give other works of his a shot.

Hawke captures how guys typically think!
An incedibly well written book. His writing is unpretentious and honest. He writes how a guy would think. I made it through this book in one sitting.I look forward to reading more from him!

I felt very close to the carachter
I've just finished to read this book, and it liked me very much because it made me feel like i was in William's shoes, even if i am a woman. It is a very good description of what love at a young age is(but not only), a feeling that pervades your whole life. I've been a huge fan of Ethan Hawke since i was a child, and now i know he is also good at writing.I thing everyone who's been very disappointed in love should read this story and could learn something from it.

Best I've Read in a While
I pity the pretentious readers out there that are so "intelligent" they are unable to enjoy a book at face value.To be a person that would compare this novel to such writers as Hemingway, Fitzgerald and others of the like is a blatant attempt to make yourself feel better than those of us that signed on to give a positive review of a work well done.Although this is a fairly short novel it is immensely full of so much emotion and honesty that it is hard to put down. The characters aren't particularly likeable, but they are definitely identifiable.If you are not able to see atleast some of their characteristics in yourself then you may not yet have lived and loved.I read this book through in one sitting and found the writing unpretentious and I believe that helped me immerse myself in the situations so much more easily than most more highly respected novels today.There is not a lot of thought provoking figurative language and not very much vast attention to detail.This book reads much like a movie script and is very easy to visualize as it goes along.I recommend this book to anyone that wants to read a simple bittersweet story about the love and loss of our youth.The simplicity of it will appeal to the A.D.D. youth of today or anyone that doesn't want to have to think too much to enjoy a good book. ... Read more

Product Description
New York’s Unique & Unexpected Places is written for adventurers and dreamers who want to explore the city’s uncommon, but fascinating, less familiar sites. This beguiling book will delight urban enthusiasts, New Yorkers, and the countless tourists determined to discover—and sometimes rediscover—these fifty memorable destinations. Visit a cutting-edge center for architecture, a Dutch farmhouse surprisingly perched on Broadway, the sublime chapel designed by Louise Nevelson, idiosyncratic museums dedicated to finance and firefighting and subway cars, the historic home of Louis Armstrong, and a spectacular garden overlooking the Hudson. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

NYC Journeys
As a New York fanatic, I collect books about the city and was really happy to discover "New York's Unique & Unexpected Places."This book has sent me on a serendipitous journey, from Poets House downtown in Battery Park to Louis Armstrong's house in Queens.I even took the ferryboat across the river to the Chinese Scholar's Garden in Staten Island to see if it was as spectacular as described.It was.

The book is great: the writing is lyrical, the photographs are superb, the design is bold.So where will it take me next?I've bookmarked the NYC Transit Museum in Brooklyn, which should intrigue a young nephew visiting here on the weekend.My list includes the Hispanic Society of America, where I'll bring a friend who loves Goya's paintings, and then I'll go to Economy Candy as a reward for being a tour guide.I'm saving the Hua Mei Bird Garden for warmer weather.

Indispensable read for any true New Yorker.
Full disclosure, I am a friend of the the author and her family. Having said this, this was a great book to read, especially since I lived in downtown manhattan for almost 13 years, but the past 10 I have lived and worked in Los Angeles. I thought that I was a well versed new yorker who had seen most of what had to be seen in the years I had been here. I was wrong. This book makes you want to fall in love with the city all over again and will reawaken your sense of discovery about New York and all of its special places. Go ahead, be a tourist, get the book, read it and go discover these places for yourself.

Here we come!
What a marvelous treat "New York's Unique and Unexpected Places" was to read!Judith Stonehill has done all the legwork for our next trip to the Big Apple - we just have to decide which places to visit first. The write-ups are such fun to read, even if you weren't planning a trip to the "City".The beautiful photos by Alexandra Stonehill enhance the author's descriptions.

Best of all, this book is out in time for Christmas gifts - each of our children will be receiving one.

NYC here we come - eager and ready to take in these "special finds".

A New York Must - Have
A terrific guide as well as a great read. This book takes you to many places in New York that I never knew existed. Not only am I happy to have one myself, I will be buying more as gifts for my native New Yorker friends.Most that I polled had been to less than half of the places featured, and there were several that none even knew about.A must for every New Yorker and lovers of New York.

Great Photos, But Too Little Substance
With a large collection of New York City guide books, I am pretty well read in this area.I like to keep myself current on both popular tourist sites and obscure stuff since I act as a tour guide myself when I have guests from out-of-town.There seem to be a run on new books the feature 'unusual' places in New York."New York's Unique and Unexpected Places" is the third guide I've see published in the past year, following "Off the Beaten Subway Track" and "Secret New York", each which also sit on my bookshelf.Unfortunately, this title covers no new ground.

Starting with its strengths, the photos are crisp and nicely capture the spirit of some of these lesser known sites.The photos are the star of the show, but the writing is only acceptable and it lacks personality.This title would have been better as a coffee table book of photo essays, rather than a hard cover guide book.In terms of value for your money, "Off the Beaten Subway Track" is a soft-cover book that cost me half as much money, covered all of the same sites with dozens that are not in this book, and featured a more engaging narrative structure.

If you are looking for interesting places to visit in New York, this book provides a sample of the oddity that New York contains.However, it is not alone in a growing niche.Since I tend to be a bit of an outlier when it comes to NYC books (I literally have dozens), I suspect most people only need one book regarding this narrow subject.Explore the alternatives, since this book falls short. ... Read more

Product Description
Two People, Three Lives, One Love Is there anything more terrifying than being in love? Jimmy Heartsock is so afraid of losing his love Christy, he is going A Wol from the army and chasing after her in order to propose marriage - in a frozen car park. Christy is terrified, not so much that she's going to have a baby, but because if she takes on Jimmy Heartsock, she may end up with two. How does anyone, ever, make it down the aisle? Can Jimmy stop looking vainly into mirrors, taking recreational drugs, or blaming his father for committing suicide - will he ver grow up? Can Christy stop feeling that their destiny together is to break each other's hearts, that there is a glass wall between her and the world and that her Texan politician father could avert any calamity - if only she deserved it? Are they a couple so afraid of falling, it would be easier to jump? Will they, won't they mess this thing up?As the unforgettable lovers drive across America, confronting family history, personal hangups and questions they've never even asked each other before - about faith, death and learning how to live - the reader is caught up in a sensationally moving, funny and nail-biting drama of love in our time. ... Read more

Product Description
Is there anything more terrifying than being in love? Jimmy Heartsock is so afraid of losing his love Christy, he is going AWOL from the army and chasing after her in order to propose marriage - in a frozen car park. Christy is terrified, not so much that she's going to have a baby, but because if she takes on Jimmy Heartsock, she may end up with two. As the unforgettable lovers drive across America, confronting family history, personal hang-ups and questions they've never even asked each other before - about faith, death and learning how to live - the reader is caught up in a sensationally moving, funny and nail-biting drama of love in our time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

one of the most disciplined and enjoyable writers of our generation
Yes. I said it. All one really has to do is YouTube any of several interviews of Ethan (most importantly the 'Inside the Actor's Studio' ones) to see without much doubt that he is an unusually profound, witty, and insightful person, and one with a charisma to the way he is able to speak and get across his ideas. Thus it should be no surprise that said person would have the ability to write works of merit too. Luckily for all of us willing to dive in, he did his work, lived up to such potential, and pulled off something that truly speaks to the heart. I would say that this is one of my favorite novels ever, and that is coming from an English major. I'd originally read his debut novel, and while it truly had the wrenching, heartbreaking qualities that won me over completely, this one followed and felt as though he had upped it a notch in sophistication, in sheer scope. It was still the emotional palate of the steadfast romanticism and fickle mystery of youth, but this time wrought with all of the realities of imperfect characters, point of view shifts, metaphorical complexity, geographic coloring, and most of all, true-to-life difficulties that our farcical and less-than-mature visions of love can contain. This book is an experience. It sings with highs and lows, and journeys its reader along as if they were right there between the wheels of its metaphor.

As a final note, it is a bummer that almost any discussion of Ethan's writing almost has to automatically suffer some sort of preface with reference to his acting career, as if people in a particular profession should or should not have any particular aptitude for writing itself. He's a human being, is all. One with a grand ability to write. Please hold him to any normal scale that you'd hold any other human being to. I'm sure he must feel not unlike Jeff Buckley did, who couldn't enter a pressroom without being asked about his father, always. I'm sure he'd feel a fresh breeze on him after any interview about his writing that actually didn't mention his acting career at all. Believe me folks, one only writes novels as good as these, if they are inherently called to do so in their soul. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

one of the most disciplined and enjoyable writers of our generation
Yes. I said it. All one really has to do is YouTube any of several interviews of Ethan (most importantly the 'Inside the Actor's Studio' ones) to see without much doubt that he is an unusually profound, witty, and insightful person, and one with a charisma to the way he is able to speak and get across his ideas. Thus it should be no surprise that said person would have the ability to write works of merit too. Luckily for all of us willing to dive in, he did his work, lived up to such potential, and pulled off something that truly speaks to the heart. I would say that this is one of my favorite novels ever, and that is coming from an English major. I'd originally read his debut novel, and while it truly had the wrenching, heartbreaking qualities that won me over completely, this one followed and felt as though he had upped it a notch in sophistication, in sheer scope. It was still the emotional palate of the steadfast romanticism and fickle mystery of youth, but this time wrought with all of the realities of imperfect characters, point of view shifts, metaphorical complexity, geographic coloring, and most of all, true-to-life difficulties that our farcical and less-than-mature visions of love can contain. This book is an experience. It sings with highs and lows, and journeys its reader along as if they were right there between the wheels of its metaphor.

As a final note, it is a bummer that almost any discussion of Ethan's writing almost has to automatically suffer some sort of preface with reference to his acting career, as if people in a particular profession should or should not have any particular aptitude for writing itself. He's a human being, is all. One with a grand ability to write. Please hold him to any normal scale that you'd hold any other human being to. I'm sure he must feel not unlike Jeff Buckley did, who couldn't enter a pressroom without being asked about his father, always. I'm sure he'd feel a fresh breeze on him after any interview about his writing that actually didn't mention his acting career at all. Believe me folks, one only writes novels as good as these, if they are inherently called to do so in their soul. ... Read more

Product Description
Word count: 1347. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from CineAction, published by CineAction on March 22, 2001. The length of the article is 8156 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: HAWKE ASCENDING.(actor Ethan Hawke)
Author: Robin Wood
Publication: CineAction (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2001
Publisher: CineAction
Page: 2

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
Ethan Green Hawke (born November 6, 1970) is an American actor, writer and film director. He made his feature film debut in 1985, opposite River Phoenix in the movie Explorers, before making a supporting appearance in the 1989 drama Dead Poets Society which is considered his breakthrough role. He then appeared in such films as White Fang (1991), A Midnight Clear (1992), and Alive (1993) before taking a role in the 1994 Generation X drama Reality Bites, for which he received critical acclaim. In 1995 he starred in the romantic drama Before Sunrise, and later in its sequel Before Sunset (2004). In 2001, Hawke was cast in a supporting role in Training Day (2001), for which he received a Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category. Other films have included the science fiction feature Gattaca (1997), the title role in Michael Almereyda's Hamlet (2000), the action thriller Assault on Precinct 13 (2005), and the crime drama Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007). ... Read more

Product Description
details ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Kevin Smith, J. Michael Straczynski, William Carlos Williams, Ethan Hawke, Joyce Kilmer, Philip Roth, Bill Maher, Christopher Mcquarrie, Norman Mailer, Hedwig Gorski, Mike Michalowicz, Janet Evanovich, F. Paul Wilson, Yosef Reinman, Norman Cousins, A. Merritt, William Pène Du Bois, Fred J. Cook, W. S. Merwin, Robert T. Bakker, Wanda Gág, Harlan Coben, Ed Naha, Gerald Stern, Peace Pilgrim, William J. Higginson, Lynda Hull, Alan Pizzarelli, Herbert Jay Stern, Helen Zia, Naomi Long Madgett, Philip J. Ivanhoe, Logan Pearsall Smith, Laura Mccullough, Doni Tamblyn, Betsy Sholl, Edward Stratemeyer, Leo Katcher, Donald Gallinger, Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Jr., Diana G. Gallagher, Rocco Silano, Martha Zweig, Gary Jennings, Steve Benson, Carol Plum-Ucci, Pietro Di Donato, Joel Fuhrman, Edward Bloor, Harry Basch, William Wenthe, Daniel Nester, Harriet Adams, Chang-Rae Lee, Peter Cole, Joan Silber, Aline Murray Kilmer, Peter Waldor, Anne Marie Macari, Gary Krist, Diane Wald, Jeff Gottesfeld, Lois Utz, Gregory Galloway, John Grant, Oscar Fraley, Michael Capuzzo, Henrietta Christian Wright, Jess Row, Noelle Kocot, Samm Sinclair Baker, Shaun Simon, Gene Laufenberg, John D. Jacobson, Daisy Hernandez. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 372. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Ethan Green Hawke (born November 6, 1970) is an American actor, writer and film director. He made his feature film debut in 1985 with River Phoenix in the movie Explorers, before making a supporting appearance in the 1989 drama Dead Poets Society which is considered his breakthrough role. He then appeared in such films as White Fang (1991), A Midnight Clear (1992), and Alive (1993) before taking a role in the 1994 Generation X drama Reality Bites, for which he received critical acclaim. In 1995 he starred in the romantic dra...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=164120 ... Read more

Product Description
Gil Davison is the coach of an amateur baseball team in Michigan, national finalists many times over but champions never.He has spent his adult life juggling his roles as coach to the team, father to his estranged son, and caretaker to his own disapproving father -- a man disdainful of Gil's passion for the game.Now, in this one season, Gil's star pitcher is losing his arm , his son has made it clear that he is doing just fine without him, and his father is dying of cancer.So when a hot rookie hitter wanders into town -- fresh from a stint in prison and determined to make a clean start -- Gil convinces himself that this season his team must win the championship, their one last chance to fulfill an elusive dream. But the events that unfold are unexpected, enlightening and overwhelmingly powerful -- and they will change each of these men forever.

With the voice of a born storyteller, a gift for capturing the subtleties of men's interactions and a tireless pursiut of our most vulnerable truths -- in love, parenting, competition, and death -- Scott Lasser lays bare theunspoken bonds and implicit understandings that exist between all men -- silences that substitute for compassion, silences that can eventually implode from the pressure of their own restraint.Amazon.com Review
In his first novel, Scott Lasser takes on that time-honored topic, arms andthe man--pitching arms, that is. But Battle Creek is no overblownbaseball epic. Instead, the author focuses on a minor-league team--onewhose propensity to lose in the final round of the nationals makes itssponsorship by a funeral home somehow appropriate. Can veteran coach GilDavison turn things around? He's determined to do so, even if it means atouch of dugout downsizing:

He has made up his mind that this will be his last season. He wants to goout on top. In previous years he kept some people on board out of loyalty,or because he liked them, or because he liked their wives or girlfriends,or just to avoid having to fire them, but this year he won't do it. Thisyear a player has to produce, or he's gone.

Customer Reviews (21)

Spellbinding!
Mr. Lasser writes a compelling tale about people.The premise is baseball, which admittedly is a subject that doesn't interest me, but in spite of that, I really enjoyed the book.A true work of literature, and not just another mindless page-turner, this high-quality work is haunting and yet strangely uplifting.

Somewhat disappointing...
An ardent baseball fan, I found this book to be something of a disappointment.While the book certainly lacks little in its description of the details of the game and those involved in it, the plot and characters never seem to ascend beyond cliche.The ending, too, left me wanting for something not just more, but better.A decent first effort for Lasser, but the there are many in the catalog of written works about baseball that I have found more engrossing and enjoyable than Battle Creek.

As Compelling as a Check Swing Single
Like baseball, this book can be enjoyed at a very basic level. Unlike baseball however, Battle Creek lacks the depth and complexity to be treated as much more than a pleasant diversion. I sped through Battle Creek quickly and easily, without having to put too much thought into it. Being a Michigander, and a baseball fan, Battle Creek should have grabbed me and not let go. Instead, it merely guided be through page after page of everyday life. The characters were drawn well enough, they just never really popped from the pages. The baseball scenes seemed realistic and the relationships possible, if not a little shallow. I have no real complaints about this book. Likewise, I wouldn't call a friend to tell them to read it either. Instead, I'd suggest that anyone looking for real baseball reading pick up Bart Giamatti's "A Great and Glorious Game" and read the first essay, "The Green Fields of the Mind." That four page masterpiece contains more human drama, baseball knowledge and rich prose than Battle Creek achieves in over 200 pages.

Lasser explores price of victory in touch 'em all novel
Battle Creek joins Bang the Drum Slowly and The Natural in its exploration of the lure and costs of baseball on the American psyche.Focusing on the final season of generationally-sandwiched head coach Gil Davison, the novelist Scott Lasser is at his best when the themes of competition and success mingle with the tensions engendered in families which do not function well.His descriptions of his terminally ill father are, to me, the strongest aspect of the novel.

In addition, his evocative narrative of actual games reveal a man who knows and respects the beauty of baseball.Unfortunately, the women who populate his novel are distressingly unidimensional:either poetically detached or built like centerfolds (with little personality or intelligence to attract them to readers who would prefer "real" women to affected groupies).

Nevertheless, I commend the novel for its exploration into the darker sides of our character, our obsessions with winning and our delusions as to how much victory truly means.

Best "guy" book this girl's ever read
I became so immediately involved with the characters in this story that Iforgot I was reading a book about baseball and men's lives ... I wascompletely engaged in everything about the story, and hated to see it end... Thanks to Scott Lasser's amazing craft for characterization, I am nowintrigued with baseball and the players and looking for an amateur baseballgame, as well as Scott Lasser's next novel... ... Read more