They say you never have a second chance to make a first impression. Well, duh.
But you may have a second chance when it comes to a book review.
I often wonder about professional critics. What kind of expertise do they have in the topic they’re writing about? What was their mood when they wrote them? Did anything influence their judgments? I come across a lot of reviews, especially when I’m posting the “Bits and Pieces” entries, but I try very hard to avoid reading them lest I be swayed one way or another. And while I don’t claim to be an expert in every subject, I know what I know; I don’t what others know. Perhaps nothing. Perhaps ignorance is bliss and a little knowledge is dangerous.
I recently posted that John Grisham’s Calico Joe might be made into a movie with George Clooney attached to the project as director. I reviewed that book ten years ago and wondered if my feelings might have changed with the passage of time.
I almost never reread anything — there are too many books I haven’t read; my nightstand is creaking under the weight of volumes I have yet to get to — but I’ve made a few exceptions and based on this news, I decided to give Calico Joe another look to see if my original assessments still held for me.
Very quick synopsis: “Calico Joe” Castle is the best rookie to ever don a pair of spikes, making his debut with the Chicago Cubs in 1973. Tracey Warren is a mediocre pitcher for the New York Mets, bitter, narcissistic, a serial philanderer and domestic abuser, and father of the story’s author, Paul, who as a pre-teen adored Castle. The ballplayers’ path cross with disastrous results.
The novel jumps back and forth between 1973 and the present (in this case 2003), when the elder Warren is dying of cancer, Castle has been rendered an invalid thanks the ill-conceived actions of the jealous pitcher, and the ambivalent Paul is trying to figure out the best course of action. He is loathe to have anything to do with his father but the prospect of a reconciliation between the two ballplayers gives him project towards a sense of closure.
Back then I wrote: “CALICO JOE is not especially suspenseful; the reader knows practically from the beginning that things will not end well for the rookie.” Maybe I realized it at the time but failed to write about it: the novel is as much about Paul’s feelings at Tracey’s impending demise as anything else. Looking at the father’s side was not on my radar back then and it remains far on the back-burner. Maybe it’s because I have an adult child and wonder what she thinks of me now and how she will remember me (just to state the hopefully obvious, in absolutely no way am I like the tyrannical Tracey Warren). I still don’t know what his motives are as he begrudgingly agrees to visit Joe in an attempt to make amends.
At the time, I was so unimpressed with Calico Joe that I chalked it up as a “vanity project,” one owed to Grisham by his publisher. I have less cynical point of view now and will be quite interested to see how Clooney and company will turn it into a feature film. I’m already running actors through my head for the main roles. I hope it actually comes to fruition, but baseball movies seldom make for a profitable enterprise.
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As I look to clean out some of my library, look for future “Second Chance” reviews to see if books written decades ago have aged well. (Just a heads-up: I don’t think my original take on The Art of Fielding will ever change.)
is available on Amazon.com,
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