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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780395957738
ISBN number: 0395957737
Label: Mariner Books
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 272
Printing Date: April 28, 1999
Publishing house: Mariner Books
Sale Popularity Level: 20220
Studio: Mariner Books
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
'If you build it, he will come.' Them mysterious words of an Iowa baseball announcer lead Ray Kinsella to carve a baseball diamond in his cornfield in honor of his hero, the baseball legend Shoeless Joe Jackson. This is a book 'not so much about baseball as it is about dreams, magic, life, and what is quintessentially American,' said the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Amazon.com:
W. P. Kinsella plays with both myth and fantasy in his lyrical novel, which was adapted into the enormously popular movie, Field of Dreams. It begins with the magic of a godlike voice in a cornfield, and ends with the magic of a son playing catch with the ghost of his father. In Kinsella's hands, it's all about as simple, and complex, as the object of baseball itself: coming home. Like Ring Lardner and Bernard Malamud before him, Kinsella spins baseball as backdrop and metaphor, and, like his predecessors, uses the game to tell us a little something more about who we are and what we need.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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Somewhere along the road the phrase 'if you build it, they will come' has come to signify a sort of brainless reassurance. In fact, the message of the book is that if you build something with a clarity of vision and purity of heart, there will be results worthy of your effort.
Reading this beautiful book about baseball (and make no mistake, it's really about baseball)will liberate you from the power of that cliche. It will also give you a haunting, beautiful model from which to build your own fields.
Lynn Hoffman, author of the novel bang BANG
Rated by buyers -
Imagine listening to Peggy Lee singing "Is That All There Is" and feeling like you need to sleep for a week to escape the inane, predictable world. And then imagine youself feeling inspired by a short but magical novel that seems to say that just about anything is possible. If you're in the doldrums and tempted to become a cynic, read W. P. Kinsella's SHOELESS JOE. Peggy won't sound so convincing after you're finished.
Yes, of course, the plot is slightly different from the movie's, but not by much. A few scenes from the book are omitted for the sake of pacing, and Hollywood made J.D. Salinger into bestselling writer Terence Mann for legal reasons in case the recluse got his shorts all bunched up. But the storyline of FIELD OF DREAMS is quite faithful to the novel. So why read the book, you ask.
First, Kinsella's style is quite poetic. Although it becomes a bit saccharine in spots, it nevertheless has an easy feel to it. The paragraphs flow with a descriptive grace that is a bit magical in itself. There are some very long digressions, but even these are interesting as they slip nicely into Kinsella's tale of baseball as the saving grace of America--and one man in particular: Ray Kinsella.
The best reason to read this book, however, is to have the author's original words, as opposed to the resulting screenplay, sink into your soul so that you can feel the magic of the prose-poetry at a deeper level, where it can take root.
Kinsella manages to do two things in this novel: he speaks of the importance of the simple things in life: a farm, a pitcher of lemonade, a kiss, baseball. Simultaneously, he implies that there is a magic woven into the very fabric of reality, a magic that can happen to anyone. Paradoxically, it is this magic that ultimately makes the simple things accessible to us. Maybe that's why kids can have fun with rocks, sticks, and carboard boxes--kids who also believe in magic and baseball.
So "is that all there is"? No, Peggy. There is a mysterious world in the cornfields of Ray Kinsella's farm, a world that can touch our own if we allow ourselves to once again believe in dreams and possibilities.
Rated by buyers -
Shoeless Joe is an inspirational novel about a baseball fanatic from a small town in Iowa. Ray Kinsella the main character, is a struggling farmer economically. One night Ray hears a voice while on his farm saying, "If you build it they will come". Ray the dreamer he is, decides to knock down his valuable crops and build a baseball field, in hope of bringing back his favorite player Shoeless Joe Jackson. So Ray follows the voices and goes on a long journey from Iowa to Boston to Minnesota in search of answers to finally find the answers to his dreams and his economic problems.
If you are a fan of dreaming and hope then this book is for you. This book is very similar to the movie, Field Of Dreams. However, in the novel W.P. Kinsella elaborates a lot more on the settings and it is a lot more enjoyable. If you are a fan of non-fiction I do not reccomond this novel. The events in this book are farfetched but really inspiring.
The theme in this book mistaken by most is not baseball. Kinsella brings up the idea of hope, father-son, and to not give up on your dreams.
Rated by buyers 
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Well it's supposed to be about dreams, magic, life and not about baseball...wrong it's about baseball and an American understanding that baseball is a way to unlock dreams, magic, and life.
But I am not an American follower of Baseball so along with Underworld by Don DeLillo it went over my head (although DeLillo's books very first chapter was a stunning, lyrical depiction of the centuries' baseball World Series final moments). So is Shoeless Joe...stunning, lyrical writing? No, assume wooden, workaday.
Think I am being harsh? Well I look forward to a story based of a brickie who puts a goal up in Norfolk. George Best then appears to help him build the football pitch and gradually all the world ** players appear (Lev Yashin as goalie, Carlos Alberto Torres, NÃlton Santos as full backs, Franz Beckenbauer, Bobby Moore as centre backs etc for one last game with the Brickie's long lost father as the ref. That I would understand so Nick Hornby get writing it.
But for the moment I am sticking to the film of the book-Field of Dreams. And making a mental note to be wary of any book that has a sports theme!
** run past me again how in Baseball one country = a world series whilst the 2006 World cup has 198 counties competing and over 700 million people watched the actual finals
Rated by buyers -
For anyone who loves baseball, and good lord I do, and for anyone who values the history of baseball, this novel holds a mirror up to us and explain to us why we love this game the way we do. The reader cannot help but feel identification and empathy with all of the wonderful characters Kinsella creates. Even those who do not really understand this whole baseball fascination will gleen an insight or two into why that is.
Mr. Kinsella has crafted a unique story, written in eloquent prose that speaks to the reader's heart. All of the facets of the human condition are explored in conjunction with this snapshot of baseball love.
The book is filled with so many wonderful scenes. It is much better and more fulfilling than the film, "Field of Dreams."
Baseball season or not, this is a perfect book to read when you have some free time.
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