This is an astonishing book. The movie works directly against the intentions of the author, as the book is really a criticism of sports heroes. I think maybe in the end it's saying you can't be a hero and also a mature adult. It's heavily influenced by The Odyssey and Joyce's Ulysses, and maybe (according to a brilliant friend) by The Wizard of Oz. But the book is so funny, hallucinatory, bizarre, and brilliant that it will have me thinking about it for months, at least.

I've never seen this movie.
This book is vivid and summery. Full of baseball and its superstitions and lingo (I love the word "stuff" and what it means in baseball and I think nowadays it means even more). Malamud doesn't use contractions in his dialogue here so there's a '50s formality to the mood. Seems like all the men's names are one syllable and all the women's names are two. I like the name Memo for a character. Never heard that one before. Roy's appetite and all the food he consumes: some fun food listing--and Roy's downfall.
The narrator is pleasant. Much more a reading tone than a performance.
This is so American.

This was a good “first fiction of summer” book. It wasn’t at all what I expected, but probably better because of the ways it took me by surprise. Now I want to see the movie, although I think it’s pretty different.

ci voleva malamud buonanima per farmi leggere un romanzo sul baseball (che mi è pure piaciuto!)

The seamy side of baseball, of sports in general, is what is drawn here. Being a fan of realism, I ought to like The Natural more than I do. The jargon of the players, fans and spectators, the excitement at the matches, the jostling, drinking and brawling, the betting tied to the winnings, the fraudulent fixing of games are all here.

There are two time frames. First, we are traveling with Roy Hobbes on a train to Chicago. He is nineteen and is to try out with a Chicago baseball team, the Cubs. A female murderess, a lunatic, has been killing top sports figures—it is this that fills the news. This female character is loosely based on the real life nineteen-year-old Ruth Ann Steinhagen. In 1949, Steinhagen shot and nearly killed the Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Eddie Waitkus. Back to the fictional tale: the train stops en route. A carnival is in progress. An impromptu match is taken up. On the train, in addition to Roy, is also a major league baseball star known as The Whammer. This character is modelled on Babe Ruth. The two face off against each other. Roy is the clear winner--striking The Whammer out with three pitches. On the train too sits the lunatic murderess. Her attention, originally fixed on The Whammer, shifts now to Roy. At the start, the readers’ suspicions of intended foul play mount. There are elements of mystery and suspense. Dreams and reality are intertwined. What is real? What is not?

The time frame switches. The story recommences sixteen years later. Roy is a newly recruited player of the Knights, a fictional major league baseball team in New York. It’s on a losing streak. One gets a whiff of the less than legitimate deals and counter deals made between owners, co-owners and managers. Can the losing streak be turned to a winning streak? There is competition over girls too. The talk is ribald, often crude.

Ultimately the story concerns why one plays a sport. Money? Fame? Sportsmanship? Or for the soul, the spirit, the beauty of the game? For the pride one can feel, the inner satisfaction felt on simply playing a good match?

The ending is bleak.

Fred Berman narrates the audiobook. I like how he intones the clamor of the matches--realistic but not overdone. The text is not hard to follow. Extraordinarily well performed? No, but good. Three stars for the audio narration.


***********************
*The Fixer 4 stars
*The Assistant 4 stars
*Dubin's Lives 4 stars
*A New Life 3 stars
*The Tenants 2 stars
*The Natural 2 stars
*God's Grace not-for-me

Most overrated “classic” I have ever read, with maybe the exception of Catcher In The Rye.

This is a tricky review. I was recommended this classic by my father-in-law who recently found a collection of his work on a bookventure, and knows how much I love the game of baseball. As a boy, the movie about Roy Hobbs was a favorite and fantasy. I grew up in a rural town, and my father passed on his love of baseball to me before I knew how to walk and talk. I loved playing the game. My friends and I played it all the time in spring, summer, and fall. I was on multiple teams, and in my neighborhood, we actually built a baseball field in an open field. We were all 8 at the time, and I remember it clearly. A few adults took a liking to our inspiring work and helped us create a wall and delivered chalk for the lines.

I'm getting off on memory lane, and away from this work and review. I loved the game. I adored the movie. It was a fairytale of a baseball movie. A boy from a rural town, discovered, and eventually getting his chance. He tore up the competition with the bat he made, Wonderboy. Oh, and the ending. It was a good film - made you feel good, and the character and story made you want to get out and play the game even more. I don't know how this book, the inspiration to the movie has just now entered my grasp, but I was very happy to spend a couple hours with this and see where the thoughts began . . .

And oh, how it's different. Typical with the era this was written, this is a dark tale - written in a dark time. Baseball is a part of the story, but it's a backdrop to the themes focused by Malamud. Apparently, there were recurring themes in his work, and this one used baseball - the American pastime - to help tell his story of trying to obtain the American Dream. Roy Hobbs, in the eyes of Malamud, wasn't quite the fairytale character found in the movie. The Robert Redford classic took the namesake of the character, the era, and some of the journey, but they sure made it a lot happier.

After reading this, I've come to the conclusion, I like my baseball tales a bit happier! This is one of those rare occurrences that I'll take the movie over the book. Now it could be me being disconnected to the struggles and dilemmas Malamud puts in his lead character, but the movie was a part of my life, and I sure did enjoy watching it! In this work, Hobbs seemingly makes wrong decision after wrong decision. The writing style of Malamud is difficult at times in reading this. It's written in a prose style at parts, and with such darkness in most characters, I found it to be a juxtaposition that was hard to get fully into and overcome.

I will say that I love the character was to become in the movie version. For that, this was an enjoyable trip as a reader and one I'm happy to have taken.

Disgustingly hypersexualized and misogynistic. The women had no character other than the “problems” they caused the protagonists and how the protagonist thought the women were too fat or old for him. Sure, he’s a natural. A natural creep.

I read the book “The Natural,” and it truly surprised me and caught me off guard. Even though I saw the cover of the book, I did not think it would be the main focus of this book. I am a lover of everything sports, and this was one of the most interesting books I have ever read. It talks about a guy starting off playing no baseball to being a star in the major leagues. It talks about the challenges of a star player on and off the diamond. Overall, it was a very good book that shows what a star has to deal with.

I would give this 3 1/2 stars. In full disclosure, I have loved the movie most of my life and I knew the book was going to be darker. And it is. And the characters are less likable. It is really interesting to see how they masterfully adapted essentially the same story and dialogue from the book into a movie with a completely different tone and a lot more heart. So, I'm glad I read it to appreciate the comparison, but in this rare case I did prefer the movie.

If you think this is the sweet story you saw in the movie with Robert Redford, complete with the overdramatic happy ending, you are in for a shock. In this dark tale, Roy Hobbs' baseball career is cut short by a crazed fan. Years later he has a second chance and easily shoots to the top of the majors with his skills. Along the way, Hobbs falls for the manager's niece, Memo, who is still in love with Hobbs' now deceased team rival, Bump Bailey; has a romantic fling with the past-her-prime fan Iris Lemon; and is enticed to throw the last game of the season by the owner of his team, the Judge, and the owner's friend, bookie Gus Sands. Hobbs has a huge chip on his shoulder, and the reader waits to see if he can overcome this to become the big hero of the story and redeem himself. Loaded with great characters and some events based in reality, the rich storytelling that showcases Hobbs thoughts makes this a great read. Not a long book in pages, just 248, there's much bubbling beneath the surface for the reader to mull over.

قهرمان
شیما الهی، نشر چشمه

فکر کنم وقتی صفحهٔ اولش رو تو کتاب‌فروشی خوندم خیلی انتظارم رو بالا بردم. اما چندتا نکته رو خیلی خلاصه بگم: اول اینکه خیلی بد سانسور شده. سانسور خوب هم داریم مگه؟ نه، ولی این کتاب رو جوری سانسور کردن که وسط کتاب هی به خودتون شک می‌کنید که نکنه چیزی رو جا انداختید یا متوجه نشدید.
بعد هم اینکه کتاب خیلی خشک بود، جایی نبود که حس کنم من درگیر شخصیتی شدم یا احساساتم داره غلغلک‌ داده می‌شه. حالا یا من خیلی نتونستم ارتباط برقرار کنم، یا ترجمه بی‌تاثیر نبوده و یا واقعا کمیتش لنگ بوده.
در نهایت انتظار بالایی از مالامود داشتم که برآورده نشد، اما باز هم ازش می‌خونم.