Jenny Shank writes an interesting, easy to read tale. It is, in part, about the drama of two young men heritage from their fathers, one wrongly killed in a police raid, the other the policeman who killed him. The other part is about commonality and the American Melting pot. The American game, baseball, is the metaphor for the latter. In the narator's opinion “hidden connections between everyone” for the gods to know. Her story is a good attempt to illustrate from a god's point of view. ( )

Shank's novel is an entertaining one, and does a pretty fantastic job of weaving baseball into the fabric of the novel in a way that even someone like me--who cares fairly little for the sport--enjoyed. And, the characters are interesting as well, with a plot that comes together in a way that's both believable and natural (albeit somewhat predictable at a few moments). Yet, what leaves me with a somewhat lukewarm impression is the fact that everything felt somewhat distant. There were just too many characters built in in a central way, leaving me feeling sympathetic for the story, but not particularly attached to any main character or storyline. Certainly, part of Shank's goal was to weave together two stories that would seem to be diametrically opposed by an outsider...but, while it worked as a plot-level experiment, I'm not sure it worked to make a stronger novel. Simply, it took me a long time to read this book not so much because I wasn't interested, but because I was more interested in other works that caught my interest. I love the idea of this novel, and much of what I found here...I just never got truly captured by it, and since I have to trace that problem to the structure of the novel itself, I'm not sure whether it wouldn't be a problem for many other readers as well. ( )

This book has an interesting premise. Ed O'Fallon is just a Denver cop doing his job. In the confusion of a no-knock drug raid at the wrong address, he kills a Mexican immigrant, Salvador, estranged from his wife and family. Ed's sons, Jesse and E. J., play on an elite baseball team. Salvador's son Ray, using his Mexican-American mother Patricia Maestas' maiden name, is a hot pitcher on another team in the league. He ultimately winds up as a "ringer" (a person who is highly proficient at a particular skill or sport and is brought in to supplement a team or group of people) on Ed's boys' team, the city champions, in the state tournament. Gradually all these people realize who the others are.

The story is told from the points of view of Ed and Patricia. Ed begins to doubt himself and is frustrated by the mandatory administrative leave. Patricia has her own feelings of guilt, wondering if the separation she wanted (that she learns may have been unwarranted) might have led to Salvador's death. She is pressured by her mother and Latino activists to sue the city of Denver. All these themes and storylines are skillfully woven together.

The author does a masterful job making the reader understand and care about BOTH of these people and their families. I loved the little touches, like Ed's trying to control his normal overenthusiastic coaching style while working with his young daughter Polly's T-ball team, his wife Claire always knowing where his misplaced items are, and Patricia's daughter Mia carrying around her John Elway doll, dubbed "El Johnway." This made the characters more ordinary yet believable.

This book was a Top 100 semifinalist for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award in 2008. You don't have to be a baseball or sports fan (I'm not) to understand or like this book (I did).

Author Jenny Shank grew up in Denver. In the acknowledgments, the author indicates that this book was inspired by the shooting of Ismael Mena, a real-life botched no-knock drug raid death in Denver in 1999. She's written numerous other pieces, including this review of Half-Broke Horses, but this is her first book. Well-written and well-paced, I'd definitely read another book by her.

© Amanda Pape - 2011 - This review is also available at Bookin' It. ( )

Interesting story of a police raid and the tragic consequences for two families, the wife and son of a suspected drug dealer killed in the confusion of a bad police raid and the consequences for the family of the cop who did the shooting in that raid gone bad.
Two different families both devastated by a tragic error. But both healed in part by the simple game of baseball! ( )

The premise of this book is interesting. Two boys, both good at baseball, but from very different worlds, end up on the same team. One very large problem. The father of one of the boys has killed the father of the other. Read the book to see how that transpires.

This book has several themes: justice, racism, family, and of course, baseball. The author has a nice way of telling a story. The book is nicely paced and is compelling enough to keep your interest. Some things didn't seem very realistic, but the author does a good job of keeping all of the balls in the air and telling the story from several different points of view. She shows compassion to all of her characters and allows the reader to imagine what it would be like to be these different people. I liked this book. It was worth my time to read it. ( )