Summerland, Michael Chabon
(Hyperion) ISBN: 064156855X
"A baseball game is nothing but a great slow contraption for getting you to pay attention to the cadence of a summer day."
Michael Chabon, Summerland
Summerland is an enchanted baseball field on the tip of Clam Island, Washington, a green place where the sun always shines in summer, the sky is perfectly blue, and it never rains during baseball season. Eleven year old Ethan Feld is a reluctant member of "Ruth's Fluff n' Fold Roosters", a little league baseball team which plays all its games at Summerland, and he is the worst baseball player in the whole history of Clam Island. Ethan and his recently widowed father, a freelance dirigible designer, are recent comers to Clam Island, having moved there from Colorado Springs a short time after the death of Ethan's mother.
One afternoon during a baseball game, the unthinkable happens, and it begins to rain on Summerland. The fairies (ferishers) who watch over Summerland and ensure its eternally fine weather are under attack by ancient evil forces, and not only Summerland, but the World Tree (or lodgepole) and all of existence are in grave peril.
Ethan is recruited by a mysterious old baseball (or hero) scout named Chiron "Ringfinger" Brown as a mythic hero or champion, someone who will undertake the heroic quest, pick up his baseball bat and save the four worlds from certain destruction by Coyote and his evil rade. Ringfinger has been in the business for centuries, and he counts Achilles, King Arthur, Toussaint, Crazy Horse and Ulysses S. Grant among his finds, but an eleven year old boy is something else again, particularly an eleven year old boy with no skill at baseball.
The fate of the universe will be decided by a cosmic baseball game in which Ethan, his friend Jennifer T, and their motley team of ferishers, shades, werefolk, giants, changelings and one lonely sasquatch named Taffy, take on Coyote and his demonic baseball team on the playing field at Diamond Green. Old Man Coyote created the worlds, stealing rain from Thunderbird and fire from Old Man Wood himself, and he is the author of the designated hitter rule. He invented the game of baseball, but he doesn't play by the rules - any rules. Along the journey, Ethan will discover that he is a phenomenal baseball catcher, and his friend Jennifer T. will learn that she is a natural born pitcher with a sizzling fast ball and a perfect slider.
Summerland is pure magic, and it reads like a glorious interweaving of The Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia and Bull Durham all rolled into one book, a heroic quest in which a vast array of folklore, fairytale motifs, aboriginal beliefs, shamanism and mythology form key elements. Within Summerland's pages, we encounter the realms of ancient Norse mythology, Ragged Rock (Ragnarok or Armageddon), the World Tree or lodgepole (Yggadrasil), the sacred well which nourishes the World Tree and the serpent who lives in that well. We meet oracular clams, and we encounter old Trickster himself and his evil rade along with a whole crowd of demons, gremlins, goblins, frost giants, ogres, werewolves, ghosts, changelings, shapeshifters and sasquatches.
For some reason, Summerland is marketed as a children's book, and I suppose that makes me the oldest kid around, but that is quite all right. The book took me right back to my softball playing days and the perfect golden summers of my childhood, and I loved it. Thankfully, I did not have to confront my dismal juvenile batting average - I was a far worse player than Ethan Feld.
(Hyperion) ISBN: 064156855X
"A baseball game is nothing but a great slow contraption for getting you to pay attention to the cadence of a summer day."
Michael Chabon, Summerland
Summerland is an enchanted baseball field on the tip of Clam Island, Washington, a green place where the sun always shines in summer, the sky is perfectly blue, and it never rains during baseball season. Eleven year old Ethan Feld is a reluctant member of "Ruth's Fluff n' Fold Roosters", a little league baseball team which plays all its games at Summerland, and he is the worst baseball player in the whole history of Clam Island. Ethan and his recently widowed father, a freelance dirigible designer, are recent comers to Clam Island, having moved there from Colorado Springs a short time after the death of Ethan's mother.
One afternoon during a baseball game, the unthinkable happens, and it begins to rain on Summerland. The fairies (ferishers) who watch over Summerland and ensure its eternally fine weather are under attack by ancient evil forces, and not only Summerland, but the World Tree (or lodgepole) and all of existence are in grave peril.
Ethan is recruited by a mysterious old baseball (or hero) scout named Chiron "Ringfinger" Brown as a mythic hero or champion, someone who will undertake the heroic quest, pick up his baseball bat and save the four worlds from certain destruction by Coyote and his evil rade. Ringfinger has been in the business for centuries, and he counts Achilles, King Arthur, Toussaint, Crazy Horse and Ulysses S. Grant among his finds, but an eleven year old boy is something else again, particularly an eleven year old boy with no skill at baseball.
The fate of the universe will be decided by a cosmic baseball game in which Ethan, his friend Jennifer T, and their motley team of ferishers, shades, werefolk, giants, changelings and one lonely sasquatch named Taffy, take on Coyote and his demonic baseball team on the playing field at Diamond Green. Old Man Coyote created the worlds, stealing rain from Thunderbird and fire from Old Man Wood himself, and he is the author of the designated hitter rule. He invented the game of baseball, but he doesn't play by the rules - any rules. Along the journey, Ethan will discover that he is a phenomenal baseball catcher, and his friend Jennifer T. will learn that she is a natural born pitcher with a sizzling fast ball and a perfect slider.
Summerland is pure magic, and it reads like a glorious interweaving of The Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia and Bull Durham all rolled into one book, a heroic quest in which a vast array of folklore, fairytale motifs, aboriginal beliefs, shamanism and mythology form key elements. Within Summerland's pages, we encounter the realms of ancient Norse mythology, Ragged Rock (Ragnarok or Armageddon), the World Tree or lodgepole (Yggadrasil), the sacred well which nourishes the World Tree and the serpent who lives in that well. We meet oracular clams, and we encounter old Trickster himself and his evil rade along with a whole crowd of demons, gremlins, goblins, frost giants, ogres, werewolves, ghosts, changelings, shapeshifters and sasquatches.
For some reason, Summerland is marketed as a children's book, and I suppose that makes me the oldest kid around, but that is quite all right. The book took me right back to my softball playing days and the perfect golden summers of my childhood, and I loved it. Thankfully, I did not have to confront my dismal juvenile batting average - I was a far worse player than Ethan Feld.
1 comment:
How fun to discover you are a Michael Chabon fan! Wonder Boys is one of my favorite books [and films!]. I must pick this one up, too. Thank you!
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