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I realize I would have read it years ago, but how is it possible I don’t recall how great this story is? Actor Denis O’Hare read it on a recent podcast–Meg Wolitzer’s Selected Shorts–and forget the grass, the tale is thrilling.
During the 1981 baseball strike, a baseball fan realizes that he can get into the locked down stadium and hatches a brilliant scheme: he will gradually replace the Astroturf with real sod. He recruits others to help him and soon, a whole community of men is involved. They do come, those trusted friends, and friends of friends, each making a live, green deposit. At first, a tiny row of sod squares begins to inch along toward left-center field. The next night even more people arrive, the following night more again, and the night after there is positively a crowd. Those who come once seem always to return accompanied by friends, occasionally a son or young brother, but mostly men my age or older, for we are the ones who remember the grass.It is reminiscent of the end of Field of Dreams, when cars are lined up to come and visit Ray’s cornfield stadium. This yearning for the better parts of our past and for shared experience is incredibly moving and, of course, profoundly conservative. (Reviewed:) Grade: (A+) Tweet Websites:-WIKIPEDIA: W. P. Kinsella -AUTHOR SITE: wpkinsella.com -ENTRY: Guide to Baseball Fiction: W. P. Kinsella -FILMOGRAPHY: W. P. Kinsella (IMDB) -ENTRY: W. P. Kinsella (Canadian Encyclopedia) -ENTRY: Summary Bibliography: W. P. Kinsella (Internet Speculative Fiction Database) -ENTTY: Kinsella, W. P. (Encyclopedia.com) -AUTHOR PAGE: W. P. Kinsella (Harper Collins) -ESSAY: Where it began: 'Shoeless Joe' (W.P. Kinsella, Apr 17, 2014, ESPN) -ETEXT: The Thrill of the Grass by W. P. Kinsella [PDF] -BOOK SITE: The Thrill of the Grass: Penguin Modern Classics Edition Author W.P. Kinsella (Penguin Random House) -AUDIO: The Thrill of the Grass (Denis O’Hare, Selected Shorts) -STUDY GUIDE: A Study Guide for W. P. Kinsella's "The Thrill of Grass" (Gale, Cengage Learning) -STUDY GUIDE: The Thrill of the Grass (123HelpMe) -STUDY GUIDE: W. P. Kinsella (eNotes) -STORY: Barefoot and Pregnant In Des Moines (W. P. Kinsella, VQR) -OBIT: W.P. Kinsella, Author of ‘Shoeless Joe,’ Dies at 81 (Christopher Mele, Sept. 17, 2016, NY Times) -OBIT: B.C. author W.P. Kinsella ends his own life under assisted-dying legislation: Writer of Shoeless Joe, adapted into the movie Field of Dreams, dead at 81 (The Canadian Press, Sep 16, 2016) -OBIT: W.P. Kinsella, whose book inspired ‘Field of Dreams,’ dies (Faith Karimi and Joe Sutton, 9/17/16, CNN) -OBIT: W.P. Kinsella, ‘Shoeless Joe’ novelist who inspired ‘Field of Dreams,’ dies at 81 (Matt Schudel, September 17, 2016, Washington Post) -OBIT: Novelist W.P. Kinsella, author of 'Shoeless Joe,' dies at 81 (AP, Mar. 4, 2020) -TRIBUTE: The incomparable W. P. Kinsella was born 88 years ago (RICK KLAW, 5/25/23, Tachyon) -TRIBUTE: W. P. Kinsella Slides Home (John Smelcer, Ragazine) -TRIBUTE: R.I.P. William Patrick “W. P.” Kinsella (Jamie Todd Rubin, Sep 17, 2016, Medium) -OBIT: WP Kinsella, whose book became 'Field of Dreams', dies at 81 (BBC, 17 September 2016) -OBIT: 'Shoeless Joe' author Kinsella dies at 81 (Chad Thornburg, 9/16/16, MLB.com) - - -TRIBUTE: Friends, fans of W.P. Kinsella reflect on his life and death (Molly Longman, 9/21/16, Des Moines Register) -ESSAY: The Thrill of the Grass: W.P. Kinsella, baseball, and me (Anna James, January 11, 2018, Martlet) -ESSAY: The summer I spent with W.P. Kinsella (Daniel P. Finney, 8/08/19, Des Moines Register) -ESSAY: W.P. Kinsella: The voice behind 'Field of Dreams': The movie -- and book -- that 'should never have been made' (Michael Clair, 8/11/21, MLB.com) So, it's somewhat shocking that Kinsella wasn't raised knowing how to play the game. Though his father played third base for commercial teams in his youth, Kinsella didn't get to play baseball or see a game until he was ten years old. Born on May 25, 1935, in a small town near Edmonton, Alberta, Kinsella was homeschooled until the fifth grade. Only when the family moved and Kinsella started attending school with other children did he get his first taste. Called up to bat on a whim one day, he made contact, lining the ball into the outfield. Unfortunately, he didn't know to run to first base, and the embarrassment he suffered as his peers made fun of him lived with him the rest of his life. "Children are especially cruel to anyone who is different," Kinsella said, "and I had all my weaknesses pointed out in no uncertain terms." He saw his first live action that year, taking in a semi-professional contest at nearby Renfrew Park, home to teams like the Edmonton Trappers. Soon, he fell head over heels for the sport while listening to the 1946 World Series champion Cardinals on the radio, becoming "enthralled with names like Harry 'The Cat' Breechen, Howie Pollet, Red Schoendiest, Terry Moore and Joe Garagiola," Steele wrote. Still, it would take until his collection, "Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa," was released for Kinsella to begin writing more baseball fiction. Once he did, he never stopped. "It was only after [its release] in 1979 that it exploded," Steele said in a recent phone call. "It really was just this wave of baseball literature for the rest of his career. His thought was, 'If that's what they want, I'm gonna keep writing it until they don't want it anymore.'" While part of that decision may have been commercially-minded, Kinsella was a baseball fanatic. He and his third wife Ann Knight were season ticket holders for the Mariners and he had an almost "religious commitment level to rotisserie baseball," Steele said. "They would do drafts and he was hyper-competitive, crazy competitive. So, he was always checking the box scores." When he was on book tours, he would catch games at the local Minor League parks or he'd head to a nearby Major League game. He was even a "card-carrying scout for the Atlanta Braves," Steele noted. Though it was meant to be largely honorary and he never found anybody that Atlanta ended up acquiring, "Kinsella claimed that he was always on the lookout for good ballplayers." -ESSAY: Field of Dreams (RVG Fanatic) -ESSAY: If You Write It: The University of Iowa Author Who Inspired the Field of Dreams (Josh O'Leary, Iowa Magazine) -ESSAY: W.P. Kinsella – Write It and They Will Come. (Our Iowa Heritage) -ESSAY: The troubled legacy of W.P. Kinsella: A secure place in the pantheon of great Canadian writers is anything but certain for the creator of "Shoeless Joe." (GEOFF MCMASTER, 10/17/16, Folio) -WIKIPEDIA: AstroTurf -ESSAY: ORIGINAL ASTROTURF (The artificial turf made famous by Houston's Astrodome (Bullock Museum) -ARTICLE: AstroTurf celebrates its roots during 55th anniversary (Dalton Daily Citizen, Mar 31, 2021) -ESSAY: The Strange and Fascinating History of "AstroTurf" (FusionTurf, May 17, 2021) -ESSAY: This week in 1966, the Astrodome got its AstroTurf: 50 years ago the Dome got fancy new green carpet (Craig Hlavaty, 7/19/16, Houston Chronicle) -REVIEW ARCHIVES: W. P. Kinsella (Kirkus) -VIDEO ARCHIVES: “w. P. kinsella” (YouTube) -ARCHIVES: W. P. Kinsella (Internet Archives) -REVIEW: of The Essential W. P. Kinsella (Publishers Weekly) -REVIEW: of The Essential W. P. Kinsella (Baseball Continuum) -REVIEW: of The Thrill of the Grass (Short Stories 101) -REVIEW: of Thrill of the Grass (Matthew Prouty, Prezi) -REVIEW: of Box Socials by W. P. Kinsella (Kirkus) -REVIEW: of Shoeless Joe Comes to Iowa: Stories by W. P. Kinsella (Kirkus) -REVIEW: of THE MOCCASIN TELEGRAPH And Other Stories by W. P. Kinsella (Kirkus) -REVIEW: of Going the Distance: The Life and Works of W.P. Kinsella by William Steele (Sheldon Goldfarb, British Columbia Review) FILM: -FILMOGRAPHY: W. P. Kinsella (IMDB) -FILMOGRAPHY: Field of Dream (IMDB) -FILMOGRAPHY: Field of Dreams (Rotten Tomatoes) -FILMOGRAPHY: Field of Dreams (Metacritic) -SCRIPT: Field of Dreams (Subs Like Script) Book-related and General Links: |
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