John Grisham’s latest novel, Calico Joe, is a tale of vengeance and redemption, with the game of baseball as a backdrop. Paul Tracey, as a child, is fascinated by the game, and by the fact that his father, Warren Tracey, is a pitcher for New York Mets. As the child repeatedly tells himself, the situation is unique, because no other child can make the claim of having a famous father.
The problem is that Warren is sadistic, cruel and insecure. The man is hard to please, and even harder to talk to, to confide in. His achievements as a pitcher for the Mets are creditable — but that is where the problem lies. As the adult Paul remembers, Warren has a strong streak of cruelty tinged with jealousy, particularly towards any other player Paul may admire. Among them is the young Joe Castle of the Cubs.
Grisham’s narrative moves from the past to the present — there are glimpses of Paul’s battered childhood, the strained relationship between his parents, and then there is the present, where a grown up Paul remembers his father, who is now terminally ill. Paul’s past, written in the past tense, certainly gives insight into the child’s confused life and his acute fear of his father. While Paul’s present, written in the present tense, reveals a calm and composed man, someone who remembers the past and has learned to deal with it, but is still troubled by it.
The novel revolves around a beanball (a ball aimed directly at the head) Warren flung at Joe Castle, and Castle’s subsequent head trauma from the ‘accident’. While Warren held out over the years that the beanball was unintentional, Paul, who was witness to the incident, has his own doubts.
Baseball terminology and descriptions of the game can get a little confusing for the uninitiated. The author’s foreword gives a fairly detailed explanation of the sport, and it certainly helps when the book delves into details of the game itself, with pitchers and hitters, warring teams and their rivalry, the young, charismatic Joe Castle, and Warren’s controversial beanball.
Calico Joe is a light read, interesting in its choice of theme and presentation of matter, although not wholly unexpected. Warren, the abusive father who neglects his family, begins to see the world a little differently when he realises that cancer cannot be beaten. But by then, the world has moved on from him, even his family, leaving no room for regret. Descriptions and situations are brought to life in few words, the transition from past to present and back to past is effective in highlighting Paul’s troublesome thoughts, and Warren’s harsh behaviour.
There are poignant moments and well-crafted characters. The plot could be predictable, or not, depending on the reader — there isn’t much by way of suspense. Yet the book does hold its own. In essence, Calico Joe is an absorbing book from a celebrated storyteller
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