The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 9 April 2001
by David James Duncan
This is an epic novel. The Chances are a lower middle class family in Washington state. They've got their broken dreams, and they've got their hopes. Papa was a great baseball hopeful, who sacrificed his dream for his fragile and severely religious young bride. Six kids and a smashed thumb later, he appears hopeless and alone. Four of the kids are the boys Kincaid, Irwin, Everett and Peter. They are an ornery and undyingly hopeful bunch. They dream dreams for their father, and they develop fragile ideals of their own. The first half of this massive, but beautifully written and fast-moving novel, centers around Papa's dreams, and the ferocity of Mama's Adventist faith. Papa may make it back to play minor league baseball and who knows if Mama will ever "save" the three agnostics she seems to have turned out with. The second half of the novel takes on a different tone as it follows the boys. Kincaid is the main narrator here, with Everett and Irwin having their moments. So we don't hear much about Kincaid's own dreams. The other three boys, though, are much different from one another. Yet all three set out into the world to have their ideals collide head on with brutal reality. Irwin, a simple man of sincere faith meets a dark fate with world events. Everett, dodging the draft in Canada encounters his love and his politics, and begins to see which is real. Peter sets off to India, where his idealized vision from its intricate mythology crashes head on into poverty and exploitation. The heart of Duncan's message here is that ideology without personal sacrifice is hollow. His point is made perhaps a bit strongly, missing some of idealism's benefits, but what ideology couldn't benefit from a little reality? The book, as one might expect, is littered with references to Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. Its first half is a great baseball novel in itself. The whole is a great coming-of-age in America story. It is dark, heartfelt, often hilarious, and wonderfully written. Hard to put down.
Also by Duncan: [The River Why]