Calico Joe

I just finished reading John Grisham's latest novel, Calico Joe, the story of a baseball player and the eleven year old boy who idolized him.

The story shuttles back and forth between 1973 and the present. Back in the year of Watergate, Joe Castle from Calico Arkansas is called up by the Chicago Cubs when their regular first baseman is injured. Joe, soon tagged with the name of his hometown, immediately shatters records for rookies in the big leagues, hitting safely in his first fifteen at-bats, swatting home-runs and stealing bases almost at will, spurring the Cubs into the league lead.

The country goes wild for Calico Joe, especially Paul Tracey, living in White Plains New York with his disintegrating family.  The trouble with the Traceys is Paul's father Warren, who, as it happens, is a pitcher with the New York Mets. He's frankly a mediocre pitcher, and he's a mean nasty man who alternately ignores and abuses his children and his wife, chases other women pretty openly, drinks heavily, and throws at batters' heads.

Well, you probably have guessed where this is going. Calico Joe and Warren Tracey are on a collision course, literally and figuratively. The Cubs are coming to Shea Stadium to play the Mets. The National League pennant is at stake. Warren Tracey will try to slow down Calico Joe. He does, by throwing a pitch that Joe fails to dodge, shattering the young slugger's facial bones, knocking him of the game, the season, and his career.

Nearly forty years later, Paul, now middle-aged, a husband and father, learns that his father has  pancreatic cancer and his remaining lifespan can be measured in months. Completely alienated from his dad, Paul decides to see him one last time, thinking perhaps the dying old man might want to seek out Calico Joe and reconcile with him. Joe never recovered from the beaning, now works at the high school  in Calico, manicuring the baseball field.  Joe shambles, he speaks very slowly, and shuns contact with anyone who  doesn't live in town.

Much of the book is about the relationship between father and son. Warren has hardly mellowed after so many years. He has gone through several more wives, has no interest in his children or grandchildren, spends his days playing golf at courses near his Florida home. For his part, Paul is very reluctant to let Warren into his life.

Eventually there is a reconciliation. Paul persuades Warren to travel to Calico to see Joe, who is persuaded to meet the man who deliberately destroyed his promising career and altered his life so completely.

Grisham writes gracefully and mixes real people with his fictitious characters. Willie Mays gets a brief scene in the book, and Tom Seaver gets a mention. He has the details of the 1973 baseball season right.

He resists the temptation to write a happy ending. Warren dies little appreciated or mourned. None of his old teammates are at his funeral service. Paul does put in an appearance, and Calico Joe attends with the two brothers who watch over him. They excuse the sentiment, saying they had decided to stop by on the way to a fishing vacation.

Father and son still have only a limited understanding of each other.

It's a good book, an easy read, a little implausible in its depiction of Joe's explosion onto the major league scene, but worth reading if you have some time and the inclination.