2nd quarter reading book review

Ryan Horstman

World Lit 12

12/17/09

A-Block



“2nd Quarter outside Reading Book Review”



“The Natural” by Bernard Malamud. Puffin books, 1952 Genre: Fiction





“The Natural” one of Bernard Malamud's most outstanding novels, displays a young talented star,
Roy Hobbs, 19 years of age, whose dream is to pitch in the major leagues.
Taking place in the Bronx, New York , Roy finds himself in touch with the Chicago Cubs
scout. Roy decides to travel on a train to try out for the Chicago Cubs. Roy finds himself on the
train with the biggest star of the game, Babe Ruth. Babe Ruth is on the train with a sports
journalist, Max Mercy. The train decides to stop off at a carnival where both Roy and Babe
put a show on. Roy and the Babe meet up and introduce. Sam, the cubs scout who wants
Roy to play for the Cubs, bets that Roy can strike out the Babe. The Babe takes the bet. At
this point everyone is watching to see what happens. Surprisingly Roy strikes out the Babe and
the Babe is deeply embarrassed. A woman named Harriet, was so impressed by Roy, that she
invites him to her hotel room. Roy tells her that he is going to be the greatest baseball player
to enter the game. She then shoots him and basically destroys his career. Roy then returns
15 years later to play for a team called the New York Knights. Roy is by far the most outstanding
baseball player anyone has seen and he is 34 years old at the time.



"This book was not only an inspiring book but also was a great sports
Novel that could be read over and over again." ("Alex Fowl)"





“The Natural,” is one of Bernard Malamud's best sports novels. Bernard Malamud
loves to write fabulous sports-related fiction novels. The Natural shows
a young Adult who is fighting for his dream, to pitch in the major leagues
, one of the biggest dreams anyone has growing up. This is one of the
only novels where he talks about personal experiences. Bernard
was a little boy whose dream was to also play sports. He like to write
sports novels for young adults and most of them are young adult characters throughout
each novel. This novel familiarizes me with the novel The Big Field written by
Mike Lupica. Both novels display baseball, very similar, but The Natural
is a novel that talks about having dreams, fighting for what you want and
facing real life conflict.

1.) Wonderboy flashed in the sun. It caught the sphere it was biggest. A noise like a twenty-one
gun salute cracked the sky. There was a straining, ripping sound and a few drops of rain spattered
to the ground somebody then shouted it was raining cats and dogs. By the time of Roy got in from
second he was wading in water ankle deep.
2.) "Experience makes good people better." She was staring at the lake. "How does it do that?" "Through
their suffering." "I had enough of that," he said in disgust. "We have two lives, Roy, the life we learn with
and the life we live with after that. Suffering is what brings us toward happiness All it taught me was to
stay aware from it. I am sick of all I have suffered." She shrank away a little.

This quote, the second quote, from "Batter Up!" part VI, reveals just how little Roy has learned from his life, and what
it will mean if he does not choose to be with Iris. Iris has a wisdom that Memo does not even come close to having.
Iris's statements about the necessity of suffering as a way of truly appreciating happiness recall a constant theme
in Malamud's novels. Roy will not come to understand these words until the very last pages of the novel, when he
thinks, "I never did learn anything out of my past life, now I have to suffer again." The essential point is easy to grasp
: only through suffering can one recognize happiness for what it is. Roy dreams of wealth and fame, of breaking
records and getting what life "owes" him, are only a mere childish fantasy of what happiness is supposed to be.
This quote, the first quote, is from Chapter II of "Batter Up!" It represents Roy's first hit, and again, there are several
levels of symbolism and metaphor packed into a few sentences


I am a true fan of Bernard Malamud. He is a fantastic sports novelist. I face many conflicts
that are in my way, but I fight and stay strong so I can fight for my dream. This book has
made me feel great about my dream. This book is helping me do my part in life, so my dream
can come true. Sports are the most fantastic thing in the world to me and Bernard Malamud writes
novels about them which I love. He is a Great Writer!