I love John Grisham. OK. Not in the literal sense. OK. This time it’s the literal sense. I love books written by him, which gives various perspectives about law, the loopholes that lawyers find and how anyone be it criminals, judges or simpletons use these loopholes for their benefit. And I borrowed this book, one among the very few that I haven’t read yet by this author.
Now what is this foreword. Ok. It’s about baseball. Probably, it’s an important aspect of this book where legalities may be involved or so I thought. But, the foreword of this book ran into pages and pages. And after only five pages, I was literally dropping off. Ok. May be getting directly into the story, and if I come across any term I cannot understand, I will refer it back. But no, I never did. This book Calico Joe was boring to say the least. Ok. Boring for me. I am not a baseball fan. Or not even a single sports fan if I want to confess. There was not a single ounce of law, nothing except baseball. At least Grisham should have mentioned on the cover page, that “this book is solely for baseball fans” to ward off people like me, who would read it and later on end up criticizing. I am simply turning off pages one after the other. Don’t know what is being told.
I am not a quitter. At least not so easily. And today in office I finally dared to read up the basics of baseball game. If nothing, it will simply add to the knowledge, but I will do with that, no clue. I don’t even know any baseball fans among my friends, only cricket maniacs and a few football crazy too.
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Knowing baseball game was interesting. So much one needs to remember about this rule and that. But well, I believe that goes with every game played by pros.
So now, back to the novel. The book turned out to be interesting. A drop or two trickled down my cheeks when JoeCastle, the young rising star of the baseball was hit in the head with a beanball (now don’t ask me what that is, find out for yourself) and his bones cracked. After 30 years, when he limped with his one side of the body paralyzed and just taking care of a baseball field in his hometown, one can actually feel the pain and trauma that he would have gone through. And in the end, when the person who hit him Warren Tracey is nearing his death and apologized to Joe after 30 years, you feel that that’s how the journey of life is, a few mistakes you do, which can change any other person’s life but still life goes on and we keep on struggling day after day.
All in all, emotional, intriguing and definitely worth a read, at least once.
