Summary:
W.P. Kinsella's novel Shoeless Joe formed the basis for the movie "Field of Dreams," starring Kevin Costner. It tells of a young farmer in Iowa who builds a baseball diamond in his cornfield after a voice says to him, "If you build it, he will come."
Imagine, you're working on your field in Iowa and you hear a voice, " If you build it, he will come." This is the beginning of a whole new life for Ray Kinsella in "Shoeless Joe." Ray is a young farmer in Iowa. He and his wife been through some tough times with their farm. I guess you can say that Ray and Annie Kinsella are "left over hippies" because they were hippies in the 60's and they still believe in some of the ideals of that time like nature, freedom and do your own thing. Ray's two most favorite things are family and baseball. Annie is the wife of Ray and the mother of five year old Karin. Annie seems to be a loving and a selfless person. Karin is a young girl that follows her dads footsteps. If Ray was watching baseball on television, Karin would be right by his side.
A small town farm in Iowa is where this story mostly takes place. This farm in Iowa is home to the Kinsellas. The farm has a beautiful landscape, acres and acres of green grass, cornfields, and a home. Ray is an imaginative man and pictures of a baseball fieldkeep going through his mind. This baseball field will also be a major setting in the story. The baseball field is filled with "magic" because the field starts bringing in dead baseball players. "Shoeless Joe" could take place in current time because they had televisions and phones. Most likely this story would take place between late 80's to now because they seem to be an urban family.
In 1919 the White Sox were in a conspiracy in the world series, they threw the game. There were eight men that were apart of this conspiracy and they were thrown out of the league. Now years and years have passed and it's in the late 80's and Ray Kinsella hears a voice saying," If you build it, he will come." So now Ray starts thinking to build a baseball diamond in his corn field. The first section done was left field and later that day Shoeless Joe (one of the ones that were apart of the conspiracy) and other shadowy ghost like men appeared on the field playing baseball. So, now Ray starts to build the rest of the baseball field and makes a promise with Joe. For every section that is finished a man is no longer shadowy . Baseball games are played by the men and only the Kinsella family can see them. Then, three baseball seasons later Ray has finished the field but the catcher and the right fielder are still shadowy. At the end Ray finds out that the catcher is really his father.
I thought that this book was a 3 out of five because it didn't have a lot of detail and it was a little hard to follow the real from the imaginative. This story was sort of predictable because you could sense what was going to happen. The book was really good because I saw the movie and it was 98% true to the book. I enjoyed the book as much as I did watching the movie. This book helped me understand the movie better . Some parts were hard to figure out because the setting changes quickly.
This book would be enjoyed by all the people that really love baseball or those who saw the movie "Field of Dreams" and likes to make comparisons. . It's a pretty quick read, 222 pages long and in size 12 font. Some of the detail the writer put in, I personally thought wasn't really needed at all. The book would also need someone that has a lot of patience because it does drag on and switch different settings often. Overall the book was a good story, had a great sci-fi touch to it, and a great story line that was also realistic yet made you think.
This is the complete article, containing 659 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
