Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa Summary

Shoeless Joe is W.P. Kinsella's tale of the fulfillment of dreams, love, redemption and belief in people's goodness. The novel combines fact and suspended reality to create possibility for those who hope and fulfillment for those who already believe.

As the novel begins, Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella muses about his father's stories about a baseball player playing under an assumed name in a minor baseball league in North Carolina. As Ray surveys his farmland from the verandah of his home one spring evening, he hears a voice tell him, "If you build it, he will come." The voice is that of a ballpark announcer, and Ray can immediately envision the finished ball field he is being summoned to create. The voice repeats its message, and Ray ultimately carves a baseball field out...