Shoeless Joe - W P Kinsella

Shoeless Joe is the magical realism novel that inspired the film Field of Dreams. It tells the story of an Iowan farmer who builds a baseball field in his back yard, and then hosts games played by dead baseball stars. Not as spooky as it sounds, this book is a wholesome wonder.

Magic Realism took off as a genre in the 2nd half of the Twentieth century. Authors like Salman Rushdie and Angela Carter were at the forefront of the genre, which (in a nutshell) adds magical and fantasy elements into realistic settings. Personally, the genre has never interested me, but I keep buying Magical Realist books by mistake. That's what happened here - I've never seen Field of Dreams, I didn't know what it's about, I just saw good reviews and bought the book.

I'm glad I did. The story revolves around a simple farmer, who hears a voice telling him to build a baseball field in his garden (the famous "build it and he will come"). Which he does. Then he starts to see dead baseball players playing there. We don't know if they are ghosts or spirits or what, we just have to accept it and roll with it, like the family in the book do. They do not question it at all when they see these people playing baseball in their garden - in fact they love it. Then the main man, Ray, hears a voice telling him the next steps on his mission and it begins a nice little journey through America, and baseball history, with lots of weird magic stuff going on. 

Now, living in the UK, I know nothing at all about baseball, and I don't care about it. It's just not a thing here at all. And this book is largely about baseball. It doesn't matter though. Shoeless Joe is more about lots of other simple things, like family and home, and dreams and memories. Seeing Ray follow his passion about baseball is exactly that - its watching someone who is deeply passionate about something follow his passion above everything else - people think he's barmy, and he bankrupts himself but he doesn't care. And that is a beautiful thing to follow. Ray's love for baseball, his wife, his daughter and his farm are so simple yet so sincere, it turns this book into an utter joy.

 The mismatch of characters was for me the other great thing here. Some are real people, some are fictional, but they all seem to have a real depth about them. They all have a fleshed out personality and quirks, little histories and flaws. It's another thing that makes this book as popular as it is.

All told, this is a thoroughly enjoyable book. Magic isn't my cup of tea, but in Shoeless Joe it is impossible to resist.

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