Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Great Endings: The Natural (1952)


When Roy looked into the boy's eyes he wanted to say it wasn't but couldn't, and he lifted his hands to his face and wept many bitter tears.
Bernard Malamud, The Natural, 1952

10 comments:

Lydia said...

I will seem pitiful and admit that I have not read the book. But o, how I loved the movie!

(Did you see my post with an Emmylou song last week? I considered linking to your 365 blog but wasn't sure if I should...)

Shaw Kenawe said...

I read the book years ago--too many to remember. I now have a list of books I need to re-reead, and this one is included.

paula said...

I also loved The Fixer. Along the same line, did you ever read Phillip Roth's Call It Sleep?

paula said...

Whoops, fact check. Make that Henry Roth.

Roy said...

I've read a lot of Malamud's work, but somehow I missed The Natural. Like Lydia, though, I saw the movie and liked it. I just never realized that it was based on one of Malamud's books. Hmmmm...

Frank Partisan said...

Missed both.

K. said...

A New Life is also a good one -- academic novel set in the Pacific Northwest and based on his experiences teaching at Oregon State in Corvallis.

Some other first-rate baseball novels:

You Know Me, Al, Ring Lardner
The Great American Novel, Phillip Roth
Bang the Drum Slowly, Mark Harris (also a good movie, starring a young Robert DeNiro)
The Kid From Tomkinsville, John R. Tunis (written for young people)
Hoopla, Harry Stein
Shoeless Joe, W P Kinsella
Tootp-Toot-Tootsie Goodbye, Ron Powers

Cowtown Pattie said...

I like the last lines in Catch 22:

"The knife came down, missing him by inches, annd he took off."

Cowtown Pattie said...

And one of my favorite opening lines:

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderly again."

Rebecca - Daphne DuMaurier

K. said...

CP, got you covered here.