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
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10 comments:

  1. LydiaDecember 2, 2010 at 12:29 AM

    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...)

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  2. Shaw KenaweDecember 2, 2010 at 4:52 AM

    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.

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  3. paulaDecember 2, 2010 at 5:53 AM

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

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  4. paulaDecember 2, 2010 at 5:54 AM

    Whoops, fact check. Make that Henry Roth.

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  5. RoyDecember 2, 2010 at 6:34 AM

    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...

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  6. Frank PartisanDecember 2, 2010 at 2:35 PM

    Missed both.

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  7. K.December 2, 2010 at 7:19 PM

    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

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  8. Cowtown PattieDecember 2, 2010 at 8:15 PM

    I like the last lines in Catch 22:

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

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  9. Cowtown PattieDecember 2, 2010 at 8:17 PM

    And one of my favorite opening lines:

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

    Rebecca - Daphne DuMaurier

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  10. K.December 2, 2010 at 8:36 PM

    CP, got you covered here.

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