{"id":94,"date":"2006-08-13T17:30:44","date_gmt":"2006-08-14T00:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=94"},"modified":"2006-08-14T09:22:04","modified_gmt":"2006-08-14T16:22:04","slug":"baseball-bushido-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=94","title":{"rendered":"Baseball, Bushido-style"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SamuraiI’m nervous about writing about Samurai Shortstop<\/em> by Alan Gratz<\/strong><\/a> for the same reason I was nervous about reading it – I know the author. Many years ago, Alan and I did time together in the same theatre company<\/strong><\/a>, and even though I haven’t seen him in far too long, I still consider him a friend and would have felt really, truly awful if I’d read his very first published novel and didn’t like it. But rest assured, Dear Reader; I would never let a little thing like friendship compromise the integrity of my book recommendations. Believe me when I tell you that my fears were unfounded: the book totally ROCKS.<\/p>\n

It opens with a scene that pretty much grabs you by the jugular: It’s 1890, Tokyo, and 15-year-old Toyo and his father Sotaro are assisting in the seppuku (ritual suicide) of Toyo’s beloved Uncle Koji. Koji is a former samurai who has decided he cannot live in the newly-created Meiji-era Japan, in which samurai and other relics of Japan’s feudal system have been abolished. After Sotaro has beheaded his brother’s body, he checks to make sure Toyo was paying close attention, because “Soon you will do the same for me.”<\/p>\n

The next day is Toyo’s first day at an elite boarding school for boys, Ichiko. Here Toyo and his sidekicky best friend Futoshi endure a lot of the brutality and bullying that tends to show up in books about boys’ schools – it’s pretty harsh, but thankfully the “ceremony of the closed fist” wasn’t what I was afraid it was going to be. Sotaro, in order to supplement the “modern” education he’s getting at school and better prepare Toyo for his father’s suicide, decides to train him in “bushido” – the samurai code of honor and conduct. The lessons go over Toyo’s head at first, but eventually he finds ways to apply what he learns in all aspects of his life – his sadness and bewilderment at his uncle’s death, his distance from his father and fear of Sotaro’s decision to die, conflicts with students and faculty… and BASEBALL.<\/p>\n

Toyo, like many Japanese boys of the period, is passionate about the recently-imported American sport. When he finally makes the Ichiko team, he finds that his bushido training greatly improves his game – and that of his teammates, when he passes it on. The story builds to a climactic game between the Ichiko nine and a team of Americans from a local athletic club.<\/p>\n

The baseball thing is the other reason I was a little afraid to read this book. I don’t usually read a lot of sports-themed YA books (or children’s, or adult) because – okay, I can admit it – I don’t really care for organized sports. I have been known to watch an occasional soccer game if a very cute boy is on the team, and I can kinda watch hockey because it goes so fast and stops so often you don’t have to even pay attention. So I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get through a book in which baseball played such a major role. But even though I did struggle through long, detailed descriptions of singles and doubles and balls that rocket into left field and whatever, I still enjoyed the book. <\/p>\n

Two things set this novel apart from other sporty YA lit. First is the impeccable research that went into it – every scene is steeped in details that firmly ground it in the period, and the Author’s Notes at the end explain in detail the historical elements of the story, and there’s a bibliography to boot. Second is the excellent writing. Alan never wastes a word, and the narrative can turn on a dime from deeply poignant to hilarious. Toyo has a heavy role to play, but his voice never seems older than his age, and the dialogue and imagery of the sadder scenes are imbued with a simple grace that fits nicely with the theme. But for a historical novel that deals with suicide, hazing, and societal upheaval, there’s a surprising amount of humor. Alan even manages to slip in some sly, almost-anachronistic wit without it seeming awkward or intrusive:<\/p>\n

\n

Toyo and Futoshi paid the admission price and climbed up the trail that circled the huge landscaped hill. At the top, they stood on a little observation deck and looked out over Asakusa Park.<\/p>\n

“I think I can see my house from here,” Futoshi said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In short (well, too late for that, obviously), this is a very strong book, and a good fit for its intended audience. I look forward to many more such works from Mr. Gratz in the future.<\/p>\n

p.s. Alan, the check bounced. Please send another.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m nervous about writing about Samurai Shortstop by Alan Gratz for the same reason I was nervous about reading it – I know the author. Many years ago, Alan and I did time together in the same theatre company, and even though I haven’t seen him in far too long, I still consider him a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-young-adult"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}