dllman05's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
oldmansimms's review
3.0
A strange book. I'll include a passage from late in the book that encapsulates what you're getting here:
What starts as a book about a baseball player in a slump just keeps piling on stranger and stranger plot points. Considering a subplot consists of flashbacks to the protagonist's childhood and his mother's insanity, it's a reasonable question whether we're dealing with a Pynchonesque world full of insane people doing insane things or if it's all a figment of the main character himself becoming insane. A quick, odd, read, but you can take it or leave it.
Here I am, a black ballplayer in the mountains of Oregon with an elephant, a smart-ass nine-year-old white girl, and a black Indian tied up in my dead manager's cabin. And to top it all off, I'm planning to fly off a mountain.
What starts as a book about a baseball player in a slump just keeps piling on stranger and stranger plot points. Considering a subplot consists of flashbacks to the protagonist's childhood and his mother's insanity, it's a reasonable question whether we're dealing with a Pynchonesque world full of insane people doing insane things or if it's all a figment of the main character himself becoming insane. A quick, odd, read, but you can take it or leave it.
robstar1a's review
3.0
I couldn't get into it. A retelling of the Icarus myth. Not sure what's it was about or trying to say. Luckily it's really short.
bjr2022's review against another edition
4.0
If you’ve come from an insane family and have worried about going nuts, you must read this book.
Craig Suder is a baseball player on a bad streak. He tells his story, alternating from crazy present to crazy past, weaving a tale that gets more and more fantastical. For a while I wondered if he knew where he was going with it. He does.
This is my fifth Percival Everett book, and I simply can’t get enough. Copyrighted in 1983, Suder is early Everett. It is a bit less mature than the more recent works, but no less satisfying.
Craig Suder is a baseball player on a bad streak. He tells his story, alternating from crazy present to crazy past, weaving a tale that gets more and more fantastical. For a while I wondered if he knew where he was going with it. He does.
This is my fifth Percival Everett book, and I simply can’t get enough. Copyrighted in 1983, Suder is early Everett. It is a bit less mature than the more recent works, but no less satisfying.
pking90's review against another edition
3.0
A fun, comic picaresque. Nothing like other Percival Everett I’ve read beyond the sense of humor, but it’s his first after all. Still an extremely strong sense of style and voice.
flogigyahoo's review
4.0
Percival Everett is such a good writer. I have loved everything by him. Suder too; my only problem is that this book was much too short.
Everett tells about Craig Suder, a famous baseball player who is going through a slump. He's forced to take a vacation and to get away from his unloving wife he takes his beloved Charlie Parker records (plastic or vinyl disks on which music was scratched), a phonograph (that thing everyone owned once to play these records), borrows a cabin in the woods from a friend and takes off. On the way he obtains a saxophone which he cannot play, buys an elephant and adopts a 9 year old little girl. At the same time he tells of growing up black in the South and his very strange family. It's a funny and sad story. Loved it.
Everett tells about Craig Suder, a famous baseball player who is going through a slump. He's forced to take a vacation and to get away from his unloving wife he takes his beloved Charlie Parker records (plastic or vinyl disks on which music was scratched), a phonograph (that thing everyone owned once to play these records), borrows a cabin in the woods from a friend and takes off. On the way he obtains a saxophone which he cannot play, buys an elephant and adopts a 9 year old little girl. At the same time he tells of growing up black in the South and his very strange family. It's a funny and sad story. Loved it.
tictactoney's review against another edition
4.0
It's a weird as hell book that includes the Seattle Mariners and jazz.
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