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A review by ironi
The Death of Baseball by Orlando Ortega-Medina
4.0
When I was in high school, I accidentally took AP Literature (or the Israeli version of that) and was subjected to 10 months of reading and talking about coming of age novels. This is a long story in of itself but I will say this. If this book was in Hebrew, I would not hesitate to recommend it to my high school Literature teacher.
And I can see how much he'd love it, how he'd assign a comparison of Ralph and Clyde/Marilyn, how he'd talk about the symbolism of the sex change (vs what happened with Clyde/ Marilyn and the attackers) and the blowjobs and how he'd marvel about sexuality being shameful and society excluding people, therapists as sexual predators, names packing so much power (because Clyde/ Marilyn/ Kimitake is the same person but such different faucets and Ralph vs Raphael), Judaism as a method of masochism.
And really, this book is fantastic. It's a specific style, it's like you'd take Perks of Being a Wallflower and mush it together with Sociopaths In Love. I truly feel like it was well-executed. I feel this book has potential to become really popular.
So this book has roughly three parts. In the first, we meet Clyde/Marilyn, a Japanese-American teen that has a really shitty life (to say the least). We follow along as he begins to believe he is Marilyn Monroe reincarnated. In the second part (my favorite), we meet Ralph, an arrogant kleptomaniac Jewish teen whose parents send to Israel in an attempt to "fix" his behavior. We essentially observe his life going downhill. And then, the third part focuses on them meeting as adults.
This book has some clear strengths, the writing being the first. It is phenomenal. It sucked me in from the get-go, I thought I'd read this on my flight and instead, I finished it all today because I couldn't stop reading it, especially the second part. I am still so into it and really impressed by how good it was.
The characterization is great as well.. I can picture all of the characters so well, I feel like I know exactly who they are and what makes them tick. It's really impressively done. I honestly am so impressed by how whole of a picture we get about these two people.
The plot is a little odd but works. There are a few huge reveals here but somehow, they don't reach the impact I'd assume they should. This isn't any real problem because those reveals weren't that important. I mean, as a reader, I was way more invested in the characters than the plot.
The LGBT+ community makes an appearance in this book but I don't know if I can say that it's a positive one. Every time a man has a relationship with another man, it's incest and that's really problematic. However, in defense of this book, the relationships of straight couples here are not much better, be it Clyde/ Marilyn's parents or the whole Joanie Ralph thing. And yeah, not all gay couples are incestuous just as not all parents are failures (which this book also essentially claims). It's annoying that all of the men here don't embrace their sexuality but I guess that's to be expected in the 70s.
However, queerness in this book is far more interesting. The author makes a choice to refer to Clyde/ Marilyn as Clyde and to use he/him pronouns, even when the character expresses numerous times that that's not right. This is a decision that brings to light a lot of questions, it makes me feel like Clyde/Marilyn was just mentally unstable Clyde. As someone who's very invested in queer communities, I really live by the idea that we must respect however a person wishes to be referred to and so it was weird to see the author never ever refer to their own character's the way they'd like.
That said, I don't want to compare Clyde/ Marilyn to the trans community because the character in this book seems to want to transition as a way to escape their identity, to not be a Japanese man. Trans folks are genuinely being themselves and yeah, trans people don't assume they're a historical figure. So I appreciate that the author didn't draw the parallel that they could have but still, it's there, it's there when they attempt to rob a bank for a sex change (is this a reference to John Wojtowicz because yes). So anyways, no, Clyde/ Marilyn is not trans, they're mentally unstable and must not be seen as an example of a trans person.
In any case, this book shows such a messed up world. I finished it yesterday and I'm still constantly thinking about it, thinking about how young Ralph was when he met Joanie and how Yom Kippur's war messed everyone up, how powerful Ralph is, how Jewishly solid this book is (Ahh, there's a part where Ralph talks about coming back and man, that's such a strong Jewish concept, I love that). I really recommend this book!
What I'm Taking With Me
- Two strong characters is more than enough to make a book compelling.
- Raphael is such a great character, he deserved a better life.
- Bad stuff always happens in Mitzpeh Ramon, that is known.
And I can see how much he'd love it, how he'd assign a comparison of Ralph and Clyde/Marilyn, how he'd talk about the symbolism of the sex change (vs what happened with Clyde/ Marilyn and the attackers) and the blowjobs and how he'd marvel about sexuality being shameful and society excluding people, therapists as sexual predators, names packing so much power (because Clyde/ Marilyn/ Kimitake is the same person but such different faucets and Ralph vs Raphael), Judaism as a method of masochism.
And really, this book is fantastic. It's a specific style, it's like you'd take Perks of Being a Wallflower and mush it together with Sociopaths In Love. I truly feel like it was well-executed. I feel this book has potential to become really popular.
So this book has roughly three parts. In the first, we meet Clyde/Marilyn, a Japanese-American teen that has a really shitty life (to say the least). We follow along as he begins to believe he is Marilyn Monroe reincarnated. In the second part (my favorite), we meet Ralph, an arrogant kleptomaniac Jewish teen whose parents send to Israel in an attempt to "fix" his behavior. We essentially observe his life going downhill. And then, the third part focuses on them meeting as adults.
This book has some clear strengths, the writing being the first. It is phenomenal. It sucked me in from the get-go, I thought I'd read this on my flight and instead, I finished it all today because I couldn't stop reading it, especially the second part. I am still so into it and really impressed by how good it was.
The characterization is great as well.. I can picture all of the characters so well, I feel like I know exactly who they are and what makes them tick. It's really impressively done. I honestly am so impressed by how whole of a picture we get about these two people.
The plot is a little odd but works. There are a few huge reveals here but somehow, they don't reach the impact I'd assume they should. This isn't any real problem because those reveals weren't that important. I mean, as a reader, I was way more invested in the characters than the plot.
The LGBT+ community makes an appearance in this book but I don't know if I can say that it's a positive one. Every time a man has a relationship with another man, it's incest and that's really problematic. However, in defense of this book, the relationships of straight couples here are not much better, be it Clyde/ Marilyn's parents or the whole Joanie Ralph thing. And yeah, not all gay couples are incestuous just as not all parents are failures (which this book also essentially claims). It's annoying that all of the men here don't embrace their sexuality but I guess that's to be expected in the 70s.
However, queerness in this book is far more interesting. The author makes a choice to refer to Clyde/ Marilyn as Clyde and to use he/him pronouns, even when the character expresses numerous times that that's not right. This is a decision that brings to light a lot of questions, it makes me feel like Clyde/Marilyn was just mentally unstable Clyde. As someone who's very invested in queer communities, I really live by the idea that we must respect however a person wishes to be referred to and so it was weird to see the author never ever refer to their own character's the way they'd like.
That said, I don't want to compare Clyde/ Marilyn to the trans community because the character in this book seems to want to transition as a way to escape their identity, to not be a Japanese man. Trans folks are genuinely being themselves and yeah, trans people don't assume they're a historical figure. So I appreciate that the author didn't draw the parallel that they could have but still, it's there, it's there when they attempt to rob a bank for a sex change (is this a reference to John Wojtowicz because yes). So anyways, no, Clyde/ Marilyn is not trans, they're mentally unstable and must not be seen as an example of a trans person.
In any case, this book shows such a messed up world. I finished it yesterday and I'm still constantly thinking about it, thinking about how young Ralph was when he met Joanie and how Yom Kippur's war messed everyone up, how powerful Ralph is, how Jewishly solid this book is (Ahh, there's a part where Ralph talks about coming back and man, that's such a strong Jewish concept, I love that). I really recommend this book!
What I'm Taking With Me
- Two strong characters is more than enough to make a book compelling.
- Raphael is such a great character, he deserved a better life.
- Bad stuff always happens in Mitzpeh Ramon, that is known.