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A review by bookedandlit
The Death of Baseball by Orlando Ortega-Medina
3.0
::I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for the opportunity to read your work!::
This week I read #TheDeathOfBaseball by #OrlandoOrtegaMedina . I must say that I absolutely requested to read this book based on the cover alone. It promised something unique, and boy did it deliver. Now to the book...this novel is broken in several parts, and begins like a coming of age story for Japanese American boy named Clyde. Clyde was born August 5th, 1962 which is the same day Marilyn Monroe died. Clyde believes he is the reincarnation of Marilyn as he starts to navigate adolescence and his burgeoning sexuality. In the next section we meet a young Jewish boy named Raphael, who is a kleptomanic with a desire to be deeply religious. Raphael's scenes in Israel were so beautifully written. I've never been, but I felt as though I could see desert landscape. We follow each of their stories separately until the two meet up as adults and chaos seems to propel the reader to the finish. I think the author is dabbling in some interesting ideas when the characters face several crises of faith. One thing I'm not sure about in this book was the depiction of a possibly trans person being mentally ill. Now, I am not informed enough to speak with clarity or authority on trans issues, but at first Clyde seems to embrace this idea of reincarnation and lives as Marilyn, then later it seems as though being Marilyn is an unhinged part of his fractured self. And even later still, the identity of Marilyn is discarded or purged. Like I said, I'm not sure exactly what's going on there, but it made me take pause and consider if this was a fair depiction of someone struggling with identity. And I'd like to mention a few caution warnings..there's violence, sexual assault, coercion, and as children there are some sexual exploration scenes.
This week I read #TheDeathOfBaseball by #OrlandoOrtegaMedina . I must say that I absolutely requested to read this book based on the cover alone. It promised something unique, and boy did it deliver. Now to the book...this novel is broken in several parts, and begins like a coming of age story for Japanese American boy named Clyde. Clyde was born August 5th, 1962 which is the same day Marilyn Monroe died. Clyde believes he is the reincarnation of Marilyn as he starts to navigate adolescence and his burgeoning sexuality. In the next section we meet a young Jewish boy named Raphael, who is a kleptomanic with a desire to be deeply religious. Raphael's scenes in Israel were so beautifully written. I've never been, but I felt as though I could see desert landscape. We follow each of their stories separately until the two meet up as adults and chaos seems to propel the reader to the finish. I think the author is dabbling in some interesting ideas when the characters face several crises of faith. One thing I'm not sure about in this book was the depiction of a possibly trans person being mentally ill. Now, I am not informed enough to speak with clarity or authority on trans issues, but at first Clyde seems to embrace this idea of reincarnation and lives as Marilyn, then later it seems as though being Marilyn is an unhinged part of his fractured self. And even later still, the identity of Marilyn is discarded or purged. Like I said, I'm not sure exactly what's going on there, but it made me take pause and consider if this was a fair depiction of someone struggling with identity. And I'd like to mention a few caution warnings..there's violence, sexual assault, coercion, and as children there are some sexual exploration scenes.