The Natural

The Natural
by Bernard Malamud

The Natural
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Book Summary Information

Author: Bernard Malamud
Introduction: Kevin Baker
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-07-07
ISBN: 0374502005
Number of pages: 231
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Product features:
  • ISBN13: 9780374502003
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Book Reviews of The Natural

Book Review: The Favorite Novel of the Baseball Gods
Summary: 5 Stars

When it comes to great baseball novels, "The Natural" rates at the top. Malamud creates a nearly immortal great in Ray Hobbs, who suffers from a tragic flaw that prevents him from realizing his true greatness. Through surreal events, we follow the trials and tribulations of the great Roy Hobbs, who becomes an almost god-like figure, but whose time is fleeting and who fades away all too soon.

Roy Hobbs, whose almost divine talent can be partly attributable to his bat, Wonderboy, emerges as a wide-eyed 19-year old whose natural pitching talent has scouts astounded. Yet, before he can tryout for the Cubs, his life is nearly ended by a silver bullet shot from the revolver of a demented young woman. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Roy emerges 15 years later as a 34-year old rookie for the New York National League Club, the Knights.

Although baseball may be the focus, love, greed, and betrayal make their appearances as well. For all the God-given (or Wonderboy) talent that Hobbs has, he cannot overcome his human flaws and self-centered approach to the game. For it is not his boyhood passion that drives him to excel, but his task to be immortal through smashing records never to be broken. He is not a team player, but a player more interested in setting records. Yet, his most glaring flaw is in his choice of women that eventually leads to his tragic downfall. Although he has found a seemingly perfect match in Iris Lemon, he nevertheless attempts to gain the affection of Memo Paris. Although it's tough to compare her with the gambling kingpin Gus, she my be the most treacherous villain, as she manipulates Roy's lust for her to get her way, as Roy is too blind to see the truth. Even as Memo attempts to coerce Roy to throw the pennant-deciding game by admitting that he is not worth enough money to her, Roy lets his loins control his brain.

Finally, Malamud imparts a supernatural aspect to his novel. Before Roy's first appearance, Knights Field is a dry wasteland. Yet, when Roy appears and begins his hitting streak, the "gods" open up the skies and rain falls as the fields becomes lush and fertile again. When he fades into a slump, the field once again dries up. It seems that the baseball gods can reward or punish the Knights based on Roy's performances and his actions off the field as well.

"The Natural" has had a profound influence on sports literature, spawned a top-notch 1980s movie (although the ending is nearly opposite), and has become part of the fabric of the national pastime. Even Kirk Gibson's improbable home run in the 1988 World Series earned him the title of "Roy Hobbs." It is hard to imagine a work of baseball (or any sports) literature that has had as profound an effect and following as "The Natural." And even if you are not a baseball fan, this is a highly enjoyable and worthwhile read.

Summary of The Natural



The classical novel (and basis for the acclaimed film) now in a new edition

Introduction by Kevin Baker

The Natural, Bernard Malamud?s first novel, published in 1952, is also the first?and some would say still the best?novel ever written about baseball. In it Malamud, usually appreciated for his unerring portrayals of postwar Jewish life, took on very different material?the story of a superbly gifted ?natural? at play in the fields of the old daylight baseball era?and invested it with the hardscrabble poetry, at once grand and altogether believable, that runs through all his best work. Four decades later, Alfred Kazin?s comment still holds true: ?Malamud has done something which?now that he has done it!?looks as if we have been waiting for it all our lives. He has really raised the whole passion and craziness and fanaticism of baseball as a popular spectacle to its ordained place in mythology.?

Roy Hobbs, the protagonist of The Natural, makes the mistake of pronouncing aloud his dream: to be the best there ever was. Such hubris, of course, invites divine intervention, but the brilliance of Bernard Malamud's novel is the second chance it offers its hero, elevating him--and his story--into the realm of myth.

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