In the spirit of being back to school, I thought I’d hit you with one more OESH book review.
Every once in a while, I’m lucky enough to come across a great book that might not have the visibility we’re usually afforded with excellent literature. But A Game of Catch by our friend and daughters’ middle school English teacher, Proal Hartwell (at the Village School in Charlottesville, Virginia – the nation’s first all girls middle school), is too good to stay in the shadows for long.
Broadly speaking, not enough “readable” fiction has been able to bring across the turbulence and confusion of the American generation raised during the Vietnam War. Separating Catch from the pack is the absence of anger and the abundance of compassion in its central characters (Will on the left and Joe on the right).
However, without a master lighting up the manuscript, any book stops out at fiction, which isn’t necessarily literature. It’s in the hinge of this story that you know that you are in the capable hands of an artist. And when Joe Washington’s father visits an otherwise bleached Church congregation, it’s worth listening to the actual words of our author, as the minister “Dr. Taylor, tried to continue his reading, but faltered, aware that the real lesson was in the church and not on the page in front of him.”
From there, the story only gathers more heft. And grace.
You can get your own copy, right here.
Onward!
