Book Reviews

Calico Joe

Published on 09/06/12

BOOK REVIEWS BY JOAN G. SMITH JGS 352

CALICO JOE BY: JOHN GRISHAM

This Grisham novel is about Major League Baseball, but so much more! The story about Joe Castle, a rookie from Calico Rock, Arkansas, who began playing for the Chicago Cubs in 1973, is told through the eyes of Paul Tracey.

Paul Tracey is the son of Warren Tracey, an extremely hard-throwing pitcher for the New York Mets. When Joe Castle is called up by the Cubs from their AA club in Midland, Texas, he becomes the rookie of the year with his unbelievable record of home runs! He was also a savvy first baseman and there is no stopping Joe Castle.

Paul’s father, Warren is a hard-drinking, womanizing pitcher with no time for family. Paul is sometimes proud his father is pitching for the Mets, but when Joe Castle comes along, so very young and talented, Joe Castle becomes Paul’s hero, as Joe does for almost all baseball fans in the USA.

Baseball fans will find many famous players and coaches documented in these pages, but the author warns that mixing real people, players and events into a novel is tricky business! This is fiction, and Grisham warns that he has changed schedules, records and batting orders and even put some fictional players in the mix with real ones.

Joe Castle is at the top of his form when the unthinkable happens, and Paul Tracey is in the stands. Many lives will be changed forever and the lessons learned off the field by so many different people are what makes this book special!

My husband grew up in Chicago, close to Wrigley Field and as a Cub fan was standing in long lines twice at Wrigley, to finally get two tickets to the 1945 World Series, Cubs versus Detroit. When I brought the book home and it was his turn to read it he said this may be fiction, but it ” hits the nail on the head as far as how things were ”.

This just might be a different kind of a John Grisham classic!