New Book heads-up: The First Fall Classic

[Kawika]

I'm about 50 pages into the book now and wish I were able to report that it is a great read but unfortunately so far it is not. The story of the 1912 season and the Giants-Red Sox October match-up definitely doesn't lack in intrinsic interest, and author Vaccaro fleshes the narrative with enough backstory and sidebar gossip to keep you reading. My main gripe is that his writing style is taking some getting used to. He has taken the liberty of manufacturing dialogue, in essence putting words in the mouths of McGraw and Stahl, Matty and Wood, etc, spoken according to how his research suggested they would speak. I'm not sure yet how well that is working here. A bigger gripe, maybe I am being picky, is his use of anachronistic prose, for example, "satisfy his baseball jones" and "the Cubs were (the Giants) personal Kryptonite". I am quite sure no one was jonesing for anything in 1912 and Superman wasn't even born yet. It's words like that take me out of the era when what I really want is to be immersed in those times. So don't rush out and buy it, at least give it a good once over in the book store before you fork over your 27 bucks. When I finish the book I will report back.