OurColony.net

"Yes!" reviewed by former minor leaguer and ENG teacher turned principal and writer

Customer Rating:
Even if you have already seen the movie, which I happen to consider the greatest sports film of all-time, this book is worth buying. There are some notable differences and many more interesting characters. Buy it. You won't be disappointed.

A must for any literate baseball fan

Customer Rating:
My father was an English teacher who also happened to be a baseball fanatic, and I still have his marked-up copy of "The Natural" somewhere in the basement. He actually built an entire English class around baseball fiction, with this book as its centerpiece.

You can't help but appreciate the humanness of Hobbs as the book moves along, picking up steam much like the locomotives that are often used as a metaphor.

My favorite character is probably Pop - what a great, colorful caricature of a crusty old manager who lives and dies with every batted ball and terrific throw.

"The Natural" is the standard by which all other baseball novels - including mine, The King's Game - are judged. And that's how it should be.

And other reviewers are right - you'll never see the book's ending coming if you saw the movie first, but that's a good thing. This ending feels more real, more true, more human.

A classic!

-- John Nemo, author of the baseball novel The King's Game

Not so sugary sweet

Customer Rating:
I thought the movie "The Natural" was great. The story the book tells is even better. I think that each of the different tellings works for the different medium in which it is presented. I won't ruin it for readers by giving it away, but it's worth a read.

The only criticism I have with the book is I'm not a huge fan of Malamud's writing style. I have read several of the reviews stating that's the best thing about the book, but I don't see it. I sometimes felt like the writing got in the way of the story, rather than moved it along.

A hideously BAD book

Customer Rating:
I love books. I collect, preserve, protect and treasure books. After reading this one, I immediately threw it in the trash.

This may well be the most badly written book in the history of the planet. Should there turn out to be alien civilizations elsewhere in the universe, and they've written books, this would also be far worse than anything they ever wrote.

The language, sentence structure, plot development (or extreme lack thereof), pacing and narrative could not possibly be worse. The 'author' should have been jailed for fraud and crimes against humanity.

order never arrived

Customer Rating:
The book I ordered never arrived. I checked tracking and DHL passed it off to USPS who delivered it somewhere on 12/28/07. The end result is "Sorry Charlie"