Do You like book Things Invisible To See (1955)?
This is one of my favourite books ever. Why aren't there 10 stars to give it? It is a love story between Clare and Ben. It's about baseball- the beauty and joy and Americanness of it. It's a story of a slower time and place. It takes place in Ann Arbor, Michigan and revolves around a wager with the devil based on a baseball game. If you know baseball and Michigan there is so much here of it. The ultimate message is one of believing in yourself and believing that right and good will triumph in the end. But can they triumph when the devil can stack the deck?
—Melinda Seyler
I unfortunately am not able to say that I loved this book. While quite possibly the intent, it felt like several short stories brought together haphazardly. The flow, or lack thereof, of the writing and story made it very hard to identify and make a connection with any one character and the story as a whole. I hoped that the story would be brought to a close and the disconnect I felt resolved. This, however, was not the case in my experience with this book.I can appreciate the author as talented and recognize that she deserves respect accordingly. My own preferences of what I like to read, do not, unfortunately, match up with the authors writing style. I would describe the writing style as lyrical and poetic, showing lots of deep undertones and undisclosed meaning-very poetry like.This book does, certainly, have the potential of being loved by those with other preferences, so please do not discount this book on my personal review, and take into consideration your own likes and dislikes. *I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley.
—Danielle
Sometimes when I receive a review copy from a publisher, I start reading with enthusiasm and after a while my heart sinks at the thought of writing a review..And sometimes the book is an absolute joy and makes reviewing those other books worthwhile. This is such a book and I will be recommending it to friends and family. This is magic realism at its best. A deceptively simple fable that works on all sorts of levels, it is a love story and a metaphysical novel. Nancy Willard is a wonderful craftswoman, weaving references into the story without allowing them to overwhelm the tale.Willard is a poet and it shows.,She writes some beautiful prose, which is nevertheless simple and unflowery. Sometimes I think poets are particularly in tune with magic realism - understanding metaphor and the concept of "things invisible to see". The title is, by the way, a quote from John Donne's poem Go and Catch a Falling Star.On one level you have the well-drawn world of a small American town in the late 1930s and the two families at the centre of the story and on another you have the universal. The book opens: In Paradise, on the banks of the River of Time, the Lord of the Universe is playing ball with His archangels. Then it moves to the smallest of human worlds: In the damp night of the womb, when millions of chromosomes are gearing up for the game of life, the soul of Willie says to the soul of Ben, 'Listen, you can be firstborn and get out of this cave first if you'll give me everything else. Brains, charm, and good looks.' The story then moves into the material world of the boys' parents: Their mother worked at the front desk of Goldberg's Cleaners and Tailors.Despite this movement between worlds, the story arc works so well that I found it impossible to put the book down, finishing it in the early hours of the morning. I was genuinely interested in the love story between Ben and Clare, whether Ben will survive the Second World War and whether Clare would overcome her paralysis. For this book is about life and death as a game, but a very serious one. It culminates in a scene in which elderly mothers are playing baseball for the lives of their sons against a team chosen by Death. The referee is a childhood friend of Ben's who has already died in the War. I will not tell you the game's outcome. One of the things I loved about this book was that Nancy Willard does not hold back in presenting the world as she sees it. There is no writer's irony to hide behind, no fancy tricks, and some people will not like the book as a result. I loved it.I am very grateful for the publishers Open Road Media for giving me my copy in return for a fair review. This review first appeared on the Magic Realism Books Blog http://magic-realim-books.blogspot.com
—Zoe Brooks
