I always thought that the German language is my favourite reading language. I thought will never fully enjoy and soak up an English language book, simply because I find the German language absolutely beautiful (Obsttörtchen), thoughtful (Augenblick), touching (Geborgenheit), odd (krass) and funny (Dreikäsehoch).
Enter Chad Harbach.
I loved the book for the beauty of its language, for its story, the characters, the emotions and it was a joy to read. This book seems to be a baseball novel, all characters somehow involved with the sport at fictive Westish College in Wisconsin. I do not know enough about baseball to even like or dislike the game, for all I know it is like cricket, quite boring, but the book managed to get me hooked, because it is not only about the sporting aspect of the game.
In a small town the slender shortstop Henry Skrimshander is being discovered by the huge batter Mike Schwartz. Mike gets Henry into Westish College and onto the baseball team and the two characters will have a tight coach-student relationship. They will be best friends but I always felt that Mike is looking out for Henry like a big brother. Henry's room-mate Owen, also part of the baseball team, is gay, charismatic, tidy and loves books. Then there is the president of the College Guert Affenlight and his daughter Pella who just left her husband and returned to live with her father at the College. These five characters are taking centre stage in the book, all stories are revolving around them.
This book is about friendship, ambition, all kinds of love, sport and complications of (college) life. I admire the writer for the detail in storytelling, the quirky connections and hints (Henry Melville's 'Moby Dick') and the imagination that went into creating this wonderful book. An absolute highlight for me.
