For Love of the Game
Michael Shaara, 1991
Random House
176 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780345408914
Summary
Billy Chapel is a baseball legend, a man who has devoted his life to the game he loves and plays so well. But because of his unsurpassed skill and innocent faith, he has been betrayed.
Now it's the final game of the season, and Billy's got one last chance to prove who he is and what he can do, a chance to prove what really matters in this life. A taut, compelling story of one man's coming of age, For Love of the Game is Michael Shaara's final novel, the classic finish to a brilliantly distinguished literary career. (From the publisher.)
The book was adapted to film in 1999, starring Kevin Costner and Kelly Preston.
Author Bio
• Birth—June 23, 1929
• Where—Jersey City, New Jersey, USA
• Death—1988
• Where—Tallahassee, Florida
• Education—B.A., Rutgers University
• Awards—Pulitzer Prize
Michael Shaara was born in Jersey City in 1929 and graduated from Rutgers University in 1951. He serveda as a sergeant in the 82nd Airborne division prior to the Korean War.
His early science fiction short stories were published in Galaxy magazine in 1952. He later began writing other works of fiction and published more than seventy short stories in many magazines, including The Saturday Evening Post, Cosmopolitan, and Redbook.
His first novel, The Broken Place, was published in 1968. But it was a simple family vacation to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in 1966 that gave him the inspiration for his greatest achieve-ment, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Killer Angels, published in 1974. Michael Shaara went on to write two more novels, The Noah Conspiracy and For Love of the Game, which was published posthumously after his death in 1988. (From the publisher.)
Before Shaara began selling science fiction stories to fiction magazines in the 1950s, he was an amateur boxer and police officer. He later taught literature at Florida State University while continuing to write fiction. The stress of this and his smoking caused him to have a heart attack at the early age of 36; from which he fully recovered. Shaara died of another heart attack in 1988. Today there is a Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction, established by Jeffrey Shaara, Michael's son and awarded yearly at Gettysburg College.
Jeffrey Shaara is also a popular writer of historical fiction; most notably sequels to his father's best-known novel. His most famous is the prequel to The Killer Angels, Gods and Generals. (Adapted from the publisher and Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
Moving, beautiful.... If Hemingway had written a baseball novel, he might have written For Love of the Game.
Los Angeles Times
A delightful and lyrical story about a great athlete's momentous last game.... A fairy tale for adults about love and loneliness and finally growing up.
USA Today
Reading this posthumously published baseball novel is best compared to watching a gifted young player whose promise slowly fades with every strikeout and weak groundball, despite occasional flashes of potential. Shaara, who won a Pulitzer in 1975 for The Killer Angels , died just after the book was finished, and one feels he might have liked to give it a rewrite. Just before the last game of the season, star pitcher Billy Chapel, a veteran of 17 years in the major leagues, discovers that his team plans to trade him. Moreover, he learns that his New York editor/girlfriend has inexplicably ended their romance--leaving him adrift and the reader more than a little indifferent. The love affair, seen in flashbacks (notably a scene in which they achieve congress in a small airplane), must compete with an unhealthy number of baseball cliches and a series of featureless characters; even Billy, whose thoughts we share, seems a blank. The book does come to life, fittingly enough, as Chapel takes the mound for his final and greatest game. Shaara succeeds in conveying the extraordinary physical and psychological demands of the professional game as well as the dizzying pleasures of its triumphs. But even the account of Chapel's greatest victory is marred by a trite ending. While flawed, however, this is a noteworthy attempt to capture the simultaneous loss of a life's love and a life's obsession.
Publishers Weekly
Pulitzer Prize-winner Shaara's final work (he died in 1988) is about a baseball player's final work. Billy Chapel, a great pitcher, is going to be traded after 17 years of service. He plans to end his career with this game, rather than accept this betrayal by his team's new owners. We follow him pitch by pitch through his perfect game, and memory by memory through his imperfect life. Cushioned by a children's game, he has never quite grown up, never taken the ultimate risk of trusting a relationship; the woman he loves is equally frightened of commitment. They come together now, when Billy has to go home, with no home to go to. As much a psychological novel as a baseball tale, this is a good choice for popular fiction collections. —Marylaine Block, St. Ambrose Univ. Lib., Davenport, IA
Library Journal
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Love of the Game:
1. What kind of man is Chapel? How would you describe him? A number of reviews, and even the publisher, refer to this book as a coming-of-age story? In other words, during the course of the novel, Billy matures...implying that he was immature at the the start. Do you see him as immature? If so, in what way...and how does he mature by the end? Perhaps it's not a coming-of-age tale but rather the story of a good but flawed individual? What do you think?
2. Why have the owners of the Hawks decided to trade Billy Chapel? Is this a betrayal...or simply a smart business decision...or both?
3. If you're a baseball fan, is this a good baseball story? Does it reveal the "ins & outs" of the game or provide insights into the psychology of the game and the physical demands on the players? Does the book capture the thrills and suspense of the sport?
4. If you're not a baseball fan, does the book still engage you? Do you have to be a fan to enjoy the novel?
5. Why might Shaara have structured the book as he does—through a series of flashbacks rather than a straightforward timeline? As you read, did you find the back-and-forth engaging and suspenseful, or distracting and tiresome? What about other stylistic traits—the staccato-like, unfinished sentences? Do they add to the story in any way?
6. Talk about Carol Grey, Billy's on-again-off-again girl friend. What does she mean when she says, "You don't need me, Billy." A fair comment...or not?
7. What accounts for Billy's final, perfect game? Is it a result of his physical skill and innate talent...or his state of mind?
8. A broader question: why has baseball captured American hearts and minds? Why are fans so devoted—what's the appeal?
9. If you have seen the 1991 film, how does it compare with the book? Does it capture the essence of the novel? What changes have been made?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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