Shoeless Joe (novel)
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| Author | W.P. Kinsella |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin |
| Released | 1982 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback, e-book) |
| Pages | 265 (Paperback edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-395-32047-X (Paperback edition) |
Shoeless Joe is a fantasy novel by W. P. Kinsella. It became much better known because of its film adaptation, Field of Dreams.
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[edit] Plot summary
Ray Kinsella lives and farms in Iowa with his wife Annie and their five-year-old daughter Karin. Privately, Kinsella is obsessed with the beauty and history of American baseball, specifically the plight of his hero, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and the "Black Sox" of the 1919 World Series. When he hears a voice telling him to build a baseball field in the midst of his corn crop in order to give his hero a chance at redemption, he blindly follows instructions. The field becomes a conduit to the spirits of baseball legend. Soon, Kinsella is off on a cross-country trip to ease the pain of another hero, the reclusive writer J.D. Salinger, as part of a journey the Philadelphia Inquirer called "not so much about baseball as it is about dreams, magic, life, and what is quintessentially American."
The story takes place in Iowa on a farm, which Ray describes over and over again through out the book as heaven. (Ray later goes on a journey through New Hampshire and all the way to Boston.) Ray lives in Iowa happily with his daughter and wife. One day he hears a mysterious voice saying, "If you build it, he will come." Ray believes this is an instruction to build a baseball field at his farm, and that the "he" is his father's hero, Shoeless Joe Jackson, a baseball legend worshipped by both father and son. Ray builds the baseball field, and the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson appears to play on the field Ray built with his own hands. Before he knew it, the entire ghost team of the Chicago White Sox were playing on his field.
A few months later, Ray hears another voice, imploring him to "ease his pain." Ray later discovers that this is referring to a former doctor and baseball player, named Archibald Graham, who is known by the nickname of "Moonlight Graham".
[edit] Characters in Shoeless Joe
- Ray Kinsella
- Richard Kinsella, identical twin brother of Ray
- Annie Kinsella, wife of Ray
- Karin Kinsella, daughter of Ray and Annie
- Mark, Ray's brother-in-law
- Eddie Scissons, who originally owned Ray's farm and claimed to be the oldest living Chicago Cub
- J. D. Salinger, the author of The Catcher in the Rye
- Archibald "Moonlight" Graham, a baseball player who never had a chance at bat in the majors, who then later became a doctor
- Shoeless Joe Jackson, a baseball player who was among 8 Chicago White Sox accused of being paid to throw the 1919 World Series.
[edit] Major themes
- Redemption
- Father-and-son bond (bond between Ray and his father)
- Dreams
- Unexplained magic
- New-found life
- Religion
[edit] Allusions/references from other works
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Please help improve this article by expanding this section. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. Please remove this message once the section has been expanded. This article has been tagged since January 2007. |
- J. D. Salinger: Catcher in the Rye
- J. D. Salinger: A Young Girl In 1941 With No Waist At All
[edit] Allusions/references to actual history and current science
The character Moonlight Graham was a real baseball player, whom the author found while looking through The Baseball Encyclopedia. The background of the character is based on his true life, with a few factual liberties taken for artistic reasons.
[edit] Awards and nominations
Shoeless Joe is the winner of the 1983 Books in Canada First Novel Award and a Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship.
[edit] Film or TV adaptations
Shoeless Joe was later adapted into a screenplay for the film Field of Dreams by Phil Alden Robinson.
[edit] Trivia
- The working title of the book was Dream Field, but the publisher renamed the work Shoeless Joe.
[edit] Release details
- 1982, USA, Houghton Mifflin ISBN 0-395-32047-X, Pub date April 12 1982, (Paperback?)
- 1999, USA, Mariner Books ISBN 0-395-95773-7, Pub date April 28 1999, Paperback
[edit] Sources, references, external links, quotations
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Please help improve this article by expanding this section. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. Please remove this message once the section has been expanded. This article has been tagged since January 2007. |
