Review: Calico Joe

Calico Joe by John Grisham

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Calico Joe is a baseball story that's not really about baseball. The story is about brokenness and attempts at reconciliation which are, at best, only partial. The book was deeply troubling to me at some strange level I have yet to fathom (only having finished it last night). Most likely the feelings I have are because of my own up and down relationship with my dad when I was younger, my own little league days, and my own doubts, short-comings and miscues with God, which is what I believe this story is really about.

Paul Tracey's feelings are torn between his father who he grew up despising and his boyhood idol, "Calico Joe" Castle a young major league phenom. Most of the story concerns Paul's (odd?) effort to reconcile the two - figuratively and literally. As stated above, the book felt dark and depressing to me, but maybe it's just me and my "stuff." To be honest, I finished the book late last night and had trouble sleeping afterwards.

Questions remain. Why does John Grisham always use sports stories for his shorter, non-legal-thriller efforts (Bleachers, Playing for Pizza and this book)? And if I didn't really like this short book (I only gave it 2 stars), why did it make me think so much, and why is writing the review revealing and emotionally difficult for me? Maybe I do like the book? Perhaps this experience is like when I read Scripture and find that certain passages trouble me - and yet I know that even as they do God is speaking to me about something I need to deal with. I've always felt it's the passages that are most disquieting to you that you need to pay closest attention to. Maybe that's why this book grabbed my attention even though I didn't "like" it.

One thing I'll be interested in is to see if the story engenders the same feelings in a girl as a guy (assuming Donna reads it). Hopefully answers will come in time.