Jeremy SellmeyerNovember 23, 2011Book Review

From the depths of defeat into the hands of a disheartening life, overcoming the odds has

always, and will always permeate our culture as a symbol of strength and accomplishment as

well as a beacon of hope for those looking to do the same. This is ever-present in our sports

culture, and we find the most meaningful stories in the unlikeliest places. Roy Hobbes, our

representative of the odds-chaser and main character in Bernard Malamud’s fiction novel The

Natural, exemplifies the heart of the sports hero in this sense as he fights to get back in the game

of baseball after a murderous attempt on his life postponed his goals for 15 years. Now

reappearing with the ragtag New York Knights, who reside at the bottom spot in the league,

Hobbes is more focused to make an impact on baseball with what time he has left, but who could

expect a lot from a 34-year old rookie? He happens to demand the very best of himself, and truly

captures the spirit of an underdog despite being the real deal natural-born star that excels

athletically in just about everything he does. With Wonderboy, his trusty hand-made bat and

symbol of power at the plate, Hobbes comes to power as the dominant force in baseball, the one

that pitchers fear, and the leader of the Knights as they slowly creep to the top of their division

throughout the story. The mystery that surrounds his life outside of baseball though shrouds his

every action as we find dead ends where his past should be, and the gaps of information leave us

wondering how this small town boy came to be at the top of every batting list in baseball.

There’s a duality to Roy Hobbes that we slowly uncover not through his on-field performance

but in fact his personal life choices, and that really snares the reader into being interested into a

book that is considered old-fashioned.

In fact, Hobbes’s character drives the plot and makes the story all it could be without

unrealistic or farfetched aspects seen in the fiction genre. Although the early shooting in the hotel

room might not be an everyday occurrence, the author Malamud just wanted to pay homage to

the darker events in baseball history as mentioned in the introduction. And that’s where,

surprisingly, this book finds a lot of its merit. Even though the overwhelming tale of the story is

that of an old sea dog coming back to reliniquish his dreams of playing in the majors, which had

not been popularized yet (this story was written in the early 1950s), the best parts of the story

shine through the rough patches Roy faces constantly in the everyday situations he encounters

once the world of baseball opens up to him and his skill. Hobbes’s romantic life is in shambles as

the woman who’s tearing him down is the love of his life, and the best thing to come around is a

woman he lets slip through the cracks; however, the tragic events don’t stop there. Obviously

besides the early violent attack that cripples Hobbes for a decade and a half, he also fights to

make the right decision with his greedy boss, the Judge, who pins him to make crucial and illegal

deals in the offchance that Hobbes intentionally plays poorly. These decisions are thrown around

in his head, and we get to experience the real-time effects that result from each event outside of

his baseball play. Some of the best moments in the book are through Roy’s lens, and we catch up

with his choice through details that occur in the aftermath of his decision, such as with his deal

with the Judge and the woman he ends up choosing. Also, the baseball play that we do see in the

story is used as a reflection of the good and bad Hobbes must succumb to in the world outside

the one he wants to live in forever, the real one. With slumps and streaks abound, we get to stitch

together the path our character is on, and there’s a sense of relationship or closeness to this guy

because he has a humanness and dark aspect that all humans must face at some point in their

lives.

While a lot of the themes in the story need a long background history, one in particular

that is mentioned above and just magnifies Malamud’s darker look at baseball is Roy’s eluding

happiness, or rather his susceptibility to tragedy. Along with the relationships with women that

Roy finds difficult to understand, as is the case with Memo, the popular one who likes to tease all

the men, and Iris, the overlooked average woman who strengthens Roy in his lowest points, he

finds that there’s an escapable hole that he’s been dug into in baseball that won’t let him out

without a fight. With two struggling relationships—yep, he’s dating both women at one point—

arises his need for money to make himself appear worthy and capable of maintaining either one

of the women’s needs, and the Judge jumps on the chance to put Hobbes in a pickle. Even in

these tight moments, when Roy may not seem like the most respectable guy you’d want to meet,

we can see through his intentions that he’s still that 19-year old kid at the start of the story and

just wants his life to turn out how he wanted back then. He, nor anyone else that is sane, wants to

go through some of the misery he avoids daily in the recesses of his mind, but this story does

great to emulate his feelings without making him out to be some kind of a schizophrenic patient.

For instance, he is constantly under the scrutiny of the press about his past, including the incident

with the shooter back at the start of the book, and he must keep his game in check with

everything around hanging on his every move from his individual goals in baseball and the

“team’s” effort to win the pennant to securing a relationship with the woman he thinks he wants

and making money in the process. In the end, it’s all about the money, but for the first time

Malamud actually poses this as a question without directly answering it by the ending in the

story, as it contradicts itself, thus leaving the reader to ponder Roy’s final decisions in the story.

In the context of the book’s subject, baseball, it has a glimmer that is reminiscent of the

time period it was written in and about, the 1950s. Although much of the late ‘40s blend in with

the early ‘50s, when the book was finished, the feel and style of the book just oozes throwback

baseball, when the sport was king and times were simpler. But through Malamud’s interpretation

of what an exciting story would be like during his writing of the story, The Natural turned into

something of a distorted nightmare of random sorrows that happened all to the same guy, and we

follow him through heaven and hell wondering if he can find a way to make it work. By giving

us someone so mysterious to study, Malamud gives us the chance to experience this book and

character as a flashback to the late and great players he grew up to love. In our context of reading

this book, decades after its release, it gives us the unexpected pleasure of imagining the events of

Roy Hobbes as if they were real, at least as real as Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth are to us. But

comparatively, aren’t they all just legends, and what we learn has now outlived the reality of

these humans? Even though he intended to capture the essence of the life and times revolving

around a simple game, today the appeal of learning the culture of our country has a new,

historical viewpoint that happens to still include a well put-together story. The characters are

very rounded and believable in most aspects with a plus arising out of their also parallel mythical

qualities. Roy has the ability to be the best baseball player in the world when his mind is right,

another famous ballplayer in the story is named the Whammer for his crushing strength, and

even Roy’s coach Pop Fisher was once a titan ballplayer back in his heyday. All these aspects

combine for quite an unexpected story of haunting realism that is broken up by our hero’s quest,

and we can’t help feeling for Hobbes on his journey to success. I myself got sucked into the

dramas of his life, although they were sometimes far away from what I would like to be doing,

but because there isn’t a whole lot to Roy’s character other than what we see, similar to our

modern athletes, we can root for him for any reason we want. And for those rooting, I would not

reckon everybody would find this book to be as intriguing as me, but for those who like the

mystery, or perhaps baseball, then it’s worth its while. Despite the age of the story, it is not only

a classic but essential for those looking to dig deeper into baseball’s growth in America. The

Natural contains enough realism to use in context, enough mythology to please your

imagination, and enough of a plot centered on baseball to keep you interested. It may not drive

most to turn the pages swiftly awestruck with bewilderment, but this story does leave one with a

hankering for something more by its end.