Screwball - Softcover

Ferrell, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060726008 ISBN 13: 9780060726003

Publisher: Harper Paperbacks, 2004

Synopsis

Fans of the Boston Red Sox baseball team, and fans of any team that has consistently failed to win The Big One, will identify with the emotional and ethical dilemma in this black-humored novel about the lengths to which management will go to protect their players so they can win the World Series. It's late in the season, and it looks as if this will be the Big Year, the year in which the Red Sox will finally bring home a World Series championship--if they can only keep the world from discovering that one of their players has a few unusual problems with his control--he is a serial murderer! Desperate to win, the front office is willing to rationalize and cover up even multiple murders ("Those murders, they're over and done with. Nothing we can do to change that") to end the agony of watching the team go down to defeat yet again. Ferrell writes a fast-paced baseball thriller filled with absurdities and told from a wryly casual point of view. In the opening pages, he offers a few red herrings about who the murderer might be from the large collection of dysfunctional players on the team, but the suspense disappears almost immediately as the killer is identified in the first third of the book. This is not a novel in which characters are individualized or undergo any major epiphanies. We know only a few characteristics about each one, and we don't identify with manager "Fish" Sharkey as much as we empathize with the frustration he's experienced--the same frustration fans have experienced with all the Red Sox "almost" teams over the years. The action and the murders both proceed in relatively straightforward and uncomplicated fashion, and as the bloody season progresses, management never seriously questions whether there are any values more important than winning.

About this title

Product Description:

Could the curse of the Bambino be over? For too many miserable seasons, the Boston Red Sox have endured nothing but defeatand heartbreak.

Finally, there is hope in the sensational Ron Kane, a strapping rookie pitcher whose fastball scorches the radar gun at an ungodly 110 miles per hour. He can also handle the bat. And play the outfield. With Kane dazzling sellout crowds, the Red Sox are suddenly a juggernaut.

The only fly in the ointment is the fact that murder seems to be stalking the club. Wherever the Sox play, a killer strikes, marking his victims with strange ritualistic symbols. Is a fan responsible for the carnage as he follows the team from town to town? Or could it be that the madman wears a Red Sox uniform?Screwball is not just a savage morality tale; it is a hard-hitting, laugh-out-loud look at the greatest battle in modern-day sports: the struggle for sanity.

Review:

"[A] hard-hitting mix of baseball thriller and black comedy....Ferrell captures the dark nature of modern sports."--Booklist

"A comic tour de force. . . . This is a novel at once grotesque and hilarious."--David Shaw, Pulitzer Prize-winning media critic and author of Wilt

"I once said that if Charles Manson could hit .300, he'd be playing third base in the big leagues. . . . It's a fantastic concept, executed with the perfect timing of a squeeze play."--Jim Bouton, author of Ball Four

A comic tour de force. . . . This is a novel at once grotesque and hilarious. --David Shaw, Pulitzer Prize-winning media critic and author of Wilt"

I once said that if Charles Manson could hit .300, he d be playing third base in the big leagues. . . . It s a fantastic concept, executed with the perfect timing of a squeeze play. --Jim Bouton, author of Ball Four"

[A] hard-hitting mix of baseball thriller and black comedy. Ferrell captures the dark nature of modern sports. --Booklist"

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0060726008
• ISBN 13: 9780060726003
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 307