TimeBall: First Review
Review of TimeBall
By Harriet Hart
Time travel is a literary device that has been used by some of the great writers in the English language. Think of Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens: Scrooge visits the past and the future with ghosts as his guide and this reader (for one) never questioned for a moment how this was possible. I just enjoyed the journey. In 11/22/63 Stephen King takes his readers back to 1958 so his protagonist can prevent Lee Harvey Oswald from shooting JFK.
Now novelist R.M. Krakoff contributes to this literary
tradition in his fifth novel TimeBall,
in which protagonist wealthy entrepreneur Aaron Kinsley is bored with life in
the year 2020 and time travels back to 1944 to fulfill a boyhood dream to play
professional baseball. He inhabits the
physical body of Albert Hollingsworth, a pitcher for the St. Louis Browns.
Aaron didn't count on finding himself in this particular athlete's body on this
specific losing team. There's a lot more he didn't count on too, like Albert's
involvement in a Nazi cult intent on world domination or becoming party to a
plot to assassinate Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Don't get me wrong, TimeBall
will appeal to die hard baseball fans, plus anyone who has ever wondered
what it would be like to change places with a historical figure or to run the
bases in someone else's cleats. Time
travel is a fascinating concept that appeals to our imaginations and allows the
writer to indulge in historical research and social commentary, of the past,
present and future, simultaneously.
Author Krakoff tells us that 1944 was a wonderful time to be
alive: "People are more open, honest and direct…Life is simple. Your work,
you play, and occasionally you pray…Everyone is employed; there are no street
people. No beggars, no blue suede show men selling time shares…" He compares this with the future in which
"Medical science is helping wealthy people live longer, but the poor are
many and continue to suffer…Computers rule the land, banks rule the world, and
America is still a superpower…" Since he's describing 2020 and we're already
in 2014, we can infer what he thinks of the present state of affairs.
There are many elements I liked about this novel. Once you
accept the basic premise that we can travel back in time, the rest is
believable. The protagonist is likeable as he struggles to act like another
person, make friends and lovers, escape his enemies and face the moral dilemma
central to the book. The "time traveler's moral code dictates that I
cannot alter history" yet if he does not intervene, evil will occur and
lives will be lost.
The supporting
characters, especially Annie and Bonnie, are well drawn and charming. The plot
is fast moving and keeps you reading – and, forgive the pun, features a fast
curve ball at its conclusion.
If you like historical fiction, time travel, action and
suspense, read this book. In addition to entertaining readers, it will make them
ponder big questions like what does one do with one's life to give it meaning, and
what would one do if you could live someone else's?
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