real charmer quirky, clever and very interesting! I didn't read this book but I did read the article and was taken in completely.
The first letters of the beginning words of the story spelled out April Fools, Date is approximate. At a time when I followed sports amp especially baseball a bit more thoroughly, I remember the famous article detailing the mysterious Sidd Finch in SportsIllustratedyears ago, the April Fool's Day cover story as it turned out.
When the novel appeared somewhat later, expanding the story amp by the publishing company I worked for, I got a copy, It has lingered unread on a shelf with other baseball books I'd read ever since, But a global pandemic can cause one to look backward, turning to books long postponed from being read amp such was the case with George Plimpton's The Curious Case of Sidd Finch.
For starters, Hayden SydneyWhite Finch was an orphan, adopted by a wealthy British family, with his father a rather wellregarded anthropologist dying in a plane crash in Nepal where he'd been doing research amp his mother in a freak accident in the same country.
What I'd forgotten is the context for how Plimpton in expanding the magazine story into a novel embedded the story of Sidd Finch within that of the man who narrates the tale, Robert Temple, a standin for the author, who in the book is suffering from Post Traumatic Shock, following many helicopter missions, referred to as "joypops", during his time in Vietnam.
Mr. Temple is in the midst of a long period of convalescence, spending a great deal of time exploring his consciousness, said to be time "between the dog amp the wolf", also seen as "a master plan of idleness, a cocoon of darkness.
"
At this point, who should appear in his life but Sidd Finch, having fled a brief stint at Harvard following graduation from his elite British boarding school, also seemingly in a kind of limbo after his father's death, when he had spent time in Nepal, Bhutan amp Tibet, living as a disciple of the greatth century Buddhist poetsaint Lama Milarepa, "learning to achieve a parallelism of thought amp movement, an astonishing rhythm that gathers a tremendous amount of cosmic force.
"
While living at Harvard amp living in Cambridge, Sidd attended a baseball game at Fenway Park amp he has come to view a baseball diamond as a modified mandala.
It seems that with meditation, concentration amp contemplation of mind amp soul on a certain objective, Sidd has learned to throw a baseballMPH with absolute accuracy at a target, breathing to produce inner heat amp clear lungs while inhalingwisdoms.
Oh, and Sidd is a master of the French Horn amp wears only one boot when pitching, with the other foot bare, Are you still with me on all of this, . .
Yes, one must suspend disbelief to keep score in the midst of George Plimpton's baseball fable, much as we were asked to do by Bernard Malamud in The Natural, though perhaps to a lesser degree than is necessary with the story of Roy Hobbs.
But alas, "baseball is the perfect game for the mystical mind, a game that can go on indefinitely, with no clocks amp foul lines that stretch to infinity.
" And how did Sidd Finch initially master his accuracy with a baseball He did it by tossing stones at snow leopards in Nepal in an effort to protect yaks from being preyed upon.
Remembering that Roy Hobbs fashioned his own special bat, Wonderboy from a tree struck by lightning, I suggest that almost anything is possible when you suspend disbelief amp so, why not Sidd Finch After all, I recall attending a White Sox Game vs.
the Detroit Tigers where the remarkable Mark Fidrych would pace about the pitching mound and speak to the baseball he was about to toss in an attempt to motivate both himself amp the ball prior to hurling it.
Quite naturally, Sidd Finch with his surname oddly enough being an old English word for lie or fib becomes a secret weapon for the New York Mets who sign him but have difficulty maintaining his full attention, particularly after he pitches a perfect game in his first outing amp the league president amp other forces worry about retaining competitive balance in the face of such a seemingly mechanical, unhittable force.
That said, Sidd has no inkling about other aspects of the game, including hitting, running the bases, the ritual hazing that befalls new players and the routine practice of being ignored by his fellow teammates as he approaches a nohitter not wishing to jinx their pitcher.
Also, Finch can't drive a car or toss a Frisbee or perform other fairly routine functions in life,
What is interesting about the novel is that Plimpton uses real names, including that of Chub Feeney National League President at the time, players on the Mets of the mids, Nelson Doubleday whose family association with baseball goes back to its founding amp Mike Marshall, a former player who went on to get a PhD in physiological psychology amp who intones within the novel about muscle structure amp everything necessary to toss a baseball at great speed while retaining accuracy.
All of these associations add something concrete to the story of Sidd Finch, who is soon referred to as "Shoeless Sidd", "the Yeti" amp the "Kathmandu fireballer".
For
Sidd was changing the properties amp essences of the ball amp the game itself, It struck me how often a ball is inspected during a game, with a pitcher comforting his fingers with the texture of the ball.Beyond his seeming aloofness from the game, Finch does have a sort of hippie girlfriend, DebbieSue, who walked ashore one day while surfing when Sidd amp the narrator, Robert Temple, were in Florida where the Mets conduct spring training.
Football players do not have this kinship with their ball amp most of the players never even touch it during the course of the game.
Neither do basketball players look at the ball rather than at the rim of the basket, Tennis players are taught to keep their eye on the ball but have no particularly affection for it, But Sidd has done something to the ball of baseball amp somehow removed it from its familiar associations,
Sidd participates in tantric sexual calisthenics with DebbieSue amp is questioned about just how this fits with his interest in Buddhism, The book did fall into some disarray with highly implausible events late in the novel, including when a Mafia hitman is introduced because Sidd Finch's heroics with a baseball somehow cut into national betting odds.
Curiously, I write this review just as HallofFame pitcher Tom Seaver passed away at, a man known as "Tom Terrific" and "The Franchise".
I attended Seaver'sth victory at Yankee Stadium when Seaver pitched not for the Mets but for the Chicago White Sox, with Carleton Fisk as his catcher.
He seemed to have every possible positive component in lifetalent, good looks, emotional stability, wonderful family and even his own vineyard in California but was laid low by a combination of earlyonset dementia amp the coronavirus.
In the face of such news, why not envision a kind of paranormal pitcher but one with the allaround persona of Tom Seaver, even though he couldn't quite toss a baseballMPH!
Tom Seaver amp the improbable, fictional Sidd Finch were both Mets.
As the FrenchAmerican scholar amp author, the late Jacques Barzun once put it: Anyone who wants to know the heart amp mind of America, had better learn baseball.
George Plimpton's novel The Curious Case of Sidd Finch is perhaps not in a class with Malamud's baseball tale but if one enjoys the game of baseball amp a good but somewhat farfetched yarn, George Plimpton's book is quite worth reading.
Thest photo image is of the author thend is of the man who posed as Sidd Finch for the novel's cover therd image is of the late Tom Seaver during his tenure with the Mets.
I don't like sports. I don't read sports books, Unless they're written by George Plimpton, Perhaps my alltime fave baseball book, About a Buddhist monk pitching for the 'Mets who learned to throwmph fastballs by tossing rocks at yaks, Every single character was quirky in a way that made them insufferable and unbelievable, yet the baseball theme kept me in the story of a lost English monk with one hell of an arm.
Unless you are a baseball fan, I can't imagine this is worth reading, Its incredibly dry humor will only be a hit if you have an interest in America's pastime, and what a pitcher who could throwmph would do to the game.
Another book picked up on my first trip to the USA, A wonderful read and although already a baseball fan this helped cement my love of the sport, I loved it. Robert temple, the writer in the story was personally washed in baseball and life nostalgia, and sidd finch was a nuke lalouche of otherworldly talent and the whole thing was wrapped up in a layer of sensitivity and joy that was just the best.
It was quietly funny which made it an extremely well pitched book not going for too much
but having fun the whole time, Super. Look if you are looking for some literary masterpiece, look elsewhere, If you are looking for a good summer read, then you might find one here, The book centers on Sidd Finch, a Buddhist Monk, who comes to America to try to play baseball, He has a fastball that is unlike any other in history, and the quarkiness of the leftiest of leftys, I recommend it because it is fun, Highly improbable, especially in this day in age where everyone is a reporter and has a blog and a cell phone, but enjoyable still.
Excellent summer reading!
Sure, the plot kind of meandered, but I found The Curious Case of Sidd Finch to be a completely charming book.
I thoroughly enjoyed the main characters of Sidd, Debbie Sue, and Owl and thought the whimsy that infused the novel was just delightful.
I also appreciated that Plimpton did research on his whimsy many of the people mentioned in the novel, such as the horn player Dennis Brain and minor league pitcher Steve Dalkowski, were real people, which I got a kick out of.
Also, apparently Lunggom is also a real thing in Tibetan lore, so kudos to Plimpton for doing his homework there too,
The whole book just made me smile, Glad I read it. Even though I'm not a huge baseball fan, I loved this book! George Plimpton does so much with the ideas of Buddhism, baseball, posttraumatic stress disorder.
. . and it's all laughoutloudinthelibrary funny, Some backstory: many years ago, I was in the West End of downtown Greenville when I came across a bookstore/wine place that sold used books and wine well, not "used wine," but you get my drift.
I came across two books that I decided to buy among the myriad selection of goodbutnotmusthave titles, This, "The Curious Case of Sidd Finch," and Tom Seaver's book about the game he pitched in theWorld Series coauthored by Dick Schaap were the only two purchases I made that day, or ever again, at this particular store.
I honestly can't recall if I ever went back there even in the days of my car being reliable, Greenville was a "once every other month" kind of a trip, especially for some hardtofind bookstore which may or may not have lasted long after my visit, but I read the Seaver book first, enjoyed it but not enough to keep it for too long I think I eventually put it in a pile of donations either to a thrift store or a usedbook store, and then this one sat on my shelf for a long, long time.
I'm a big believer in "books find you when you're ready for them," and as it turns out I was finally ready to dip into George Plimpton's one novel, about a mysterious figure who throws a fastball far faster than anything ever recorded in baseball history.
Sidd Finch is, as the title suggests, a curious case: an English orphan adopted by a wealthy explorer, whose journey to Tibet to search for his adoptive father's remains leads him to a Buddhist monastery where he devotes his life to studying meditation and developing the most stunning delivery in sports history.
Through the narrator, Robert Temple, we get Sidd's incredible story, with wit and charm though not "laugh out loud funny" as the copy on the flap jacket would have you believe.
Can the lowly Mets, a year away from theirWorld Series triumph, hold onto a good thing in Finch, or will success spoil the Buddhist monk/pitcher
I have to admit, for the first half or so of the book, I wasn't sure that I was on board with this one.
Plimpton is one of my alltime favorite nonfiction writers, and I think his sports books are essential reading, But I had my doubts about his ability to sustain a novel, Great literature this ain't, let's be clear but for what it is, it works more than it doesn't, Plimpton's prose style mostly works for this whimsical tale, and it's one of those books that gets over more on the assurances of the authorial voice than the story, which is okay for the most part.
It comes together as Finch gets closer to starting in the majors, and the Mets realize what they have in this bizarre character who can throw faster than any human being alive.
I was considering donating my copy of this book after finishing it, but when I got done with it, I decided that I'd like to keep it on my shelves a while longer it might go well with the other couple of Metsrelated books that I own.
Perhaps I've been a closet Mets fan all this time Perish the thought, At any rate, I don't know that I'd call this a great novel, but it's good, fun, and holds up very well,
Sidd Finch may not be the greatest pitcher alive, but he is certainly the oddest, And in recounting his story, George Plimpton has gifted the world with something that is its own odd duck in terms of literature about America's national pastime.
.