I completed this recommendation in just one day, that’s how good it was! I read the entire book in the Queenstown public library on Saturday October 13th. The book was recommended to me by a fellow Wheaton alum who I lived with during my freshman and sophomore year on Fischer 3 East. Coincidentally, he is also a gay man, but he came out years before I did.

Recommendation #11 from John Saveland

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

From Wikipedia – The Art of Fielding is a 2011 novel by American author Chad Harbach. It centers on the fortunes of shortstop Henry Skrimshander and his career playing college baseball with the fictional Westish College Harpooners.

Little did I know how impactful this recommendation would be to me. But when the number three comes up within the first sixteen pages, I got hooked.

“…to the three taps he gave his heart before stepping into the batter’s box. And of course the jersey number. Aparicio believed the number 3 had deep significance.

3. There are three stages: Thoughtless being. Thought. Return to thoughtless being.

33. Do not confuse the first and third stages. Thoughtless being is attained by everyone, the return to thoughtless being by a very few.”

I ended up photographing 22 pages of this book for different statements like the one above. I think that’s a personal record, and it should let you know that I enjoyed the book immensely. Here are two more quotes for you –

• “What story does this guy wish someone would tell him about himself? And then you told the guy that story. You told it with a hint of doom. You included his flaws. You emphasized the obstacles that could prevent him from succeeding. That was what made the story epic: the player, the hero, had to suffer mightily en route to his final triumph. Schwartz knew that people loved to suffer, as long as the suffering made sense. Everybody suffered. The key was to choose the form of your suffering.”
• “The pain is like a gas…It expands to fill up whatever space you give it. So we shouldn’t fear pain. A lot of it doesn’t hurt much more, or take up more psychic space, than a little bit”

Moby Dick also features prominently in the backdrop for the story, and I’ve had discussions throughout my life with friends on whether Moby Dick was as good as everyone says it is. But The Art of Fielding convinced me to re-read it again. I’m pretty sure I will react to it differently. The last time I read it I was 16. So, it’s on a new set of NZ recommendations that I’ll start after finishing the first 36 recommendations on my list.

The Art of Fielding ties in sport, teamwork, college, sex, mental health issues, and the concepts of home, family, and success. For someone considering a Masters degree in counseling, the book was so much more than a story about baseball. For a dreamer of trinities, there was instant connection to the book through the deep significance of the number 3. And for someone passionate about relationships, faith, and sexuality, this novel hit all the right notes.

While I would rate the subject matter as PG-13, I wholeheartedly recommend it, because the stories and characters you meet will stay with you long after you are done. In many ways, they are all learning how to love themselves, which is often an incredibly long and difficult journey.