The Natural by Bernard Malamud

 

6/10

I read this a little less than 5 months ago. It was a big letdown. This is a movie I've loved my whole life and the book does this incredible thing where it makes Roy Hobbs super unlikeable. He's sex-obsessed and treats everyone, especially women, very poorly. I prefer the majestic, almost fable-like Roy Hobbs from the movie. I guess there will be some spoilers, just in case anyone randomly reading this post would randomly want to read this book. In the book, the reason he can't play toward the end was not the bullet wound injury resurfacing, but rather, he overate. He was just pigging out in super unrealistic fashion. I looked it up just now. He eats a plate full of food. Then another plate full of corned beef, pastrami, turkey, potato salad, cheese, and pickles and finishes off this second plate with a crust of bread. Another plate of food. A sandwich. Three bottles of lemon pop. Three bottles of lime pop. Six hamburgers. Two tall glasses of milk. This puts him in the hospital and he misses the end of the season. So I guess his eating prowess is fable-like at least. He comes back for the final game that the Knights need to win but he takes a bribe and gets out on purpose every time. For his final at bat, he decides that he's going to try but ends up striking out to lose the game and end the season. The book ends with him walking on the street and picking up a newspaper about him taking a bribe and the commissioner saying if it's true that he'll be banned from baseball. A boy asks him if it's true and he can't deny it and the closing line is about him putting his hands to his face and weeping many bitter tears. Now I'm not opposed to a dark story. But I guess the movie just ruined that as a possibility for me. I hate to admit that the movie has an impact on my enjoyment of a book, but it just does. The book was otherwise enjoyable in that it was a well-written baseball story. There was enough here to get me to like it ok even though I very much didn't like this version of Roy Hobbs or how he finished as a failure rather than a hero.