The Art of Fielding (2011) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Characters edit see section history

• Aparicio Rodriguez: Fictional shortstop for the St. Louis Cardinals. Author of "The Art of Fielding", the shortstop "how to" that Henry has read so many times he has memorized it. Henry ties Aparicio for errorless game streak.
• Henry Skrimshander (Skrimmer): Sure-handed shortstop, small with concave chest. Born in South Dakota and his "bible" is the Art of Fielding. Attends Westish college where he becomes the school's shortstop and it's first major league prospect.
• Mike Schwartz: A big physical young man who looks like an athlete. He is the catcher for the Westish college baseball team and recruits Henry to come to the school to play ball. He also plays football for the college. Jewish and from a lower class background.
• Owen Dunne: Henry's gay roommate at Westish College, on scholarship, African-American, interested in literature and also plays on the school's baseball team
• Guert Affenlight: An expert on Herman Melville and 19th century American literature. A ladies man in his early years. Now president of Westish College. Guert is the father of Pella.
• Pella Affenlight: Daughter of Affenlight, high school drop-out, runs away with an architect; age 23 when she returns to Westish, having left her husband
• Miranda Szabo: a high powered sports agent.
• Genevieve Wister: Owen's mother, probably from West Africa
• Rick O’shea: Westish's first baseman
• Adam Starblind: pitcher for Westish Harpooners, blonde, good looking
• Chef Spirodocus: the head of the kitchen at Westish; a demanding boss, short and squat in appearance
• Izzy Avila: 2nd string shortstop, Latino, for Westish Harpooners, recruited from a poor area in South Chicago.
• David Daley: husband of Pella, architect
• Sophie Skrimshander: Henry's younger sister
• Ajay Guladni: Westish's 2nd baseman
• Mrs. Mccallister: does housekeeping for President Affenlight
• Judy Eglantine: a professor in the English Department at Westish
• Duane: Add a description of this character.
• Thomas Stearns Eliot
• Dwight Rogner: A baseball scout with the St. Louis Cardinals, who comes to see Henry play and rates his ability highly.
• Dean Melkin: Dean of Students at Westish
• Lev Tennant: Captain of the Westish baskball team who is moved to third base where his defense improves.
• Dr. Kellner: Jewish orthropedist
• Dougal: Pitcher in National Collegiate Baseball championship
• Jason Grimm: Owen's boyfriend.
• Jamie Lopez
• Sandy Bremen
• Bruce Gibbs: The chair of the college board of trustees.
• Dr. Rachels: Psychiatrist
• Noelle Pierson: A co-ed at Westish and Pella's roommate.
• Jenkins
• Carapelli
• Dick
• Cavanaugh
• Jim Skrimshander: Henry's father, who supports Henry's goal in sports. He works in the metalworking shop.
• Madison: The person Adam Starblind goes to for having his back waxed
• Coach Hinterberg: Henry's high school coach
• Sarah Coowe: She dated Guert Affenlight and is the mother of Pella. Died when Pella was a child.
• L.P.: Baseball scout who comes to see Henry play.
• Arsh: Backup catcher on Westish baseball team, nicknamed "Meat"
• Sooty Kim: Baseball player on the Westish team.
• Tom Bremen: Retiring professor from the physics dept. and has a home for sale.
• Kitty Wexnerd: Realtor
• Sarah X. Pessel: student and reporter at Westish Bugler
• Courtney: A co-ed at Westish who shares an apartment with Pella
• Duane Jenkins: Westish athletic director
• Ellen Emerson
• Jen
• Dr. Collins
• Marietta Cheng
• Evan Melkin
• Trevor
• Mr. Dunne
• Jason Gomes
• Ron Cox
• Michelle
• Kelvin Massey
• Sal Phlox
• Stan
• Gary
• Steve Willoughby
• Herman Melville: The famous writer who spent a few days at Westish College and penned a lecture, that was later found by Westish student, Guert Affinlight. The discovery of the letter sparks Affinlight's interest in American Literature and leads to the adoption of Herman Melville as the idol of Westish College.
• Elizabeth Myszki
• Christopher Kelly
• Kevin Nguyen
• Detmold Jensen
• George
• Boddington
• Mrs. Carapelli: Runs the restaurant where the baseball players eat team meals
• Phil Loondorf
• Anna Veeli
• Julie
• Cary Oxtin
• Scott Hinterberg
• Eric Strell
• Jim Toover
• Marcus Aurelius
• David Foster Wallace
• Mr. Melville
• John Irving

Quotes edit see section history

• “you could only try so hard not to try hard before you were right back around to trying too hard.”

  Narrator

• “He had his whole life ahead of him; it wasn't a comforting thought”

  Narrator

• “Each of us, deep down, believes that the whole world issues from his own precious body, like images projected frmo a tiny slide onto an earth-sized screen. And then, deeper down, each of us knows he's wrong”

• “...a soul isn't something a person is born with but something that must be built, by effort and error, study and love.”

• “Henry, you are skilled. I exhort you.”

  Owen

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• “You told me once that a soul isn’t something a person is born with but something that must be built, by effort and error, study and love. And you did that with more dedication than most, that work of building a soul—not for your own benefit but for the benefit of those who knew you.

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• A good coach made you suffer in a way that suited you. A bad coach made everyone suffer in the same way, and so was more like a torturer.

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• The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.

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• Each of us, deep down, believes that the whole world issues from his own precious body, like images projected from a tiny slide onto an earth-sized screen. And then, deeper down, each of us knows he’s wrong.

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• But baseball was different. Schwartz thought of it as Homeric—not a scrum but a series of isolated contests. Batter versus pitcher, fielder versus ball. You couldn’t storm around, snorting and slapping people, the way Schwartz did while playing football. You stood and waited and tried to still your mind. When your moment came, you had to be ready, because if you fucked up, everyone would know whose fault it was. What other sport not only kept a stat as cruel as the error but posted it on the scoreboard for everyone to see?

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• Henry knew better than to want freedom. The only life worth living was the unfree life, the life Schwartz had taught him, the life in which you were chained to your one true wish, the wish to be simple and perfect.

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• For Schwartz this formed the paradox at the heart of baseball, or football, or any other sport. You loved it because you considered it an art: an apparently pointless affair, undertaken by people with a special aptitude, which sidestepped attempts to paraphrase its value yet somehow seemed to communicate something true or even crucial about The Human Condition. The Human Condition being, basically, that we’re alive and have access to beauty, can even erratically create it, but will someday be dead and will not.

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• People thought becoming an adult meant that all your acts had consequences; in fact it was just the opposite.

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• Literature could turn you into an asshole; he’d learned that teaching grad-school seminars. It could teach you to treat real people the way you did characters, as instruments of your own intellectual pleasure, cadavers on which to practice your critical faculties.

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• There were no whys in a person’s life, and very few hows. In the end, in search of useful wisdom, you could only come back to the most hackneyed concepts, like kindness, forbearance, infinite patience. Solomon and Lincoln: This too shall pass. Damn right it will. Or Chekhov: Nothing passes. Equally true.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Maison Robert: A restaurant near the Westish campus, considered one of the best restaurants in the area.
• Murdocks Restaurant: A restaurant of note where Mike takes Henry's father, to talk about Henry's future in sports.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Chad Harbach (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Holter Graham (Reader) - reads audio CD edition from Hachette audio

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PS3608.A72513 A87 2011
• Dewey: 813

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Add a note to help parents select a book for a child.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Sports
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary
• Books › Gay & Lesbian › Literature & Fiction › Fiction

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• National Public Radio: Review