Moving and funny ( )

Despite being only 180 pages long Bernard Malamud packs a lot of action into the plot of The Natural. Roy Hobbs is a rookie baseball player on his way to try out for Chicago's pro team, the Chicago Cubs. Just as he arrives in Chicago he is shot by a serial killer, a woman bent on killing professional athletes. Fastforward 16 years and Roy has survived being shot and is now playing for the New York Knights. He has made it to the big time only to have to deal with a mid-season slump, a crooked co-owner, Judge Banner, an infatuated woman who says she is carrying his child, Iris Lemon, and his unresolved relationship with the fans. When Hobbs is bribed to throw the game, he counters with a bigger bribe and the deal is done. The book ends with a newspaper boy confronting Hobbs after the game, asking "Is it true?" and Hobbs cannot reply. ( )

Having read Malamud's "Magic Barrel" I knew to expect a degree of magic realism, so was not too surprised when Roy performed hits that literally ripped the cover off the ball, etc. Nevertheless, I was so caught up in the story, I didn't catch the mythic symbolism, until I read a few web sites after concluding the book. I figured there was symbolism, a foot, Pop Fisher being some kind of father figure, but Of course, he is the Fisher King! Roy's is the mythic quest, which, alas, fails because he longs for the skinny woman, rather than the plump one (yes!). I have read that the movie, in typical Hollywood fashion, tacks on a happy ending, and that is a shame. Perhaps now more than ever we need to be able to sit with our failure, and with how our gluttony is destroying us. ( )

Very strongly told baseball yarn with a theme of personal achievement ( )

Bernard Malamud was a Jewish author writing in the postwar period, when many artists were disillusioned with the events that had occurred in Europe. "The Natural" starts out with the story of Roy Hobbs, a young pitcher with remarkable natural talent and ability. However, by the end of the book, after having finally entered the major leagues as an outfielder, accompanied by his handmade bat Wonderboy, Hobbs is forced to retire from the game in disgrace with the possibility of having his stats stricken from the record books. How Roy Hobbs went from a legend in the making to a sellout has largely to do with two women who utterly ruined his life and one woman who tried, too late, to save it. "The Natural" may not have a happy ending, but it is a classic of sports literature and also of literature at large. I was, however, surprised at how little I ended up enjoying this book, although I am very glad that I read it.

I enjoyed this book for the story, but at the same time I wanted more. I never felt close to the characters, or even that they were real, so I was never really able to escape into what the author had given me. At the same time, while I also enjoyed the arthurian allusions, they were a bit heavy-handed at points, and I found myself thinking that Malamud was trying to hard as he wrote. ( )

The book is interesting in the style that it is written. However save your time and watch the movie instead. The movie has small things that have been added to make for a stronger story, and a better ending.

The story is excellent, if somewhat darker than Barry Levinson's depiction of it in film. In many ways, I prefer this darker, more edged tale of loss, pain and morality to the triumph of spirit we are given on the silver screen. It has certainly earned its reputation as a modern classic. ( )

3173. The Natural, by Bernard Malamud (read March 12, 1999) Most of this book did not excite my interest, and I liked it much less than I did the author's The Assistant, which I read Feb 6, 1966. ( )

Read this in the summer, during baseball season. This was made into a movie (I haven't seen it, but it stars Robert Redford), but reading it is better than a movie. It's a baseball novel, about a pitcher (I think). You'll never look at a ball game the same way. ( )

http://myrtias.wordpress.com/2007/07/... ( )

It's been a very very long time since I read this and I only did so after having watched the movie. One of those rare, very rare, instances where the movie could actually be better than the book it is based on. ( )

A supremely outstanding baseball player is not supremely outstanding off the field, and ends up having a lot of problems because of his stardom and inability to cope with that in general.

This book is ok, but as far as sport books go you can certainly get better and more interesting things to read than this. ( )

http://theproseportal.wordpress.com/2... ( )

I'm not particularly impressed with this novel. Malamud had no business trying to write about baseball. But it's infinitely better than the movie.

This has been one of my favorite movies ever since it came out. I finally read the book. I was not disappointed, but did not enjoy it as much as the movie. Usually the book is better than the movie, but not this time. My son said it's because I saw the movie first, but I have seen other movies before reading the book and have still liked the book better. Just not in this case. Though the movie did vary widely in several instances - for the better I thought in this case. ( )