The Celebrant: A Novel

On the cover of my copy of The Celebrant, W.P. Kinsella proclaims, in quotation, that the book is the greatest baseball novel of all time. Although I am not well versed enough in baseball literature to make such a sweeping claim, I can assure prospective readers that Mr. Kinsella's evaluation isn't just bluster.

The Celebrant follows a young Jewish immigrant and his extended family through their dealings with Christy Mathewson and the New York Giants (the family runs a jewelry business that has produced World Series rings for the Giants) during the first two decades of the 20th century. The work is historical fiction in the mold of Ragtime; while the family at the center of the story is fictional almost all of the other characters are show more historical figures (mostly ballplayers).

Greenburg goes into great detail outlining many historic ball games, such as the Fred Merkele disaster of 1908 and parts of the infamous 1919 Sox-Reds World Series. The baseball writing is clear, fun, and historically adept, but, in the end, I think that baseball is just the background for Greenberg's ruminations on several of our national growing pains qua family and personal drama.

That is to say, even the reader that is not a baseball fanatic can perhaps still find much to enjoy in this novel. show less

Might contain spoilers

I ended up disappointed in this book. I think because the main character just didn't quite make sense to me. And I didn't like the end, which of course might be based in truth & maybe it is the truth I don't like (about Mathewson.) By the end the ball game descriptions seemed to go on too long, and it felt like he left the complexity of people's lives out.

My all-time favorite work of baseball fiction. Superbly written.

2nd read; 1st reading in 90s (same rating)