The Curious Case of Sidd Finch: A Novel - Softcover

Plimpton, George

Softcover

ISBN 10: 156858296X ISBN 13: 9781568582962

Publisher: Da Capo Press, 2004

Synopsis

In April 1985, Sports Illustrated published an article that stunned the sports community. George Plimpton's 13-page profile of Sidd Finch, a mysterious pitcher who had been signed by the New York Mets and reportedly threw 168 mph, came complete with photos from spring training, scouting reports, and interviews with Mets players and management. A week later, SI apologized to readers around the world for their role in what is generally regarded as the greatest hoax in the history of sports journalism. The magazine had teamed up with the legendary author and Paris Review bon vivant for an April Fool's Day prank of unprecedented proportions. After the success of the article, Plimpton decided to turn the story into a novel — a rousing baseball fairy tale that is considered one of the most memorable sports novels of the last half-century.

About this title

About the Author:

George Plimpton was the founder and editor of The Paris Review, where for more than fifty years he tirelessly championed new writers and the craft of writing.

From Publishers Weekly:

The ubiquitous Plimpton strikes again, with a first novel; and it's tempting, and not really unfair, to say that he's almost as much out of his depth in full-length fiction as in those memorable moments in the ring or on the football field. He goes back to a jokey Sports Illustrated article he once did about the world's fastest pitcher, an English-born Buddhist monk called Sidd Finch, who learned his speed and accuracy hurling rocks at marauding snow leopards in the Himalayas. Plimpton fits him out with an eccentric British past, a gorgeous but kookie Southern girl friend and a tentative contract with the Mets. But despite a relaxedsometimes much too relaxednarrative style, and a lot of pleasant rambling about horn-playing, wrist musculature and the future of baseball, the book just doesn't go anywhere. It's as if Plimpton threw in everything he could think of to pad it out to novel length, and some of the paddingincluding a totally inept episode about a Mafia gamblershould have been cut early on. Baseball fans will enjoy parts of this, but even they will feel cheated that there's no real climax. The book, like Finch, just ambles off the field. Literary Guild Alternate.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 156858296X
• ISBN 13: 9781568582962
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 296