The Cuban Prospect - Softcover

Brian Shawver

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1585675067 ISBN 13: 9781585675067

Publisher: The Overlook Press, 2004

Synopsis

A novel of last-ditch hopes, destiny’s curve balls, and quiet redemption, The Cuban Prospect gloriously projects a harrowing, yet affirming vision.

With compassionate intensity and great heart, Brian Shawver, in his powerful debut novel, tells the story of Dennis Birch, a 34-year old failed major league ball player turned minor league scout whose field of dreams has always been baseball. No longer a candidate for baseball greatness himself―if he ever was―Dennis accepts the challenge of smuggling a hot right-handed pitcher out of Cuba in the hope that promoting the greatness of another will somehow confer a small, manageable portion of it on himself. Birch’s innocent belief in the rightness of his mission blinds him to some of the realities of it, and what seems at first to be a straight road to glory and his name on a plaque in Cooperstown, leads him into dangerous, sordid, and morally complex waters. As becomes excruciatingly clear, Fidel Castro's Cuba is much further from the Florida Keys than the miles marked on a map.

About this title

About the Author

Brian Shawver earned an MFA from the University of Iowa WritersÂ’ Workshop at the University of Iowa and received a National Endowment for the Humanities Award. He grew up in Kansas City and currently lives in Dorchester, Massachusetts where he teaches English. This is his first novel.

From Publishers Weekly

Shawver's debut follows a failed baseball player and minor league scout who is sent to Cuba to smuggle out a young pitching phenom. Dennis Birch is still bemoaning having lost his position as catcher on a minor league team because of poor performance. He's been working as a scout for six months when he gets the covert assignment-a job for which the credulous Birch (self-described as a man "on whom many things are lost") is perilously unsuited. His contact in Cuba is Charlie Dance. The 400-pound Dance, who has organized the operation, is so repulsive even hookers won't take his money, and so obviously suspicious that even Birch doesn't entirely trust him. The pitching prospect, Ramon Diego Sagasta, is arrogant and not terribly bright, but Birch thinks his incredible skills make him worth risking life and limb for. Naturally, their escape plans go awry, and the Cuban police give chase. The plot unravels somewhat in the last third of the novel. Sagasta disappears, having bought his way out of Cuba himself. Birch remains in the country, where his intrigue with Dance and Sagasta's girlfriend strains credibility. The premise is intriguing, and Shawver's portrait of the astringent Birch and his brewing resentment of Sagasta is believable, though their dialogue often sounds forced. The author also unnecessarily recaps earlier events, slowing the narrative. This likable first effort is sure to find fans among readers of baseball novels, if not a wider audience.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: The Overlook Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1585675067
• ISBN 13: 9781585675067
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224