Book Description
Nathanael "Crybaby" Isbister was once the greatest baseball player in the world, but now he's a down-on-his-luck drifter on the road to oblivion.  That is until he wanders into a circus sideshow troupe stranded in a tiny Michigan town dominated by a hellfire-and brimstone religious sect.  The sect vows to drive the troupe out, but give them one unlikely chance to remain--the baseball game to end all baseball games.

A funny, moving novel, Home Game walks the straight but delicate line between absurdity and compassion with dazzling style and expertise. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

A decent book
Paul is a funny guy. I was surprised by how funny the novel was. I'd recommend it to any baseball fan. As for content, Home Game is filled with humour and subtle freak humour. Nathaniel Isbister eventually transforms into a freak himself and lives with other freaks. In the event that Nate had felt accepted in his previous normal life, the freaks would have no place at all in Home Game. I don't know what to make of the crazy freak related events of Home Game. Paul didn't seem to present any reasons as to the freaks. Nate could have easily just wandered upon some sort of jugglers or something. Good book, though. You probably won't think much of it if you don't like baseball.

If you like characters - You'll love this book
Sure, some people won't like this book. Decca passed on the Beatles.

It takes a few pages to understand what Quarrington isn't writing about. He is not writing about baseball, the circus, giants, midgets or two-headed dogs. He is writing about you and me.

The characters that populate his books, and this one especially, are there solely to guide us along a self-focused analytical path. By providing a wacky and zany world that reflects a pseudo-reality that allows us to examine ourselves from afar we learn more than if it was a self-help book.

What could be a better read than reading about yourself?

Excellent and complete Fun!
I have read and re-read this book several times over the years.It is an excellent comedic fantasy, as well as a surreal commentary on life-and-what-you-make-of-it.This isn't a book about baseball:rather it is a book about people, of all shapes and sizes (and when I say "All shapes and sizes" I mean just that).

I can't help but think, each time I read this, about what a wonderful movie it could make...quirky enough to entice someone like Tim Burton to direct, and star Johnny Depp as Isbister!

Do yourself a favour and read this book if you can find a copy.

As for the idiot who clicked that this review wasn't helpful, I can't help but think Amazon would be best served to force someone to type a reason why he/she/it did not find this review helpful.

Do yourself a favour and find this treasure!
I am shocked that this, my favourite book from my teenage years, is consistently out-of-stock!Quarrington being a Canadian author, I sometimes find the book hidden in the stacks at various Toronto stores. But that does nothing for the vast American audience who would do well toread a fictional chronicle of their national pastime.See this review asthe first step on my personal crusade to revive the life of this greatbook.

Early in my teens, baseball was my religion.I memorizedstatistics, and read up feverishly on the history of the game.When givento me as a gift before the summer of my thirteenth year, I was excitedabout beginning Home Game.It exceeded all of my expectations!Thebaseball scenes were magnificent, but the characters and the story stillmanaged to overshadow even that.

Nathanael "Crybaby" Isbisteris a good focal point.He was a great baseballer, whose major leaguecareer was curiously brief.His mysterious past is slowly revealed, andalways provides wonderful revelation about his character.He is foundwandering in the Michigan countryside, when he happens upon a troupe ofcarnival freaks.They are under constant scrutiny from a religious sectcalled the House of Jonah, whose baseball playing is legendary, and whoseleader, Tekel Ambrose, is neck and neck with Isbister for the title of thegreatest ballplayer ever to lace up spikes.Through a serious ofwonderfully convoluted circumstances, The House of Jonah challenges thefreaks to a baseball game, with the loser to leave town.

The carnivalfreaks are a beautifully eclectic and wonderfully drawn cast of outcasts. Dr. Sinister, their leader, speaks in an English so byzantine that no onecan understand him.Major Mite is the shortest man in the world, and alsothe most belligerent.Angus MacCallister is the strongest man in theworld, with passions run deeper than the Grand Canyon.There's the Hisslopsisters, Siamese twins and second basewomen.Davey Goliath, the tallestman in the world, but so full of paranoia that his every move is haunted. Stella, the fattest woman in the world, and surprise love interest.AndZap (a.k.a. the Wild Man From Borneo), who is the focal point of one of thegreatest plot twists I've ever come across.Each character is given adetailed personal history so carefully constructed that you really feellike these people are alive and walking around.

The story moves alongwith great momentum, constantly being pushed forward by a plot that islogically structured toward one defining moment.I especially liked theframing device he uses (the author's grandfather has returned from exile,to bully him into writing the story of The Game).Nothing like a heartydose of meta-fiction to brighten your day.

The game itself is achievedwith a perfect balance of comedy and drama, suspense and light-heartedness. After coming to its conclusion, I went back to read it again.It was onlythen that I realized that every at bat is presented... in detail!This is anamazing achievement when you realize that Quarrington never repeatshimself.Each at bat is interesting in itself.

I've re-read this bookseveral times over the years.It is still a comic tour de force, andemotional treasure.And even though it can never recapture the excitementof that very first read, I still marvel at this wonderful, little story.

Clever and compassionate.
If readers will allow an author of Quarrington's calibre some lattitude, they'll be in for a great time. This is a wonderful book that moulds freakish absurdity into humanity, an approach thatreverses the course oftoday's trendy writers. Along the way, Quarrington teaches us somethingabout people and the poetry of baseball. Quarrington is refreshing. Iwish he'd write more. I lost my only copy of this book and have beenlooking to replace it since. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Islands for insight
What prompts sixty thousand people per year to visit an isolated group of barren, arid, volcanic islands?They tramp dusty trails, peer into bushes and caves, suffer equatorial sun and strange animals almost without a murmur of complaint.A few, like Paul Quarrington are seeking some answers.Sometimes it's The Answer that's sought.These pilgrims are trailing the man who conceived the best idea anyone, any time, ever had.They retrace the footsteps of Charles Robert Darwin, who visited the Galapagos Islands, then returned home to think about what he'd seen.What Darwin saw and thought led to the first understanding of how life, the universe and everything, actually works.

Quarrington visited the Islands with his daughter Carson, seven years old, and his father, "ten times that age".Quarrington, in an illustrious account, sought what Darwin found - a Great Insight.In keeping with that quest, his narrative is highly personalized and introspective.That is, after all, what "insight" is - looking inward.He recounts his boyhood adoption of divine Special Creation of the universe.Over the years, however, he came to understand how unsatisfying divine creation is in explaining life.As with those thousands of others, he came to see a pilgrimage to the islands as a likely source of enlightenment.

He admits the symbolism of visiting the Galapagos with three generations.The account explains his travails as both a son and a parent.Where does "natural selection" fit in his dealings with his father and his daughter?He examines his own life, what he knows of his father's and how confesses to how adroitly Carson manipulates him.Through it all, Quarrington gives snippets of Darwin's life and thinking, that of natural selection's critics and how many questions have been pondered and answered.In order to accomplish this, he relies on a bevy of writers listed in a five-page bibliography.That's an enterprising effort for a writer listed as a "humourist".Yet, the humour, rich with ironies, is in full flower in this lucid account.Between the science, the charming [and sometimes not so charming] wit, he has provided a singularly readable account of one man's wrestling with the attempt to find something divine, where divinity has no place.It's a book reflecting what many have experienced, although likely with less success.

In the end, Quarrington does achieve an insight.Perhaps even an Insight.While it's doubtlessly his own, unique in a way that may keep only its conceiver satisfied.Still, he accomplishes it after strenuous effort.He achieves it very early one morning in his kitchen, sipping a single malt and expressing contentment at what he has wrought.That's not a bad environment for gaining Insight.If he attains well-being from what he's wrought, who are we to dismiss it?He's made the effort, laid out his own path, and, like those pilgrims following Darwin's trail, perhaps we can follow Quarrington's example.[stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada] ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (2)

Fishing for Brookies, Browns and Bows
This is a nice, readable book on fishing for trout. It is written as a narrative and is not a good reference book because you really can't find anything. Lots of fun anecdotes and you learn a good bit as you read. It also covers techniques other than fly fishing, which is an added plus. For those situations where fly fishing is difficult or impossible there are some very good tips on using other methods. Fly fishing elitists probably won't like this, but for those of us who adapt our methods to the conditions at hand the book offers some good insights.For winter reading when we are dreaming about the coming season, this will get the fires burning.

great practical and enjoyable book
Just happened to pick this book up out of the blue. Little did I know I was buying what is my favourite fishing book, but some very relevant information on some of my local fishing areas.

Although Canadians living in the Toronto area may most relate to the references to fishing in the area, this book should appeal to most fishermen and friends of fishermen with its very humourous and profound portrayal of (this is the best term I can think of) the "fishing lifestyle."

Now what is particularly endearing about the "lifestyle" is that it is not the bass boat rock and roll we associate with those sponsor-laden infomericials we call fishing shows. Nor is this is about elitist fly fishing club types. This is about the obsessive bush-whacker who can't help but stop by a local conservation area on the way back from work to explore some obscure trickle of a stream which might hold aquatic life.

Anyone into stream fishing for trout will be entertained by this book, and learn some valuable techniques. Gord Deval is generous in sharing his "secrets" that so many river anglers jealously guard. Highly recommended! ... Read more