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A SMART BUSINESS MAN AND AN EXCELLENT FARM DIRECTOR FOR THE INDIANS SHOW THAT HANK WAS A SUCCESS IN MANY THINGS IN LIFE.
A TRULY ONE OF A KIND MAN AND BOOK.
A MUST READ FOR ANYONE.
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The text by Robert Burleigh comes in two parts. First, there is the book's narrative, a sort of lyric ode to the Babe that combines his discovering his "pretty" swing as a boy with a home run he hits off of a Red Sox pitcher years later. Second, under the narrative text there is the back of a faux-baseball card (from "The World Champion" series), that has biographical and statistical details about Ruth.
However, the centerpiece of this book is the time at bat that takes up the last half of the book. Earlier there is a striking painting of Ruth launching a pop-up; the view is from behind the catcher who has taken off his mask, all eyes turned to the sky and the small white ball rising into the sky. Wimmer offers several unique and compelling perspectives during the home run episode as well: the Red Sox first baseman craning his neck to follow the flight of the unseen ball, the eyes of Ruth watching it disappear into the stands, the Babe's foot on first base as the pitcher stands dejectedly on the mound.
There is a quote on the back-flap of the dust-jacket that says the "Chicago Sun-Times" described Wimmer's illustrations as "reminiscent of some of Normal Rockwell's best." Certainly there are strong similarities, especially in the painting of the fans reacting to Ruth's homerun. But with his emphasis on key details to tell the story Wimmer offers a decidedly different perspective from Rockwell that I really liked. Ultimately, it is the artwork rather than the narrative that makes this a lyrical book.
The Bible story of Ruth stands out, like the book of Esther, because it is the story of a Woman; a story hidden among so many other stories by and about Men and Man. But Setzer's retelling of the Story of Ruth is much more than scene-setting for the triumph of Ruth's descendant David. Ruth is the embodiment of the "stranger in a strange land", whose experiences we figuratively recognize in ourselves at varioius points in life: Lost, Different, Powerless, Hopeless.
The story compels us to wonder: Is there a go'el in our lives?
Gathered deals with some of the same intriguing details of the lives of Bible women as Diamant's Red Tent, leaving this reader wanting to know more. It treats the revered characters with the same respect (and paradigm, one might add) as Card's Sarah and Rebekah, though with a somewhat less-sharpened edge.