LOB Book Club - Part Cinque
In the interest of full disclosure, I finished the book last night. (It's past due at the library. Oops.) The ending didn't hold a lot of surprises for me but it still was a good read. Has anyone else finished?
posted by Bivalve88 @ 9:39 AM
4 Comments:
Thanks for your vigilance with the book club, Bivalve. I'm sorry that I've been MIA from the LOB for the past week. I've been down in Florida packing KC out and we're about to head up the coast today. I also know that Gooner has been down in Wilmington, NC with his in-laws. So it's a fallow period for the LOB as is usual in the summertime.
I did finish "Castro's Curveball" the other day during a rare moment between bubble-wrapping. I was mildly surprised by the ending, as I'd assumed that Malena had indeed died at Moncada. Did anyone else not quite buy the relationship between Malena and Billy? They never seemed to have much chemistry. Perhaps that's because Wendel's speciality is sports-writing rather than romance. It seemed at times as if the plot got in the way of developing the relationship between those two characters. Malena was always buggering off to be a part of the revolution, leaving the forlorn Billy to wander the streets of Old Havana. So when it got to the "reveal" that she'd tried to board a plane for the U.S. to be with Billy, I wondered "why would she have?"
Did anybody else have that feeling?
One reason that Wendell might have written that event where Malena tried to get out is that he has the benefit of seeing how the revolution turned out. He wrote Malena's character as one of the at first fervent and idealistic revolutionaries and subsequently discouraged patriots that felt that their hopes and ideals had been failed by Fidel. That evolution fit the romance he set up between them.
I too enjoyed the baseball moments in the book more than the intrigue and romantic moments and for the same reason that Bob did. I think Wendell's real forte is sportswriting. Nevertheless, I thought this was a fun book too and one that wouldn't have been on my radar otherwise. Thanks Betsy.
I also enjoyed the baseball moments better than the romantic moments. His choice of Billy being a catcher allowed him to get into the mind of the game, since the catcher runs the whole thing if he's doing it right. The scenes in the ballpark and when he's out in the country with Fidel were great.
However, the whole overdramatic burning of Malena's papers while locked in the cemetary was over-the-top for me. I scratched my head over that whole chapter. It seemed totally unnecessary and a bit manipulative.
I didn't expect much from a sportswriter when it comes to writing romantic scenes - it's a stretch from the start. I also didn't expect much more than lust from this relationship. Really, what chance did they have to make it in the long term? As a result, I just took the Malena/Billy involvement as a fling. The fact that Billy moped about his "lost love" his whole life, when he had a beautiful life and a wonderful family, is just sad. His redemption was his acceptance of Evan into his life, including his sacrifice of all he and his wife had worked for so that he could bring Evan out of Cuba.
Thanks for reading this with me, guys. It was fun!
So what's next for the LOB book club?
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