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And just like Lee, the daughter of a lawyer, used a courtroom as the familiar setting for much of her novel, Wolff, publisher of Baseball America and long-time owner of the Durham Bulls, used a setting that he knew best--a minor league ballpark. And while Season of the Wolf definitely can't match up to a literary giant like To Kill a Mockingbird, Wolff's novel is a very enjoyable read for the baseball fan. The year is 1958. Tom, the main character of the novel whose last name is never mentioned, is a 14-year old boy who had been passed around from relative to relative ever since he was a small child. His mother isn't financially or emotionally stable enough to take good care of him, and his father was never a part of the picture. But for the past five years, he has managed to find a good home with his Uncle Will. Will is general manager of the Centerville Owls, a member of the Class B Carolina League. The Owls ballpark is Tom's constant playground. He knows all the players and the regular fans, and they all know him too. He sells tickets, helps run the scoreboard, shines the ballplayers shoes, does whatever he can to help out his uncle's club. It's a happy life and he doesn't miss his folks at all. But Tom's life begins to turn upside down when a body is discovered buried behind the left field wall at the Owls ball park. The body turns out to be that of his father, and the main suspects in the murder are Uncle Will and Boris Sullivan, the long time right fielder of the Owls. But all of this is simply the backdrop for the true theme of racial relations that runs through the book. The topic of desegregation was on everyone's mind in 1958 in the South, and the Centerville Owls become the center of the controversy in Centerville, North Carolina. The local ballpark is still very much a segregated affair with separate bathrooms, separate concession stands, and separate seating. The only thing that isn't segregated for the Owls is the ballclub itself. Much of the novel is centered around how Uncle Will's attitudes about race relations change as a result of his job at the ballpark when his black customers begin boycotting the park. About the only complaint that I have with this book is the same one that I have with most books that are written from the viewpoint of a young teenager or child: I've never met a person of this age yet who had the logic and maturity of Tom, the narrator of this book. It's a trap that all but the most talented of writers falls into, and though I liked this book, Wolff has his limtations as a writer and is unable to make Tom into a really believable teenager. Regardless of its shortcomings, I still recommend the book to baseball fans. The baseball setting is very convincing, the murder subplot is an interesting one, and Wolff does a good job of showing how baseball teams in small Southern towns dealt with the rising issue of desegregation in the 1950s. Wolff has a good eye for small baseball details, and does not fall into the standard baseball novel cliche of overdescribing the happenings on the field. Give it a read if you run across a copy. --JingleBob, May 16, 1999 Season of the Owl may be available for purchase on the web at one of these sites. © 1999 JC White |
