Few sports translate into fiction quite like baseball. That’s partly because of the pacing of the game, the characters that play each position and interaction between players and the crowd. But a large part of the literary connection with baseball is its association with the hot sun hanging high overhead, green grass and warm breezes. There’s a nostalgia around the game for many of us, and a certain mysticism, as though the game itself is a portal to innocence and endless summer.
McCurdle’s Arm by Andrew Forbes is a welcomed addition to a strong and robust baseball literary tradition, and is a worthy heir to books like Bernard Malamud’s The Natural. In it, we follow Robert James McCurdle, born among the tobacco fields of Ostrander, Ontario, who rises above several childhood tragedies, chasing his dream to become a ballplayer, finding himself on a squad in a Southwestern Ontario league. It’s a story of old-time ball, wooden grandstands and fans eating roasted nuts from paper bags while chomping on cigars.
Southern Ontario, circa 1892. The Ashburnham Pine Groves, a semi-pro ball club have a shot to overtake the Guelph Biltmores and rise to the top of the division. Although they have a talented roster, there’s some question as to the stability of their management and how much their pitcher Robert James McCurdle has left in his arm, and in his heart.
At its core, McCurdle’s story is the athlete coming-of-age story where he must determine how to live once the game is over. But it’s also about a love triangle, McCurdle, Maureen and baseball. We see not only McCurdle at a crossroads, but also his team — so the question becomes can McCurdle transcend his identity as a ballplayer, and find another life for himself?
A fascinating glimpse into the baseball of yesteryear … Andrew Forbes delivers a baseball classic with the precision of a well-placed knuckleball.
This is Forbes’ third book about the sport and with it he establishes himself as one of Canada’s great baseball scribes, in the vein of W.P. Kinsella and Stacey May Fowles. Written in a style that fits the time period but is not inaccessible to contemporary readers, McCurdle’s Arm is a fascinating glimpse into the baseball of yesteryear. Forbes doesn’t shy away from the blemishes of the past, the discrimination and exploitation, and he doesn’t lean too hard into sentimentality or nostalgia, but offers readers a chance to witness the life of ballplayers before the million-dollar-contracts, endorsement deals and stadiums with retractable roofs. It was a time when players left everything on the field and were paid a pittance for their troubles while making robber barons richer with their blood and sweat.
McCurdle’s Arm also serves to remind readers why the novella is such a rewarding form. Like the ballplayers of the olden days, there is no padding. This slim volume punches above its weight while being the perfect length for a summer trip or afternoon reading beneath the shade of a tree. The momentum of the season drives the plot through hot summer afternoons, grueling doubleheaders and booze-soaked nights. There’s also the ticking clock that comes along with the baseball season, as well as how long McCurdle’s Arm can deliver power and speed. Through his elegant prose, wonderful description and encyclopedic knowledge of the game, Andrew Forbes delivers a baseball classic with the precision of a well-placed knuckleball.
Andrew Forbes is the author of the story collections Lands and Forests (Invisible Publishing, 2019) and What You Need (2015), which was shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award and named a finalist for the Trillium Book Prize. He is also the author of The Utility of Boredom: Baseball Essays (2016) and The Only Way Is the Steady Way: Essays on Baseball, Ichiro, and How We Watch the Game (2021). Forbes lives in Peterborough, Ontario.
Publisher: Invisible (July 16, 2024)
Paperback 8″ x 5″ | 128 pages
ISBN: 9781778430565
Jeff Dupuis is a writer and editor living in Toronto. He is the author of The Creature X Mystery novels and numerous short stories, which have been published in The Ex-Puritan and The Temz Review among others. Jeff is the editor, alongside A.G. Pasquella, of the anthology Devouring Tomorrow: Fiction from the Future of Food, which will be published in 2025 by Dundurn Press.