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Originally Posted by Déjà Bru
I was able to read Shoeless Joe, which is the source of the film Field of Dreams, with enjoyment and I will read it again.
I couldn't get into Bernard Malamud's The Natural, however; in fact, I didn't go near it.
Why? Because I had advance notice of the book's ending. It's a real downer, I heard, and in very stark contrast with the movie's uplifting climax. I didn't want to spoil that.
Silly, I know.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Syd Thrift
IMO it’s to me less of a “downer” and more of an epic tragedy. You see why Hobbs is going to fall and why he has to. If anything I thought the movie sacrificed a good point - it would have been especially prescient when Pete Rose got banned - in favor of the Hollywood ending. There are some things an athlete just plain can’t ever fix and that in part is what The Natural is about (and really it’s a re-telling of the King Arthur tale in baseball form).
I’m not necessarily a fan of downer endings but I’m… not not a fan of them either, and I’ll take an earned downer ending over an unearned upper any day of the week.
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No go. I got only a third of the way through the book. So what got me was not the ending.
No, it was when Sam Simpson, the kindly scout who discovered Roy Hobbs, was killed by a pitch thrown by Hobbs when he struck out the Whammer. Even that would have been alright except that Hobbs felt no grief or remorse about it.
And that is the real problem for me. This Roy Hobbs is a self-centered hedonist, not a likeable character, really. I read novels to be entertained and, if I am lucky, inspired. This version of Hobbs is neither entertaining or inspiring.
There is a enough of the dark side of human nature in reality. While of course any fictional tale must reflect this to some degree, I don't need a story in which it prevails or predominates.
I'll stick with the movie version, thanks. After I watch that, I feel good and to me, that is the purpose. YMMV, of course.