Indeed, they make it feel new.
Gish Jen manages this overtly inThe Resisters, hurtling the sport into a harrowingly, bizarrely imagined future.
Gwen is recruited shes being watched, dont forget for her skills.
Credit: Knopf Doubleday; Farrar, Straus and Giroux
As an old friend tells Gwen, But you must admit: were specimens.
This is not Jens wittiest work, but it holds a brilliant mundanity.
For was this not the level playing field we envisioned?
The field on which people could show what they were made of?
Her dystopian scope contrasts with that ofThe Cactus League, Emily Nemens wise debut.
Hers is also, at first glance, a most unconventional baseball novel.
Yet thats whyThe Cactus Leaguespeaks so strongly to baseballs enduring vitality.
The home runs and strikeouts may be background noise, but theyre ubiquitous all the same.
Theyve defined this community its heartbreaks, its victories, its changes.
Theyve created a world.
The Resisters: A-The Cactus League: B+
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