"He would die earlier than need be, she thought, looking at his jowls, and then she thought again that it was better to die happy, even though earlier, than to die less happy, even though later."



I oppose pretty much every "fundamental truth" Madame Wu believed about men and women and our place in this world, but Pavilion of Women was so beautifully written I was drawn in despite this disagreement.

"Her soul had outstripped her life. It had gone out far beyond the four walls within which her body lived. It roamed the world, and reached into the past and climbed toward the future, and her many thoughts played about that constant voyaging."

Lane Courtnall is a young draftee for the Bolts who got sent down to the ECHL to "develop". He's hopeful that he'll get called up again soon. Jared Shore is a career player in the minor leagues, aware that his time in the sport is coming to an end - he's thirty-one. It's a brutal game, boys.



Lane is closeted and inexperienced and so goddamn endearing, in a dumb hockey sort of way. He is like an overeager puppy and is very bad at feelings, "which is why he plays sports". Jared tries to stay away, because god knows hockey isn't the easiest place to develop a Good and Functioning Relationship, but they're drawn to each other through mutual attraction and Jared's bewildered, fond thoughts of "is this guy for real?" Because Lane is just ... so odd.

Lane had thought about playing goalie when he was younger, but he would just stand up and tell the other kids why they weren’t getting the puck past him, and apparently that was irritating.

They hook up and worry about it becoming something More, because Lane is young and just starting his pro career and Jared is at the end of his. Lane is mad at his parent's inability to accept his sexuality and Jared is wary of being burned again by someone who wasn't serious about him.

Sidebar: The NHL is the only one of the Big 4 leagues without a single openly gay player, current or former. They have a "You Can Play" campaign that is designed to encourage people of all ethnicities and sexualities to embrace hockey and it will just hug them right back. I love hockey, but that's just lip service as the organization stands right now. The NWHL/CWHL is, of course, miles and miles above and beyond them. The former captains of the USWNT and Team Canada just had a baby together. These leagues also have their problems, but as usual, women are leading the way.

The easiness of the writing and the subject matter and the characters makes me suspect that Ms. Gale is a current or former fic writer. The dialogue is hilariously awkward and realistic and spoiler alert, Lane & Jared get their happy ending. i'm love it

The entire plot hinged on people's inability to communicate effectively. Generally that is a very frustrating device for me, but something about Elizabeth's voice kept me from just rushing through to read the conclusion - it didn't hurt that I had already met Colin Firth's Darcy prior to reading the novel.

Science fiction was created by a teenage girl. Boo yah.

This rating is based on my interest level in Russian literature at age 15. Maybe one day I will do a reread to see if those feelings still hold true.

Chosen for Book Riot's challenge of "reading a book about sports". I'm a casual sports person, my recent, if totally understandable, obsession with Sidney Crosby's ass notwithstanding. I was an athlete in high school & college, but never had "a team" until a good friend introduced me to Arsenal in 2015. That said, I know enough about baseball to follow a standard game without needing to ask questions; in addition, I have read two separate mangas about baseball so I'm basically an expert. Many sources on the internet agree that The Art of Fielding is an excellent book even if you're not a fan and after reading it through, I agree. This is a baseball book that is barely about baseball at all - it's definitely happening, but it's almost incidental.

It starts out very familiarly to those us who are sports manga fans - Henry Skrimshander is a tiny seventeen year old with an excess of energy and a very specialized skill as a shortstop. He has dedicated a considerable amount of time in developing an almost preternatural sense of where the ball will go at any point in time, thanks to hours of practice and a dogged belief in the instructional book The Art of Fielding by a fictional ballplayer. He's scouted by Mike Schwartz, sophomore player from Westish College, during the summer after he graduates high school. Henry is immediately drawn in by Mike's enthusiasm for his skill and his intense, take-charge attitude. I've read variations of this before; there are shades of Hinata Shoyu and Sawamura Eijun in Henry, which made him instantly endearing to me.

However, there was a disconnect for me about Henry - he starts as an awkward freshperson and slowly figures his way through college, but we're treated to a relatively short telling of his emerging skills and then suddenly we've skipped over two years of his college life. We meet Schwartz again, and Henry's roommate Owen - neither have changed; they seemed to have fully formed personalities from when we first met them. Henry has changed in undefinable ways, because we didn't get to know Before Henry as much as I would have liked. At most, Henry's relationship with Owen seems to be friendly (likely, who keeps the same dorm roommate for three years?) but outside of that original description in their freshperson year, nothing concrete about the deepening of their friendship.

There's a few threads going on throughout this book that ebb and flow as they fit together - Schwarty's rejection from his top choice law school, Owen's involvement with

the president of the goddamn college

, President Affenlight's prodigal daughter returning to him after a failed early marriage, trying to find out where she fits after basically being on pause for four years. Out of all the characters I wanted to like, Pella was at the top of the list. There was a lot to like about her, a smart young woman just out of a skeezy relationship with a man eleven years her elder. Unfortunately, the way she was written just screams "a man, who almost gets it, wrote this character".

This is a book that happens around baseball; it's about the lives of people who play it and those they love. The chapters that take place during games are shorter, compelling and very much Melvillian in the way they are set up. Due to President Affenlight's expertise being all about The Book (aka Moby Dick, or The Whale), we get to see a constant barrage of references, quotes and stylistic choices that reflect this interest. I don't believe you miss anything by being unfamiliar with the text, but it definitely adds depth - even if that depth is "there it is, they said the thing!"

I will be honest, the way this novel ended for most of the characters brought me, thematically, to the point of "give up on your dreams, because you will fail to realize them".

(see: Schwartzy's inability to get to law school despite the drive to make it, Henry's inability to make a good draft pick despite the talent, Pella's everything, Affenlight's death.)

However, seeing Henry finally make some decisions for himself in the last chapter, Schwartzy taking on a job that someone created for him while he was busy just being the best Mike Schwartz he could be - it felt like a good resolution. Henry and Schwartz, playing baseball together, which is all that matters to me. #ishipit

P.S. I am torn between being entirely grossed out by Owen's relationship with Affenlight and being sympathetic at the same time - after all, how difficult must it be to confront decades of experience in your own sexuality and suddenly doubt you knew yourself at all? Though we only see him from Affenlight's perspective, Owen always seems ethereal and wryly amused, never nervous and uncertain. When Affenlight meets Owen's mother (as the concerned president of the college, not his lover), Owen absently mocks Affenlight's choice in literature: "Whitman appeals to the newly gay. He's like a gateway drug." That power dynamic is what keeps this romance from being entirely horrifying.

P.P.S. this review is a fucking mess, sorry not sorry. sportsball feelings are hard to define

OTHER FAVORITE THINGS
↝ there's a supporting character named DEMETRIUS ARSCH, what's not to love about that name
↝ literally everything about Mike Schwartz, the hulking orphan jock from the South Side of Chicago whose favorite philosopher is Marcus Aurelius.
↝ this quote, because Henry is a sweet summer child: "He didn't like to talk during Professor Eglantine's class, not because he'd get in any trouble but because Professor Eglantine seemed as sensitive as a skinned knee, she frequently cried during class at the beauty of various poems, and Henry worried about disappointing her."