Resumo de Bang The Drum Slowly

Quite often the most perfect baseball stories are not really about baseball. Bang the Drum Slowly is about friendship, the frailties of human nature, and heroism clothed in the mundane garb of everyday life. What?s more, it is written by Mark Harris in some of the most addictive vernacular prose I?ve ever read. Listening to Henry ?Author? Wiggen recount the tale of his friendship with Bruce Pearson during their 1955 season with the New York Mammoths gives you the feeling of sitting on a porch swing sipping lemonade on a Georgia summer afternoon, or hanging around the ballpark bleachers in springtime cracking open peanuts. You sit back and let the sound of his voice roll over you, enjoying its cadence and rhythm, knowing half the enjoyment is in the seemingly pointless details. Yet hidden just beneath Henry?s storytelling charm and humor are unmistakably profound observations about living life in the shadow of imminent death.

When Henry learns during the off-season that his Mammoths roommate, Bruce Pearson, is dying of Hodgkin?s Disease, he must bear the burden of secrecy to protect Bruce?s position as the Mammoths? third-string catcher. Quirky, simple-hearted and slow-witted, Pearson is the easy target of clubhouse jokes, much to the chagrin of Henry who is constantly torn between keeping Bruce?s secret and wishing to prevent his teammates from going too far in their ignorant cruelty toward him. Cursing fate, cursing the doctors, and sometimes cursing Bruce himself, Henry is the reluctant hero of the story, whose unwavering loyalty only makes his flawed humanness seem all the more endearing. He negotiates his way through the stresses of the season the way he would pitch a tight game on an off-day, using all the wits, finesse and bluff he can muster, getting himself and Bruce out of jam after jam. When the truth finally does come out, late though not untimely, Henry?s faith in his teammates does not go unrewarded. They rally when it counts, resulting in a satisfying yet bittersweet ending.

Bang the Drum Slowly is for baseball fans whose enjoyment of the game goes beyond the mere wins and losses of sport. It is for those who know it also as a prism through which character may be scrutinized and lessons may be learned on the microcosm of a playing field. It is also for the pleasure of those who love the nostalgia of the game, for it was written during a time when teams still rode trains from city to city, players and managers went by nicknames such as ?Goose,? ?Blondie? and ?Dutch,? and salaries were modest enough that a World Series bonus really meant something. Savor every page of this gem of a story. I?ve not read many like it.

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