The Death of Baseball

I first encountered the work of Orlando Ortega-Medina through his brilliant, emotionally charged and meditative short story collection Jerusalem Ablaze etched into my memory as one of the trickiest reviews I have ever had to write. Now having read Ortega-Medina’s full length novel, The Death of Baseball I feel that my reviewing skills will be put to the test once again, as I try and communicate to you all how necessary, heartfelt, thought-provoking and sublimely perfect this book is. Oh yes. I did say perfect…

When I began reading this book, I somewhat intuitively avoided reading the full synopsis, as I had a vibe from the outset, that I very much just wanted to be taken wherever this book wished to take me. Aside from the sway of the beautifully retro cover, I felt from a very early stage of reading that this was a book that would consume me completely, and consequently this was one of the rare occasions where this was the only book I was reading at the time. I think this was also influenced by the fact that Ortega-Medina’s two main protagonists, Raphael, and Marilyn are so singularly deserving of the reader’s full attention, as the drama, tragedy, and human frailty plays out against a backdrop of changing decades and social mores, America and Israel, conflict and peace, and the underlying need of both to form a lasting emotional connection. I am only going to give you a silhouette of the characters and the plot, as I think this is a book that needs to be discovered in an almost neutral vacuum, to fully appreciate its emotional depth, and to open yourself up to some extremely accomplished and sublime storytelling.

To say that these characters’ lives are troubled and tempestuous would be an understatement, and as the author highlights the crisis of conscience, faith and loyalty, he weighs them down with, I can guarantee you will be held completely in their thrall. I can honestly say that I did have a sustained emotional response to this book, which is incredibly unusual, as books rarely achieve this for me. I think the emotional heft, moments of extreme poignancy, frustration and anger that we bear witness to in the lives of these characters, is so beautifully realised and communicated that you do become completely immersed in the powerful positivity and destructing negativity, that Raphael and Marilyn seem to take it in turns to display. These conflicting traits lead on occasion to impetuous, ill-judged acts, tempered by moments of extreme tenderness and self realisation as they battle with issues of faith, identity and the instances of wretched tragedy that blight their lives. However, despite the incredibly visceral humanity of this book, I did feel that a certain sense of equanimity was achieved in the life of one character, and that their struggle for acceptance and recognition did come to fruition, which lifted the book to a more life affirming plain.

Tied up with the superlative characterisation of Raphael, Marilyn and the social, religious and familial crisis they suffer, I would also draw attention to two other strengths of the narrative of this book. One is location and period detail, firmly rooting us in the changing decades from the 60s through the 80s, and the way that Ortega-Medina subtly places us in the grip of each decade, using the recognisable markers of each decade, and certain tumultuous events both in America and Israel. The section of the book set in Israel was particularly compulsive reading, as Ortega-Medina places Raphael in a largely unfamiliar setting, under pressure with the weight of certain aspects of his family history, clinging to his faith, pushing the boundaries of his sexuality, and tentatively feeling his way to love. The threat of war with Egypt plays out in the background, and this sojourn in Israel also provides an incredibly interesting reappraisal and exploration of Raphael’s faith, and the seismic effect on his own character that events in Israel cause.

When I’ve been talking about this book to friends and colleagues, another aspect I keep drawing attention to is the sheer cleverness of the structure. Every chapter, and yes, it is every chapter, can be read in isolation to the others as a completely self contained short story, whilst not disrupting the momentum and continuity of the story in any way. Once I stumbled upon this notion and blown away by the skill of this, I actually went back through the book at random picking certain chapters to re-read, particularly those in Israel, and those set in a certain location towards to the end of the book. When I reviewed Jerusalem Ablaze, I drew attention to the fact that this author so quickly enables the reader to connect on an emotional level with his characters, and this sustained use of structuring his chapters like this, adds even more to the intensity with which he enveigles us in his character’s lives. The Death of Baseball is a glorious miasma of contradictions and conflicts, the need to love, the need for acceptance and recognition, fame, faith, abuse, identity and hope. I found it thought provoking and powerfully emotional, and I loved the way it immersed me so fully in these two lives with their unique voices. This book has such a strong message at its core, clearly illustrating how we are all the same in our desire to achieve contentment and an equilibrium in our lives, however we choose to live and with whomever we choose to love. Highly, highly recommended.

This was not an easy book to read. That being said, the prose was beautiful and amazingly detailed. At times, the detail was almost overwhelmingly beautiful in spite of how challenging and outright horrendous some of the content was.

It took me far longer than usual to read this. I found that the subject matter left me inclined towards putting it down and taking a break.

Clyde/Marilyn is a young Japanese child living in a less-than-perfect family setting when the story begins. After a violent and abusive series of events unfold, they begin to question who they are. A belief that Clyde/Marilyn is in fact, the reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe unfurls in the child's mind as they try to come to terms with all the trauma they are experiencing.

Raphael, the second character in the book, also begins with a horrible family life. He's been abused and has learned how to fight back by being aggressive, manipulative and underhanded.

Once these two characters come together... their backgrounds and trauma tangle together and lead them down an abusive road.

This is not a cheery book in the slightest... there's no happy ending and some of the things that happen are incredibly difficult to read about. If you have an interest in reading remarkable writing... about a challenging subject then this is a book you should add to your list.

When I was in high school, I accidentally took AP Literature (or the Israeli version of that) and was subjected to 10 months of reading and talking about coming of age novels. This is a long story in of itself but I will say this. If this book was in Hebrew, I would not hesitate to recommend it to my high school Literature teacher.

And I can see how much he'd love it, how he'd assign a comparison of Ralph and Clyde/Marilyn, how he'd talk about the symbolism of the sex change (vs what happened with Clyde/ Marilyn and the attackers) and the blowjobs and how he'd marvel about sexuality being shameful and society excluding people, therapists as sexual predators, names packing so much power (because Clyde/ Marilyn/ Kimitake is the same person but such different faucets and Ralph vs Raphael), Judaism as a method of masochism.

And really, this book is fantastic. It's a specific style, it's like you'd take Perks of Being a Wallflower and mush it together with Sociopaths In Love. I truly feel like it was well-executed. I feel this book has potential to become really popular.

So this book has roughly three parts. In the first, we meet Clyde/Marilyn, a Japanese-American teen that has a really shitty life (to say the least). We follow along as he begins to believe he is Marilyn Monroe reincarnated. In the second part (my favorite), we meet Ralph, an arrogant kleptomaniac Jewish teen whose parents send to Israel in an attempt to "fix" his behavior. We essentially observe his life going downhill. And then, the third part focuses on them meeting as adults.

This book has some clear strengths, the writing being the first. It is phenomenal. It sucked me in from the get-go, I thought I'd read this on my flight and instead, I finished it all today because I couldn't stop reading it, especially the second part. I am still so into it and really impressed by how good it was.

The characterization is great as well.. I can picture all of the characters so well, I feel like I know exactly who they are and what makes them tick. It's really impressively done. I honestly am so impressed by how whole of a picture we get about these two people.

The plot is a little odd but works. There are a few huge reveals here but somehow, they don't reach the impact I'd assume they should. This isn't any real problem because those reveals weren't that important. I mean, as a reader, I was way more invested in the characters than the plot.

The LGBT+ community makes an appearance in this book but I don't know if I can say that it's a positive one. Every time a man has a relationship with another man, it's incest and that's really problematic. However, in defense of this book, the relationships of straight couples here are not much better, be it Clyde/ Marilyn's parents or the whole Joanie Ralph thing. And yeah, not all gay couples are incestuous just as not all parents are failures (which this book also essentially claims). It's annoying that all of the men here don't embrace their sexuality but I guess that's to be expected in the 70s.

However, queerness in this book is far more interesting. The author makes a choice to refer to Clyde/ Marilyn as Clyde and to use he/him pronouns, even when the character expresses numerous times that that's not right. This is a decision that brings to light a lot of questions, it makes me feel like Clyde/Marilyn was just mentally unstable Clyde. As someone who's very invested in queer communities, I really live by the idea that we must respect however a person wishes to be referred to and so it was weird to see the author never ever refer to their own character's the way they'd like.

That said, I don't want to compare Clyde/ Marilyn to the trans community because the character in this book seems to want to transition as a way to escape their identity, to not be a Japanese man. Trans folks are genuinely being themselves and yeah, trans people don't assume they're a historical figure. So I appreciate that the author didn't draw the parallel that they could have but still, it's there, it's there when they attempt to rob a bank for a sex change (is this a reference to John Wojtowicz because yes). So anyways, no, Clyde/ Marilyn is not trans, they're mentally unstable and must not be seen as an example of a trans person.

In any case, this book shows such a messed up world. I finished it yesterday and I'm still constantly thinking about it, thinking about how young Ralph was when he met Joanie and how Yom Kippur's war messed everyone up, how powerful Ralph is, how Jewishly solid this book is (Ahh, there's a part where Ralph talks about coming back and man, that's such a strong Jewish concept, I love that). I really recommend this book!

<b> What I'm Taking With Me </b>
- Two strong characters is more than enough to make a book compelling.
- Raphael is such a great character, he deserved a better life.
- Bad stuff always happens in Mitzpeh Ramon, that is known.

Thought- provoking, entertaining, shocking and amazing. From the moment I started the book I knew it was going to be great. It had a huge impact on me. Everyone needs to read it.

Intriguing, dark and powerful storytelling at its best! In my top five (if not THE favorite) books I've read this year. Orlando Ortega-Medina brings to life two fascinating and unique characters and then fuses them together in a plot that takes you on an unexpected wild ride. I'm crossing my fingers that one of Hollywood's adventurous directors will bring this to the big screen. An outstanding book that will stay with you long after you turn the last page.

I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.