The Essential W. P. Kinsella

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Pub Date 17 Mar 2015 | Archive Date 08 Jun 2015

Description

This career retrospective celebrates the 80th birthday of baseball's greatest scribe, W. P. Kinsella (Shoeless Joe), as well as the 25th anniversary of Field of Dreams, the film that he inspired.

In addition to his classic baseball tales, W. P. Kinsella is also a critically-acclaimed short fiction writer. His satiric wit has been celebrated with numerous honors, including the Order of British Columbia.

Here are his notorious First Nation narratives of indigenous Canadians, and a literary homage to J. D. Salinger. Alongside the "real" story of the 1951 Giants and the afterlife of Roberto Clemente, are the legends of a pirated radio station and a hockey game rigged by tribal magic.

Eclectic, dark, and comedic by turns, The Essential W. P. Kinsella is a living tribute to an extraordinary raconteur.

If possible, please hold reviews until March 17th, 2015 publication date


This career retrospective celebrates the 80th birthday of baseball's greatest scribe, W. P. Kinsella (Shoeless Joe), as well as the 25th anniversary of Field of Dreams, the film that he inspired.

In...


A Note From the Publisher

“Kinsella defines a world in which magic and reality combine to make us laugh and think about the perceptions we take for granted.”
—New York Times

“Kinsella defines a world in which magic and reality combine to make us laugh and think about the perceptions we take for granted.”
—New York Times


Advance Praise

“[Starred review] The career of the incomparable Kinsella (Shoeless Joe) is beautifully represented by these 31 short stories, including, of course, “Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa,” the haunting tale of a baseball fan’s obsession with a long-dead star that was developed into a bestselling novel and then the film Field of Dreams. Other charming baseball fantasies include “The Night Manny Mota Tied the Record,” in which a fan agrees to sacrifice himself to bring back the recently dead Yankees star Thurman Munson, and “Searching for January,” which concerns an encounter with the deceased Roberto Clemente. Alongside these stories are several more realistic and mostly gentle satires, such as “The Fog,” that present the escapades of several indefatigable members of Canada’s First Nations. “The Grecian Urn” concerns a couple who can inhabit the interior worlds of great works of art. “K Mart” is the touching tale of three boys who use baseball to escape from their unhappy lives. Kinsella is a masterly writer of short fiction. Though his first-person narrators, mostly men much like himself, can become a bit repetitive when the collection is read straight through, each of these works, whether fantastic or realistic, is individually a small marvel of the storyteller’s art.”
Publishers Weekly, starred review

A Kirkus Best Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Read for March

“This book’s publication should bring readers back to the once very popular Kinsella, now 79, and one hopes it attracts new readers as well.”
Booklist

“The baseball stories may magically touch on tragic figures such as Roberto Clemente and Thurman Munson, but the tales spend just as much time in the low minors with players who are unlikely ever even to sniff life in Triple A ball, much less the majors. The Indian stories portray the unexpected humor of life on the reservation - humor that is often more of the "sometimes you have to laugh so you don't cry" variety, than not. There are likely to be surprises for everyone in The Essential W.P. Kinsella. But those who know Kinsella's work only from his baseball stories are going to get the biggest and best surprise of all.”
Book Chase

“Mystery and homegrown magic realism at its best and most satisfying. Kinsella is a storyteller of the first order.”
—Joe R. Lansdale, author of Mucho Mojo and Cold in July

“He creates a world of rural dusty streets, diners with coffee so strong the pages smell of it and vivid characters who haunt your mind between stories. Kinsella remains one of the game’s best storytellers.”
Peoria Journal Star

“A retrospective collection of 31 short stories that includes some of [Kinsella’s] finest.”
Winnipeg Free Press

Praise for W. P. Kinsella

“We are reading a writer here, a real writer, muses be praised. “
Los Angeles Times


“Kinsella is a brilliant writer.”
Edmonton Sun

“...an important literary figure.”
Detroit News

“Anyone who has read Kinsella (has) been touched on the shoulder by his quirky sense of reality.”
Boston Herald

“[Starred review] The career of the incomparable Kinsella (Shoeless Joe) is beautifully represented by these 31 short stories, including, of course, “Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa,” the haunting...


Marketing Plan

Print / Media / Co-op advertising
Collection to be promoted at events for major league baseball's spring training and opening day
Author featured in the 25th-anniversary commemoration of Field of Dreams, covered by EPSN, People, the Huffington Post, Today, and more.

Print / Media / Co-op advertising
Collection to be promoted at events for major league baseball's spring training and opening day
Author featured in the 25th-anniversary commemoration of Field of Dreams...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781616961879
PRICE $15.95 (USD)

Average rating from 20 members


Featured Reviews

I will be forever grateful to W.P. Kinsella even if he never publishes another word because he is responsible for one of my favorite books of all time, Shoeless Joe. That novel, of course, subsequently morphed into what is one of my favorite movies: Field of Dreams. And now, thanks to the remarkable new collection of Kinsella's short stories (published in celebration of the author's approaching eightieth birthday), The Essential W.P. Kinsella, I have finally read the short story that started it all, "Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa."

In addition to being a very fine novelist, W.P. Kinsella is a prolific short story writer with something like two hundred stories to his credit. In the U.S., he is probably best known for his baseball stories, but in Canada he is perhaps better known for his First Nation stories set on the Hobbema Indian Reservation. The reservation stories feature a continuing cast of diverse characters through which Kinsella takes satirical pokes at life on the reservation, the Canadian government, and the general attitude of the white population toward Canada's native population. Those stories, funny as they usually are, often leave the reader pondering a serious point or two about life.

But Kinsella is also the author of what, for lack of a better term, I will call standalone stories, stories that have nothing to do with baseball or with Indians. It is one of these standalones, in fact, that is my favorite of the entire collection, a story titled "The Last Surviving Member of the Japanese Victory Society." It tells of a divorced man who falls in love with the Japanese woman who owns the plant and garden nursery he frequents. It is the story of two people who are determined to be together despite a major obstacle to their relationship: the Japanese woman's mother, who is determined to have nothing to do with "the devil" who has come to take her daughter from her. “The Last Surviving Member of the Japanese Victory Society” has such a feel of honesty and frankness about it that I almost immediately began to suspect that it is a very personal one to its author - a suspicion, in fact, confirmed by the touching dedication that follows the story's final words. Simply put, this is a beautiful story.
The author himself had a hand in choosing stories for The Essential W.P. Kinsella, and fans of his baseball stories and First Nation stories will be pleased with the number of each type chosen for inclusion. The baseball stories may magically touch on tragic figures such as Roberto Clemente and Thurman Munson, but the tales spend just as much time in the low minors with players who are unlikely ever even to sniff life in Triple A ball, much less the majors. The Indian stories portray the unexpected humor of life on the reservation - humor that is often more of the "sometimes you have to laugh so you don't cry" variety, than not. There are likely to be surprises for everyone in The Essential W.P. Kinsella. But those who know Kinsella's work only from his baseball stories are going to get the biggest and best surprise of all.

The author himself had a hand in choosing stories for The Essential W.P. Kinsella, and fans of his baseball stories and First Nation stories will be pleased with the number of each type chosen for inclusion. The baseball stories may magically touch on tragic figures such as Roberto Clemente and Thurman Munson, but the tales spend just as much time in the low minors with players who are unlikely ever even to sniff life in Triple A ball, much less the majors. The Indian stories portray the unexpected humor of life on the reservation - humor that is often more of the "sometimes you have to laugh so you don't cry" variety, than not. There are likely to be surprises for everyone in The Essential W.P. Kinsella. But those who know Kinsella's work only from his baseball stories are going to get the biggest and best surprise of all.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Kinsella...and thank you.

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W. P. Kinsella is utterly transporting, no matter if you've read his works fifty times or are lucky to just be discovering him through this wealth of storytelling.

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This book will be an essential part of my personal book collection. I fell in love with WP Kinsella in college when I had the extreme honor of meeting him after reading "Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa." His writing is timeless, and this collection is as well.

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A great introduction to a gifted writer! This will leave you wanting much more.

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The Essential W. P. Kinsella has been out for several months now, so this review is coming a bit late, but I wanted to draw attention to this marvelous compendium. If you have joint passions for baseball and reading, you most likely know of Kinsella's work. If the name doesn't ring a bell, think Field of Dreams. That heartwarming combination of baseball, mysticism, and literary journey was based on Kinsella's novel of the same title.

I'd read all of Kinsella's novels, but somehow hadn't realized that he was also a prolific writer of short stories. The genre is perfect for his kind of writing: startling, original, entertaining, combining real world elements (baseball, Indian life in Iowa and Canada) with fantasy. I don't know where he gets his ideas—but they translate into wonderful stories that can easily bear multiple readings.

In "Searching for January," a 1980s U.S. baseball fan vacationing in Central America is startled to meet Roberto Clemete who's just appeared from out of the ocean fog on a rubber life raft. In "How I Got My Nickname," we learn how W. P. Kinsella (yes, he frequently appears in his own stories) ensures that Bobby Thompson has a chance to hit "the shot heard round the world." These are the kinds of tales Kinsella excells at, and—with his fecund imagination—that never feel stale, regardless of how many of his other works you've read.

If you're looking for a substantial volume of summer reading that you can pick up at will—and that celebrates the delight that is summer baseball—you'll want to spend a good bit of time with W. P. Kinsella.

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This is a book with about 36 short stories from W.P. Kinsella. Some of them are familiar some not, but all are very good and it gives you a look into his work and how his story was made into the movie Field of Dreams. He also wrote a book about the Black scandal, and he was someone you could tell enjoyed watching Shoeless Joe Jackson. He helped bring baseball to many people through words and here are short stories where you can see his early beginnings, but also his love of the game. A good book.

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