How All This Started

I learned of this book through my interest in baseball and started reading it with out too many expectations. My experience with books with a baseball theme is that of disappointment from a literary standpoint. I was drawn in by the author's skill and craft as a writer and his development of the characters all the time expecting to be let down and disappointed. I spent my working life in mental health field and can say that the description of manic depression with the treatment and outcome is extremely realistic. From my knowledge of baseball from the point of view of a hobby and as a researcher I found that to be quite believable. I read the book through almost in one sitting and could not get over how good it was. I read a lot and this is the best I have come across in a long time.

This is my favourite Fromm book. As an older sister with a close relationship to her younger brother, the bond that these kids had touched me deeply. The story is told with such warmth and compassion that it would be impossible to not feel for each and every characted. One of Fromm's biggest strengths as a writer is his ability to make you feel as if you personally know each and every character, not just the central ones. I find it remarkable and adds dimensions to his stories that would otherwise fall by the wayside. This book is an full novel of one of his short stories and I must say that although the short story is great, the novel is just hauntingly beautiful.

Watching the relationship between Austin and Abilene is a little like looking down from a high tower watching two cars race toward a deadly collision. You desperately want to prevent the collision, but the movement of the cars is too beautiful, too graceful, and you don't dare intervene. The beauty and grace are supplied by Pete Fromm, whose novel is filled with insights and surprises from the first page. What makes it the more remarkable is that the story is told by Austin, a high school sophomore in middle-of-nowhere, Texas, whose world view has been shaped entirely by his bipolar older sister, Abilene. This is a fine novel on so many levels. It's a love story, a tragic love story set in the vast emptiness of West Texas, where everything is simple except for the people. It's a sports story, with an ambitious coach (Abilene) with an ax to grind jealously guarding her young phenom (Austin) out of love, hope and desperation, all of which are as twisted as a mesquite trunk. It's a story of a family whose love is under a blistering attack by mental illness, obsession and misunderstanding. Most importantly, it's written with compassion, empathy and a delicacy of language that makes us hope that Fromm will keep producing for a long, long time. Put him in the ranks of Annie Proulx and Larry McMurtry. Come again, soon, Pete.

This is probably one of the more memorable stories I have read in the past few years. I was introduced to Fromm's writing through Nightswimming, and have gotten my hands on everything else he has written since then. His stories are compelling, his writing style is easy, and the characters have a great deal of depth and breadth to them. All of my friends who have read this book have been blown away by it, unable to put it down, consistently moved at the end.

From page 2 I was hooked. Perhaps it was because I could relate to the Texas surroundings, or the brother/sister relationship, or even the family struggle with Bipolar Disorder. But whatever it was I was engaged in this story from the "get-go". (See, I told you I could relate to the Texas stuff!) Don't think you have to share their passion for baseball, or know anything about mentall illness. You will live it! Pete Fromm had me crying--a heartfelt, hopeful cry. I wish I could visit these characters 10 years later and see How All This Ends Up.