Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa: Stories

I enjoyed this book as any Kinsella fan would. I found some of the stories true gems, but others I found somewhat uninteresting. This is not Kinsella's greatest selection, but it shows a different side of the author and some of the stories are more adult oriented content. I enjoyed the stories 'Fiona the First', 'Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa', 'A Picture of the Virgin' and 'A Blacksmith Shop Caper' as the real good ones. Those alone are worth the book, so you won't be disappointed overall.

"Fiona the First," the opening story in this collection, was cited for excellence by Stanley Elkin and Shannon Ravenel in the 1980 edition of BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES.Speaking to bibliographer Ann Knight in 1983, Kinsella admitted that a few details from this story are semi-autobiographical: "The lady who keeps saying, 'He can put his shoes under my bed,' I saw at a Vancouver Mounties game in Seattle in 1954." And, "the business about the stewardess trying to give away a baby happened to me and a young lady at the Vancouver International Airport in 1970 or '71."These stories celebrate particular relationships: between father and son, brother and sister, perfect strangers, a spiritual icon and her admirers, doctor and patient, father and daughter, bowling buddies, etc. They are classic Kinsella. No fan of his opus will want to overlook these initial, "adult-oriented" adventures into the regions of Magic Realism. These tales are Icarus flyers; they tempt the sun to melt their wings.

I first saw the movie Field of Dreams when I was in the 3rd grade, I loved the movie so much. Then in the 6th grade my teacher started to read us the book, but never even came close to finishing, I was disappointed. Then, this year (10th grade) I read it over Christmas break, and I couldn't put it down. I have never read a book that could calm me down and not make me sleepy. I had to get my wisdom teeth out and I was currently reading that book, everytime I got nervous I read the book and it relaxed me! I recomend this to anyone who likes baseball or just loves to read. Even if you don't like to read I still recomend it! It is better than the movie and I still think the movie is good, there is just to much to capture. I could read that book again and again! So, I recomend it to everyone!