You don't have to be a baseball fan to enjoy The Fade-away. It is an engaging story about people and life in small-town California in 1900, a time when baseball was played mostly by regular people. The Fade-away is LOL funny at times, but mostly poignant. It is sweet, but honest. Its characters are far from heroes, but you might find yourself loving some of them anyway.
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This was an unusual tale, but one that I enjoyed very much. Turn of the century American history is not an area which I know a great deal about, so seeing this small town in California brought to life with excellent descriptions and a well researched historical context was a treasure for me.
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A great treat for fans of historical novels, The Fade-Away by George Jansen presents life in a small town, Port Newton. It's a town with its own baseball team, even if it is suffering because of the youth moving away to bigger cities. The story starts with a dramatic event --an unconscious man floating into town.
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The Fade-Away by George Jansen is a historical novel with powerful cultural themes, and tale that speaks of the transition to modernity.
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In the first decade of the new century, the United States finds itself embroiled in a bloody war against astubborn insurgency, halfway around the globe. As the conflict drags out, year upon year, it stimulates intense and sometimes divisive political debate at home: Opponents of the war (particularly Democrats, since the military action was initiated by a Republican administration) consider it wasteful, jingoistic and imperialist, while defenders assert it as a proper and necessary American responsibility.
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Port Newton, California in 1900 is hardly a prosperous community. The owner of the local Savings & Loan has embezzled the town's money, leaving many penniless and destitute. Once thriving industries have left the city. And, perhaps the ultimate insult to the inhabitants of this tiny burg, their baseball team is in the midst of a years' long losing streak.
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The opening paragraph of George Jansen's novel has more hooks than a fisherman's tackle box. It also establishes Jansen's reason for writing the book in the first place -- he was captivated by the notion of the mythic figure, the larger-than-life hero, as envisioned by author/philosopher Joseph Campbell. It was only later that he filled in the details, like the fact that the book was about baseball, and his Port Newton location was a fictionalized version of Port Costa.
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This entertaining, enjoyable, and fast-paced read will appeal to baseball fans as well as readers who enjoy humorous fiction. Jansen has done a good job capturing small-town life in The Fade- Away. Though baseball is at the heart of this novel, it serves as a metaphor for the changes taking place in America as the 20th century began. The camaraderie of small-town life was slowly being replaced by urban anonymity.
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