The Man with Two Arms
by BILLY LOMBARDO
Overlook, $24.95 (336p)
ISBN 978-1-59020-307-1
This debut novel from Lombardo (The Logic of a Rose) follows ably in the cleatprints
of W.P. Kinsella and Bernard Malamud, chronicling the life of a talented
Chicago pitcher. In their middle-class Chicago
suburb of the mid-1980s, baseball nut Henry Granville and his wife, Lori,
face marital discord regarding Henry’s immediate,
insistent campaign to commit their baby son Danny to a life in baseball.
When Henry discovers his son’s natural
ambidexterity, visions of raising a superstar
"switch pitcher" (an almost unheard-of
athletic skill) kick his obsession into overdrive.
One rocky boyhood later, Danny
signs with the Cubs and finds instant fame
("Danny can throw like Tom Seaver with
one arm and Sandy Koufax with the other")
as well as a bit of infamy; he’s a "freak"
in the eyes of opponents. Meanwhile, Danny
falls in love with an art instructor and
nurtures another rare talent: clairvoyance.
Fans of sports fiction should find this an
enjoyable trip to the mound, with just
enough old-fashioned Americana magic to
keep them guessing.
Publishers Weekly
"A switch pitcher? A guy as good as Seaver righty and Koufax lefty? The
thought intrigues as does Billy Lombardo's touching and original debut
novel."
--Bob Costas
..."Lombardo's one-of-a-kind novel about a one-of-a-kind ballplayer is just as engrossing as a perfect game going into the late innings. If you're in the stands, you don't want to look away from the field, let alone leave the stadium early. Those who love to read about this great pastime will have this same feeling when reading about Danny Granville, on and off the field."
--NPR Book Review: 'The Man With Two Arms' by Alan Cheuse. Read/listen to the full review.
"Billy Lombardo writes in his new book, 'Baseball is about grace and beauty and character, it was about strength and achievement.' From a story-telling sense, the same can be said of `The Man with Two Arms.'"
—Ira Berkow, author of The Corporal Was a Pitcher and Full Swing: Hits, Runs and Errors in a Writer's Life.
"The Man With Two Arms" ranks with "The Natural" as one of the finest baseball novels I’ve ever read. And like "The Natural," it’s about much more than a game. It’s about fathers and sons, dreams and regrets, love and betrayal. Lombardo has written a breathtaking wonder of a book.
—Jonathan Eig, New York Times best-selling author of Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig and Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Season
"Baseball stories are so often about fathers and sons –– too often, it seems, too predictably and too sappily –– but Billy Lombardo has given us an intriguing and layered look at that hoary old love triangle –– Dad, Son and the National Pastime. The Man With Two Arms is a beguiling tale, with pleasant surprises and just the right mix of affection and cynicism. It understands the game––but just as much, it understands what the game can do to those whom it ensnares."
—Frank Deford, author of The Entitled: A Tale of Modern Baseball
"Billy Lombardo's wildly original novel should rate right up there with The Natural and The Celebrant. Danny Granville, the teen-age switch-pitching marvel, might become a serendipitous hero to many who spend their hours thinking, reading and dreaming about the wonders of the Summer Game."
––Ray Robinson, author of Iron Horse: Lou Gehrig in His Time
"Most great baseball fiction -- books such as Bernard Malamud’s The Natural, W.P. Kinsella’s Shoeless Joe, and Kevin Baker’s Sometimes You See It Coming come quickly to mind – are heavy on the realism but with a touch of the weird. Billy Lombardo’s fits neatly on a shelf with those classics.
Lombardo, author of such fine collections of short stories as Logic of A Rose and Meanwhile, Roxy Mourns, is a Chicago area-based writer and editor who is both a master of fiction and a consummate observer of the game, which is what makes his strange premise so oddly believable: Henry Granville, a baseball fanatic, trains his son Danny to pitch with both hands, much in the way Mickey Mantle’s father trained him as a switch hitter. Lombardo is as deft at handling the comic and tragic aspects of his story as his creation, Danny, is at whizzing them in from both sides of the plate. Let’s subtitle The Man with Two Arms 'The Unnatural' and call it the best baseball-themed fiction so far this decade."
--Allen Barra, Dallas Morning News
"Lombardo sets his sights on writing a lovely homage to the game, and to what is undoubtedly modern America’s finest literary tribute to the baseball since Bernard Malamud’s novel 'The Natural.' Danny himself is something like a natural himself, with his game-obsessed father doing everything he can to enhance his son’s natural abilities. From the boy’s first year on the father directs him "steadily and scientifically toward balance…" As Danny’s art student girl-friend Bridget discovers when she gets him to undress in preparation for posing for her that early propensity for balance has produced in the ball-player an anatomical symmetry close to perfection.
"
--Alan Cheuse, Chicago Tribune, author of "To Catch the Lightening." Read the complete "Review: 'The Man With Two Arms'
...[The Man With Two Arms] is a love letter to baseball. It's a beautifully told father-son story that will touch the heart of any father or son (I have three boys). It's a love story that is told with the kind of sensitivity and care you simply don't find in novels...especially those targeted to men.
--Rick Kaempfer, author blog "Just One Bad Century."
Read the complete review.
...[The Man With Two Arms] is at heart a coming of age story for the relationship of a father and son: the son will strike out on his own, the father will regret his own shortcomings.
--Robert Duffer of Chicago Literary Scene Examiner. Read the complete review.
"The Man with Two Arms becomes more than a Chicago baseball story more than a study of pushy parenting or high-profile superstardom. As Lombardo ratchets up the stakes greed and betrayal threaten everything Danny has become and the greatest of his many gifts leads him to a more crucial destiny than mere athletic fame. Lombardo reaches for the stars here examining the possibilities and pitfalls of a unique kind of superman. "
--Joe Taylor of ForeWord Reviews. Read the complete review.