Review by scdins -- The Fat Lady's Low, Sad Song

[scdins]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Fat Lady's Low, Sad Song" by Brian Kaufman.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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The Fat Lady’s Low, Sad Song by Brian Kaufman is about aging baseball player Parker Westfall who is clinging to the hopes of staying in the game he loves so much. After ending up on a minor league team, he spends the baseball season building up a middling team who is also hoping to reenergize their team with the addition of baseball’s first female pitcher.

Throughout the novel, Westfall faces the ups and downs of what it’s like to be on a minor league team and facing a manager who doesn’t know quite what he’s doing while dealing with burgeoning feelings for the female player. Along the way, he finds love, friendship, and discovers how to overcome hardship in more ways than one, and ends up in a place that’s unexpected but not unwelcome.

The Fat Lady’s Low, Sad Song is a warm and homey Americana-esque novel. This is clearly a book written by a baseball lover, for baseball lovers. But it’s not just baseball lovers that will enjoy reading this, but anyone who is a fan of romance and can relate to the human drama of overcoming obstacles.

The book itself is written out neatly and with minor typographical errors. Each chapter keeps the story naturally flowing along, and the book as a whole follows the three-act structure nicely. The story points themselves feel natural, with the exception of one towards the end, which is perhaps unnecessarily written in as it feels somewhat trite and unbelievable. And if you’re not someone who understands all facets of baseball, including the lingo, it is harder to follow along. The characters are gripping, but because the book is shorter, you don’t get to spend enough time with them to get to know them better. We get brief descriptions of their lives, but don’t get to completely indulge ourselves in them.

I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. This book is a simple treat to gobble up and even though it doesn't quite take you all the way there for a full meal, each small bite still leaves you quite satisfied. The book will take you from point A to point B rather easily, mostly avoiding any real dramatic complications along the way, while sometimes taking you to the edge of something difficult but not quite diving in. But that lack of exciting twists and turns doesn’t take away from the nostalgic feeling that really captures you into the world of baseball and almost makes you develop the same fondness for it as Parker Westfall.

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The Fat Lady's Low, Sad Song
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