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Author: Jerry Amernic
ISBN: 031231759X
Genre: Fiction- Sports
The following review was contributed by: NORM GOLDMAN: Editor of Bookpleasures-CLICK TO VIEW>> Norm Goldman's Reviews
Novelist Jerry Amernic’s debut novel Gift Of The Bambino illustrates how it is possible to effectively pen a novel wherein sports' history collides with fiction.
At the core of the novel is Amernic’s principal character, Lazo, who had a dream of one day playing baseball in the big leagues or as he called it the “big show."
The spark that ignited his desire was when in 1914, as a very young lad, he witnessed the legendary Babe Ruth, who at the time was playing for the International League team the Providence Grays, hit his first and only home run as a minor leaguer. Apparently, the ball was hit so far that it wounded up in a lake located on some island in Toronto, where the game had taken place. Lazo even had the opportunity to meet Ruth after the game and obtain his autograph.
From that moment on our principal protagonist decided he was going to pattern himself after Babe Ruth and even went so far as trying to adopt Babe Ruth’s famous stance at the plate.
Unfortunately, Lazo refused to listen to his coaches and others to change his stance, which was probably why he was never able to hit a low inside fast –ball, and the principal reason why he never made it into the major leagues.
Especially moving are the novel’s warm conversations and emotional resonance between Lazo and his grandson Stephen, who is the only member of the family privy to his grandfather’s secrets pertaining to his baseball ambitions during an era of some of the greatest ball players of all time.
Amernic succeeds in moving effortlessly from the voice of Lazo to Stephen, and it is these conversations that permit readers to effectively experience the disappointments that very often humans are subjected to during their lifetime.
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