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The Natural
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Author | Bernard Malamud |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Harcourt Brace and Company |
| Publication date | 1952 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | NA |
The Natural is a 1952 novel about baseball written by Bernard Malamud. The book follows Roy Hobbs, a baseball prodigy whose career is sidetracked when he is shot by a crazed fan. Most of the story concerns itself with his attempts to return to baseball later in life, when he plays for the fictional New York Knights with his legendary bat 'Wonderboy'.
A film adaption of The Natural starring Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs was released in 1984.
Contents |
The novel opens with 19-year old Roy Hobbs on a train to Chicago with his manager Sam. He is traveling to Chicago for a tryout with the Chicago Cubs. Other passengers on the train include sportswriter Max Mercy, Walter 'The Whammer' Whambold (the leading hitter in the American League and 3 time American League Most Valuable Player at the time in the novel) and Harriet Bird, a beautiful but mysterious woman.
The train makes a quick stop at a carnival along the rail where Whambold challenges Hobbs to strike him out. Hobbs does just that, much to everyone's surprise (and The Whammer's humiliation). Back on the train Harriet Bird strikes up a conversation with Hobbs who does not suspect that Bird could have any sort of ulterior motive. In fact, she is a lunatic obsessed with shooting the best baseball player. Her intent was to target Whambold but after Hobbs struck him out, her attention has turned to him.
Once off the train Hobbs checks into his hotel room in Chicago and promptly receives a call from Bird who is staying in the same hotel. When he goes up to her room she shoots him.
The novel picks up sixteen years later in the dugout of the New York Knights, a fictional National League baseball team. The team has been on an extended losing streak and the careers of manager Pop Fisher and assistant manager Red Blow seem to be winding to an ignominious end. During one of these sad games Roy Hobbs emerges from the clubhouse tunnel to meet Pop and to announce that he is the team's new right fielder, having just been signed by Judge Banner, a man known by the team as 'The Judge'. Both Pop and Red take Hobbs under their wing and he learns from Red about Fisher's plight as manager of the Knights. The Judge wishes to push Pop out of the team's payroll completely but cannot do so until the end of the current season - and then only so long as the Knights don't win the National League pennant.
Being the newest player Roy has a number of practical jokes played upon him, including the theft of his 'Wonderboy' bat. Once Roy gets his first chance at bat however he proves he's truly a 'natural' at the game.
During one game, Pop substitutes Hobbs as a pinch hitter for team star Bump Bailey. Bailey had not been hustling and Pop was unhappy with this. Pop tells Roy to 'knock the cover off of the ball', which he ends up doing, hitting a ball into centerfield for a ground rule double. A few days later, a newly-hustling Bump will die from injuries resulting from running into the outfield wall in an attempt to play a hard hit fly ball. Roy then takes over for Bump on a permanent basis.
Max Mercy reappears in the novel, now searching for details of Hobbs' past. Hobbs remains quiet on the subject, but Mercy remains insistent. He offers five thousand dollars to Hobbs for his entire life story, but Hobbs refuses, saying that 'all the public is entitled to is my best game of baseball.' At the same time, Hobbs has been attempting unsuccessfully to negotiate a higher salary with the Judge, arguing that his success should be rewarded. Meeting with Mercy again, he introduces Hobbs to bookie Gus Sands, who is keeping company with Memo Paris, Pop's niece and the woman with whom Hobbs has been infatuated since he came to the Knights. Hobbs proceeds to perform some magic tricks which appear to impress Memo.
Max Mercy proceeds to write a column in the paper about the Judge's refusal to grant Hobbs a raise, and a fan uprising ensues. Hobbs, however, is more occupied with Memo and attempts to further their relationship. Pop warns Hobbs about Memo's tendency to impart bad luck to the people with whom she associates. Hobbs dismisses the warning, but soon after falls into a hitting slump. Hobbs tries to solve his slump in a number of ways, but all of them fail. Hobbs finally breaks out of a slump, hitting a home run in a game in which a mysterious woman rises out of her seat a number of times. Before Hobbs can look to see who the woman is, she has already left the game. Roy eventually meets the woman, Iris Lemon, and proceeds to court her. Upon finding out she is a grandmother, however, his desire for her drops and he turns his attention back to Memo Paris.
While Memo rebuffs Roy's advances, Hobbs continues his hitting streak and leads the Knights to a seventeen-game winning streak. With the Knights one game away from winning the National League pennant, Roy goes to a party hosted by Memo, and eats a large amount of food. He collapses and wakes up in a hospital bed. The doctor tells him he can play in the final game of the season, but that his days of baseball must end after the season if Hobbs is to live long past the days of his career. He wants to start a family with Memo but is concerned about how he would do that if he retired from the game of baseball.