Three men conjure up a mixture of reality and fiction in their quest for a second chance. Their love of baseball creates a common link that ties them together in the novel Shoeless Joe. The author, William Kinsella, captures each characters' unique need for fulfillment through reincarnation around a setting located in a heaven like cornfield in rural Iowa. The field is transformed into a mysterious baseball park which connects their lives together through a combination of days gone by and present circumstances to right a wrong or the failure to do something right. The main character, Ray Kinsella, relies on dreams and voices from a mysterious baseball announcer to help him fill the void left between him and his father. A famous, though troubled writer, Jerry Salinger, wants to renew his flare for writing and break his writer's block by tagging along with Ray to find new inspiration.
Shoeless Joe Jackson is third on the all-time list...
Ty Cobb (297 triples) and Shoeless Joe Jackson (16...
The 1910 Pelicans, Southern Association Champions....Shoeless Joe, a former disgraced big league player, wants the chance to return from the grave to play baseball again, the sport he loved with a passion. The atmosphere can be likened to the song "Take me out to a ball game", where dreams are grown, nurtured and broken. In this novel, all three men share the same longing for a second chance to rekindle their feeling of self-worth.
The main character Ray Kinsella is searching for his second chance to fill the void with his father and brother. Ray grew-up a city boy that tried his hand at selling life insurance after college. He grew tiresome of this way of life and buys a few acres in Iowa to grow corn. He has a simple but pleasant life with his country wife and family. Suddenly, his world is turned upside down when he hears a mysterious voice say,