"The Elements of Hitting is an often haunting and occasionally beautiful story of man's attempt to rebuild his life with two strikes against him." - Chris Bohjalian, Washington Post Book World
"Leave it to a gifted author like Jones to write a 'baseball book' that breaks the mold." - Michael Griffin, Orlando Sentinel
"Jones has a wonderful way with words; his prose is ironic, funny and at the same time moving as he - packs plenty of humor, pathos and plot into a story that literally ends with a bang." - Kirkus Reviews
"Jones delivers in spades." - Chicago Tribune
Walter Innis, son of a frustrated and violent fallen baseball star and a tragically unhappy woman driven to infidelity, carries his family's legacy of torment into his own adult life - with disastrous results. Unable to let go of a childhood trapped between his father's violence and his mother's secret love affair, Walter has lost his own wife and job. When local hotshot and former employee of his mother, Henry Truxton III, announces his race for senate, Innis hatches a scheme to vindicate his mother's mysterious death and his father's valueless life. If it works, he might just get rich in the bargain. In the meantime, Innis takes a job coaching a hopeless Little League team, where his father's lessons for "the elements of hitting" come in handy. Ultimately, it is as a Little League coach that Walter discovers a route to happiness and hope beyond the reach of the past.
Genre: Literary Fiction
"Leave it to a gifted author like Jones to write a 'baseball book' that breaks the mold." - Michael Griffin, Orlando Sentinel
"Jones has a wonderful way with words; his prose is ironic, funny and at the same time moving as he - packs plenty of humor, pathos and plot into a story that literally ends with a bang." - Kirkus Reviews
"Jones delivers in spades." - Chicago Tribune
Walter Innis, son of a frustrated and violent fallen baseball star and a tragically unhappy woman driven to infidelity, carries his family's legacy of torment into his own adult life - with disastrous results. Unable to let go of a childhood trapped between his father's violence and his mother's secret love affair, Walter has lost his own wife and job. When local hotshot and former employee of his mother, Henry Truxton III, announces his race for senate, Innis hatches a scheme to vindicate his mother's mysterious death and his father's valueless life. If it works, he might just get rich in the bargain. In the meantime, Innis takes a job coaching a hopeless Little League team, where his father's lessons for "the elements of hitting" come in handy. Ultimately, it is as a Little League coach that Walter discovers a route to happiness and hope beyond the reach of the past.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Used availability for Matthew F Jones's The Elements of Hitting