American Past Time by Len Joy

Part two of today’s Len Joy extravaganza is my brief review of ‘American Past Time’.

Description from Goodreads

September 1953. Dancer Stonemason is three days away from his major league debut with the St. Louis Cardinals. With his wife and son cheering him on, he pitches the greatest game of his life. And then he loses everything.

Told against the backdrop of America’s postwar challenges from Little Rock to the Bay of Pigs to Viet Nam, AMERICAN PAST TIME is the story of what happens to a man and his family after the cheering stops.

I gave this book five stars out of five

My thoughts:

I really enjoyed this book. I thought that it was extremely well written and I found the story fascinating.

For me, it was the story of a chance at future success squandered, or rather, certainly in the eyes of the protagonist, traded, for the sake of the perfect game.

The story had a good pace to it, and I liked how each part concentrated on the viewpoint of different members of the family. I enjoyed how it was possible to relate to these differing standpoints and opinions, yet still understand why each of them acted as they did.

The characters were all well rounded and very believable. It was easy to identify with the Stonemason family, and invest in their lives. Dancer Stonemason in particular, was an interesting character. I was fascinated by his growth as a person, and how he gave up his dreams for what he thought was the good of his family. Not that this necessarily worked out as he expected.

I also liked how the family ultimately grew and developed as a unit, whether they were together in the same location or not. It was nice to see how the relationship between Dancer and his son, came full circle in the end.

The story was set against a backdrop of a number of major events in American history, such as the moon landing, the Vietnam war, the assassination of Kennedy, etc.

This was most definitely one of those books that I did not want to end. I found myself always wanting to know what happened next to the characters. I would have been happy had the book been double the length.

I would recommend this book to, well, just about anyone really. I enjoyed this immensely.

This review is based on a complimentary copy provided by JKS Communications.