Book Reviews

Thomas Woolf, an American Novelist, is known for mixing highly original, poetic, rhapsodic, and impressionistic prose with autobiographical writing. His writing reflects American culture and the mores of Twentieth Century America.  He wrote this insightful statement about baseball as part of the American landscape.

“One reason I have always loved baseball so much is that it has been not merely ‘the great national game,’ but a part of our lives, of the thing that is our own, the million memories of America. Almost everything I know about spring is in it — the first leaf, the maple tree, the grass upon your hands and knees, the coming into flower of April. And is there anything that can tell more about an American summer than the smell of the wooden bleachers in a small town baseball park, that resinous, sultry and exciting smell of old dry wood.”

As the author, Frank Amoroso, has noted in his introduction to the three volume, THE WOPPER, he too has a deep love of baseball. Baseball has been a quintessential part of his life, from his childhood memories of baseball games with his father, to his continued life as a player in his retirement in North Carolina.  At the epicenter of his love of baseball is George Herman Ruth (The Babe).  So it is not a coincidence that Mr. Amoroso would write a insightful, imaginative and informative novel tracing Babe Ruth’s childhood, adolescence and adult life.

In “Pigtown”, the reader is introduced to the two major influences to young Babe’s life: his father, George Herman Ruth, Sr., and his benefactor and mentor, Brother Matthias Boutlier of the Xaverian Brothers School.  Mr. Amoroso deftly portrays the turmoil and dysfunctional childhood environment that affected Babe Ruth throughout his life.  Fortunately, Babe came under the tutelage of Brother Matthias at Xaverian Brothers.  Baseball became Ruth’s avenue to overcome a dead end environment and transform him into a prodigy.  Mr. Amoroso adept storytelling and the ability to weave together historical facts and imaginative possibilities, transports the reader into the turn of the century, German-American environment of Baltimore, Maryland.  In “Pigtown”, Mr. Amoroso lays the foundation for the coming of age of the greatest ball player ever to play the Great American Past-time. “Pigtown” is a must read for any sports fan and especially for the lovers of baseball.

-Shaun

Review from “The Inside Game”

German-Americans and Our National Pastime Reviews:

Review from “The Inside Game”