"I particularly love Paul Auster's writing. It draws me in and keeps me floating page by page, chapter by chapter. This book talks about many things that have importance in my life: baseball as a means to bond, the lure of Brooklyn, the love of literature and the meaning it gives to our lives. Miles Heller is a twenty-eight year-old who, according to his father, is stuck in the psyche of an 17-18 year-old. Haunted by the memory of his step-brother's death and convinced that it was all his fault, he drops out of Brown in his junior year and spends the next nine years or so bouncing from city to city, low-profile job to low-profile job, relationship to relationship, until he meets Pilar Sanchez in Florida. Unfortunately, she is a sixteen year-old high school girl, an orphan with three older sisters. His father and step-mother are devastated by his disappearance, his mother, an aging actress less so, but concerned. His good friend Bing keeps in touch with Miles, as well as his father, a small independent publisher of important literary works. In the wake of the 2008 economic collapse, Bing, having commandeered an abandoned house in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, moves in with three women. When one of the squatters moves out, Bing asks Miles to join them as the fourth, and, surprisingly, he agrees. Miles is motivated by a blackmailing Sanchez older sister and a desire to finally make amends with his parents and their spouses. The squatters' anxiety heightens when NYC marshalls order them to vacate the premises, but Bing wants to stand tall against the The baseball connection between Miles and his father is very real for me and the motif of the hard-luck pitchers brought me to tears (a Cleveland Indian and a Detroit Tiger). However, the games the father and son play, such as the all-body parts team (think Rollie Fingers, for starters, or relievers) are pricelessly funny."
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Anne (4 out of 5 stars)