Double Play

By Robert B. Parker and Parker Robert B.

Book Overview

Robert B. Parker fans have been quick to embrace each addition to his remarkable canon, from the legendary Spenser series to the novels featuring Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall. And his occasional forays into the past-Gunman's Rhapsody, a fresh take on Wyatt Earp, and Poodle Springs, based on a Raymond Chandler story-have dazzled critics and confirmed his place among the greatest writers of this century. With Double Play, he presents us with a book he was literally born to write. It is 1947, the year Jackie Robinson breaks major-league baseball's color barrier by playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers-and changes the world. This is the story of that season, as told through the eyes of a difficult, brooding, and wounded man named Joseph Burke. Burke, a veteran of World War II and a survivor of Guadalcanal, is hired by Brooklyn Dodgers manager Branch Rickey to guard Robinson. While Burke shadows Robinson, a man of tremendous strength and character suddenly thrust into the media spotlight, the bodyguard must also face some hard truths of his own, in a world where the wrong associations can prove fatal. A brilliant novel about a very real man, Double Playis a triumph: ingeniously crafted, rich with period detail, and re-sounding with the themes familiar to Parker's readers-honor, duty, responsibility, and redemption.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399151885
• ISBN13: 9780399151880
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: Putnam
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.4" x 1.3" x 6.3"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

This may well be Parker's best novel.

Why? He mixes together so many things that he is passionate about in his other books - baseball, the tough guy persona, relationships between men and women, the mafia. It's all here and it's all wrapped up in the compelling story of Jackie Robinson. Parker also includes a number of autobiographical sections in the novel in the form of the memories of "Bobby", a young boy who listens to the Dodgers games on the radio. At first, I thought the Bobby character was unnecessary fluff, but he is used quite effectively to showcase the general sentiment of the baseball fans toward race. Well done. A good bit of writing.

One of Parker's best

I loved "Double Play." It's been a long time since a book has so resonated in my consciousness. Let me tell you why. Robert B. Parker and I are about the same age. We were both 14 in the summer of 1947 when most of his book takes place. Like Mr. Parker, I spent my youth listening to ballgames on the radio. I, too, had been a Brooklyn Dodgers fan (until the summer of 1946 when they were supplanted in my affections by the St. Louis Cardinals - but that's a story for another time). I, too, listened to all the wonderful old radio shows of the day, Jack Benny, Fibber McGee and Molly, and on and on that Mr. Parker discusses in his "Bobby" sequences. I saw Jackie Robinson play against the Cardinals in St Louis in that summer of his rookie year, 1947 - I wonder where Burke was? Mr. Parker's mother, a spirited woman who he describes as, "often wrong, but never in doubt," and his father, who dealt with his wife's bossiness with slightly bemused tolerance, reminded me of my own parents' personalities and relationship. Even the unconscious racism of 1940s Springfield, Mass. was reminiscent of the racism that prevailed in Oklahoma City at the time. The exciting story of the developing respect between Burke, the tough WW-II combat veteran, failed boxer, and body guard; and Jackie Robinson is well told and a lot of fun. Sure their relationship has overtones of Spencer and Hawk but, what the heck, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." And we can always count on a Robert B. Parker novel to give us three dimensional characters and smart, endlessly entertaining dialog. For example, Burke, although only about 22 in 1947, is older than his time on earth would indicate - and infinitely sadder, too. I think I would have liked "Double Play" a lot, even without its connections to my own childhood but the combination of Mr. Parker's formidable storytelling talent and the time in which his book is set served to make it doubly rewarding for me.

At the top of his form

This is Parker on the stretch, away from his favorite characters, away from his Boston setting, plunged into the past. When he's stretched he's at the top of his form and demonstrates his moves on every page.Most of all, the Jackie Robinson story is a story about a time and the first third of the book is background. Parker does the postwar period masterfully and the interspersed personal chapters are a nice, innovative touch. They've drawn some criticism, unwarranted in my opinion.The characters are fresh, the plotting and dialogue as economical as the best Parker, the resolution touching. I read it straight through, disrupting all of my prior plans for the day, and not regretting a moment of it.

Welcome Back, Mr. Parker!

A couple of the most recent Spenser books were, to me, short of the mark, as if Parker were a bit tired of the character. And his constant repetition of key phrases said by characters in his three series was more than annoying. ("We'd be fools not to" being the worst. There are others. Parker's publishers/editors fall down on their job here.) Double Play was like a breath of fresh air. How a reviewer can simply say Burke is a Spenser clone is quite beyond me. He's a *very* different character, a most interesting and subtley complex one. Robinson is black. Hawk is black. And there any comparison ends. Robinson is a very well developed character, in my estimation, and rings true as the man we came to know in history.Bringing together both the criminal elements and the extreme racism of those times I thought an excellent tool as well as being true to life. Those who weren't alive back then simply don't understand how much a part of daily life these things were, even though submerged in "good company." (Unfortunately, they're both with us still.)I was also impressed by Parker's grasp of the effects of war on the Burke character, how he retreated inward emotionally, the building of his need and desire to expand again as a human being.I'd recommend this one to anyone.

Great book, Parker is on top of his game!

A great book by Robert B. Parker, who's new hero, Burke, is just as gritty as Spenser. This book takes place during the 1940's when baseball is about to integrate with Jackie Robinson. Burke is hired to protect Robinson at any cost. The real greatness in the book is the relationship that Burke and Robinson develop over the course of the story. A really good book and I highly recommend it.