W.P. Kinsella
W.P. Kinsella
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Set in Iowa, urban Canada, and San Francisco, the stories in WP Kinsella's Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa stem from ordinary experiences made “un-ordinary”. Almost equally divided between the real and the fantastic, these ten stories showcase Kinsella’s use of precise detail, on-the-mark dialect, and shape-shifting variations on the theme of how to survive in the world. In Fiona the First, a hungover aluminium window salesman is a kind of Ancient Mariner doomed to wander Pony Express depot's, railway stations, and airports picking up girls. In the title story that grew into the novel Shoeless Joe and later became the acclaimed film Field of Dreams, baseball, magic, and the redemptive power of fantasy converge in a Midwest cornfield. In a Picture of the Virgin, a clever prostitute cons a gullible young man in an Edmonton brothel, and in First Names and Empty Pockets, an Iowa mender of broken dolls drinks with a brash young Janis Joplin in a forlorn San Francisco bar.
- GenresFictionBaseballShort StoriesSportsCanadian Literature
141 pages, Paperback First published November 1, 1984
About the author
W.P. Kinsella
53books226followers
William Patrick Kinsella, OC, OBC was a Canadian novelist and short story writer. His work has often concerned baseball and Canada's First Nations and other Canadian issues. William Patrick Kinsella was born to John Matthew Kinsella and Olive Kinsella in Edmonton, Alberta. Kinsella was raised until he was 10 years-old at a homestead near Darwell, Alberta, 60 km west of the city, home-schooled by his mother and taking correspondence courses. "I'm one of these people who woke up at age five knowing how to read and write," he says. When he was ten, the family moved to Edmonton. As an adult, he held a variety of jobs in Edmonton, including as a clerk for the Government of Alberta and managing a credit bureau. In 1967, he moved to Victoria, British Columbia, running a pizza restaurant called Caesar's Italian Village and driving a taxi. Though he had been writing since he was a child (winning a YMCA contest at age 14), he began taking writing courses at the University of Victoria in 1970, receiving his Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing there in 1974. He travelled down to Iowa and earned a Master of Fine Arts in English degree through the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1978. In 1991, he was presented with an honorary Doctor of Literature degree from the University of Victoria. Kinsella's most famous work is Shoeless Joe, upon which the movie Field of Dreams was based. A short story by Kinsella, Lieberman in Love, was the basis for a short film that won the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film – the Oscar win came as a surprise to the author, who, watching the award telecast from home, had no idea the film had been made and released. He had not been listed in the film's credits, and was not acknowledged by director Christine Lahti in her acceptance speech – a full-page advertisem*nt was later placed in Variety apologizing to Kinsella for the error. Kinsella's eight books of short stories about life on a First Nations reserve were the basis for the movie Dance Me Outside and CBC television series The Rez, both of which Kinsella considers very poor quality. The collection Fencepost Chronicles won the Stephen Leaco*ck Award for Humour in 1987. Before becoming a professional author, he was a professor of English at the University of Calgary in Alberta. Kinsella suffered a car accident in 1997 which resulted in a long hiatus in his fiction-writing career until the publication of the novel, Butterfly Winter. He is a noted tournament Scrabble player, becoming more involved with the game after being disillusioned by the 1994 Major League Baseball strike. Near the end of his life he lived in Yale, British Columbia with his fourth wife, Barbara (d. 2012), and occasionally wrote articles for various newspapers. In the year 1993, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2005, he was awarded the Order of British Columbia. W.P. Kinsella elected to die on September 16, 2016 with the assistance of a physician.
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Community Reviews
4.03
323ratings17reviews
5 stars
117 (36%)
4 stars
124 (38%)
3 stars
58 (17%)
2 stars
23 (7%)
1 star
1 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
Gary Sites
Author1 book14 followers
“To me it is baseball and that is all that matters. It is the game that is important--the tension, the strategy, the ballet of the fielders, the angle of the bat.” This is the short story that became the novel, SHOELESS JOE, and later, the wonderful film, FIELD OF DREAMS. Kinsella hadn’t even considered this wonderful story becoming a novel, but when a publisher wrote, telling him that it should be, the story grew into something beyond special. The fullness and success of the book doesn’t take away a bit of the strength of this little gem. I thoroughly enjoyed it, as I’m sure any devoted fan of the game will. Yes, Sir. I totally agree. Play ball!
As Shoeless Joe said,
“I loved the game. I’d have played for food money. I’d have played for free and worked for food. It was the game, the parks, the smells, the sounds. Have you ever held a bat or a baseball to your face? The varnish, the leather. And it was the crowd, the excitement of them rising as one when the ball was hit deep. The sound was like a chorus. Then there was the chug-a-lug of the tin lizzies in the parking lots and the hotels with their brass spittoons in the lobbies and brass beds in the rooms. It makes me tingle all over like a kid on his way to his first double-header, just to talk about it.”
- favorites fiction short-story
Alan
1,972 reviews14 followers
I think W.P. Kinsella is a much better short story writer than novelist, and keep in mind that Shoeless Joe is one of my favorite books. This collection I think shows a Kinsella when he was a fledgling writer, just discovering his ability with words and to mix reality with fantasy in a way that the everyday can seem fantastic. Among the tales: The short that led to the novel Shoeless Joe, another set where things go a little differently and Janis Joplin doesn't overdose and die, a whor*house in WW II Canada, a young man seeking the love of his life, and there is more. Sometimes there is more than a tinge of melancholy to these tales. Often what resounds is how important love is to us. Find a collection of Kinsella's shorts and I doubt that you will be disappointed.
Patrick Barry
1,082 reviews9 followers
Ten decent short stories from the creator of Field of Dreams Be forewarned, the stories are mostly not about baseball.
Barbara VA
561 reviews19 followers
I thought that I was getting the full novel of Shoeless Joe and I got a book of short stories instead. They were all a bit magical, dreamy and nostalgic. Joe and First Names and Empty Pockets (a Janis Joplin story) were by far my favorites, but I need to get the full Joe book from the library before it is time for football. It is so odd, I really do not like baseball but I am entranced by baseball movies and I love to watch college football, Virginia Tech anyway, and will sit through the Redskins with my husband but will not read about the game!
- 2014-read movies sports
Rosa
512 reviews42 followers
Gem: "First Names and Empty Pockets." But then, I'll read anything about Janis Joplin, so I'm biased. It's a good story anyway, to be read while listening to "Pre-Road Downs" by Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Some of the others are unpleasant.
- short-stories
Jay Wright
1,673 reviews3 followers
This is a series of early short stories. It is not the book made into Field of Dreams but does have the original short story he later xpanded. I liked the short story on Janis Joplin the best.
Shawn
359 reviews7 followers
Didn't find this to be on par with other Kinsella short story collections I've read that I enjoyed.
So-so.
Tim
101 reviews1 follower
A fun collection of short stories.
L
144 reviews10 followers
2.8 stars. Two short stories lingered in my imagination, others were highly forgettable. Glad I didn't buy this collection.
Mark
Author4 books4 followers
A treasure. If you are a baseball fan, as well as nostalgic, and a lover of literature, this book is for you. Delightful.
Kevin Rumsey
75 reviews
Extremely entertaining
Lori
4 reviews
I love W.P Kinsella's novels, so I was excited about reading this collection of short stories. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy them as much as his novels. Perhaps it is because the stories seem disjointed, or because these are some of Kinsella's very early writings & he was just beginning to develop a style. Or maybe it is because these stories are so short & do not allow for the development of interesting characters,which is one of the aspects I love about his novels.
Cindy
76 reviews3 followers
Many stories. Some of which were kind of strange, almost like someone was rambling on and on...
- fiction-adventure
Greg
168 reviews4 followers
The first story, Fiona the First, was my favorite. The rest were mostly average Kinsella stories.
- 2011 fiction
Steve
692 reviews19 followers
I haven't read this one in years. I the title short story is the best story by far. Some of the others are OK and a couple are just weird. Still rates a 5 though for the one story.
Donna
1,325 reviews7 followers
I'm still on my baseball kick! Just watched Field of Dreams and wanted to read this one.
Robert Kaufman
52 reviews68 followers
I guess I am hooked on Kinsella stories.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
