Overview

"An unforgettable chronicle of a year of minor-league baseball in a small Iowa town that follows not only the travails of the players of the Clinton LumberKings but also the lives of their dedicated fans and of the town itself. Award-winning essayist Lucas Mann delivers a powerful debut in his telling of the story of the 2010 season of the Clinton LumberKings. Along the Mississippi River, in a Depression-era stadium, young prospects from all over the world compete for a chance to move up through the baseball ranks to the major leagues. Their coaches, some of whom have spent nearly half a century in the game, watch from the dugout. In the bleachers, local fans call out from the same seats they've occupied year after year. And in the distance, smoke rises from the largest remaining factory in a town that once had more millionaires per capita than any other in America. Mann turns his eye on the players, the coaches, the fans, the radio announcer, the town, and finally on himself, a young man raised on baseball, driven to know what still draws him to the stadium. His voice is as fresh and funny as it is poignant, illuminating both the small triumphs and the harsh realities of minor-league ball. Part sports story, part cultural exploration, part memoir, ""Class A"" is a moving and unique study of why we play, why we watch, and why we remember."

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9780307907547

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Reviews

Beautifully written. The best, most human, account of the minor league experience I've read. Mann's story resides beyond the chilly statistics of the game, in a lush world draped with blood, sweat, fear and longing. Where residents of a town in steep decline and a team replete with doomed prospects somehow manage to find that one product baseball manufactures more expertly than any other industry--hope. <br>--Mitchell Nathanson, author of A People's History of Baseball

Lucas Mann's startlingly good Class A revitalizes not just the small-town sports story but the genre of creative nonfiction itself. It's the most original nonfiction debut I've read in years, much smarter than the usual 'you-are-there' narrative and far more vivid, witty, and emotionally rich than a book this self-aware has any right to be. Mann's orchestration of character and moment--his insight into the nature of hope and delusion--is wonderful to behold. <br>--Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family and Sweet Heaven When I Die <br> Like a millennial Joan Didion or Gay Talese, just as talented, just as pure, Lucas Mann comes blazing out of nowhere and makes good on this book's grand promise of 'everywhere' his beautiful losers, monkey-rodeo impresario, superstars-in-training, steely-eyed Venezuelan Caseys-at-the-Bat, and--perhaps most profoundly--his own winsome self, make this tour through the Mississippi Valley minors the most intensely contemporary and truly amusing nonfiction that I have read in quite some time. <br>--John Beckman, author of The Winter Zoo <br> Beautifully written. The best, most human, account of the minor league experience I've read. Mann's story resides beyond the chilly statistics of the game, in a lush world draped with blood, sweat, fear and longing. Where residents of a town in steep decline and a team replete with doomed prospects somehow manage to find that one product baseball manufactures more expertly than any other industry--hope. <br>--Mitchell Nathanson, author of A People's History of Baseball <br> Lucas Mann's debut is a beautiful, gripping account of his immersion in the world of a Class A minor league team, the LumberKings of Clinton, Iowa. This is a book about baseball, players-in-waiting, fans and community, but it is also a pitch perfect evocation of what the author calls 'the middle of everywhere'-that place where so many people live and work, finding grace and meaning in often challenging circumsta

Author Information

"Lucas Mann was born in New York City and received his MFA from the University of Iowa, where he is currently the Provost's Visiting Writer in Nonfiction. His essays and stories have appeared in or are forthcoming from"" Wigleaf, Barrelhouse, New South, Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art, "" and ""The Kenyon Review."" He lives in Iowa City, Iowa."

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