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Product Identifiers

PublisherSeven Footer Press

ISBN-101934734160

ISBN-139781934734162

eBay Product ID (ePID)78400057

Product Key Features

Book TitleCardboard Gods : an All-American Tale Told Through Baseball Cards

Number of Pages208 Pages

LanguageEnglish

TopicBaseball / General, Sports Cards / Baseball, Sports

Publication Year2010

GenreSports & Recreation, Biography & Autobiography, Antiques & Collectibles

AuthorJosh Wilker

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height1.1 in

Item Weight24.6 Oz

Item Length9 in

Item Width6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

Reviews"Josh Wilker'sCardboard Godsis a poignant and vivid account of how and why he accessed baseball cards as a survival tool while negotiating a 1970s childhood marked by changing mores and confusing mixed messages. This is a story of brotherly love, survival of the also-ran, and the hope that quickens a kid's heartbeat each time he rips open a fresh pack of baseball cards, gets a whiff of bubble gum, and, holding his breath, sees who he's got as opposed to who and what he needs. If you love the writing of Dave Eggers or Augusten Burroughs, you just may love Josh Wilker'sCardboard Gods, too. I did." --Wally Lamb,New York Timesbestselling author ofShe's Come UndoneandThe Hour I First Believed "Josh Wilker writes as beautifully about baseball and life as anyone ever has." --Rob Neyer, ESPN "This is a story, at its heart, about growing up in America. More specifically it's about growing up at a time when country, author, and the great American game of baseball were simultaneously in a state of flux. Hippies, post-Watergate Nixonites, parents, kids, teens, and even baseball, forever altered with the introduction of free agency, all grasping at a murky, anxious future. Josh Wilker, using seemingly random baseball cards pulled from his childhood, and the memories and metaphors they invoke, guides us through the restless and awkward story of his life (so far) with grace, pain, and ultimately vindication. In short, it's a story about baseball and America and his (our) generation." --David Cross, actor, comedian, and author ofI Drink for a Reason "Cardboard Godsis more than just a book. It is something that I lived and live still. I was the older brother. I live on Route 14 like Josh once did. My two sons were those boys in the picture, VW bus and all.Cardboard Godsawakened feelings in me that I have long suppressed. It is a growth book, likeCatcher in the Rye. People, especially people who love baseball, will carry this book with them everywhere." --Bill Lee, bestselling author ofThe Wrong Stuff, Red Sox legend, baseball bat entrepreneur "A warm, rich and funny recollection of one American boyhood as viewed through the unimpeachable prism of baseball cards. Literate, nostalgic and sneaky fast." --Brendan Boyd, author ofGreat American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book "Every baseball card is a story, a player, a history eroding. Josh Wilker understands this profoundly, and scrambles to bring those stories, his stories, to life in uproarious and moving fashion. Just don't put this book in your bike spokes." --Will Leitch, author ofGod Save the Fan,New Yorkmagazine contributing editor, Deadspin.com founding editor "Josh Wilker has pulled of as nifty of double play as Tinkers-Evers-and-Chance ever executed inCardboard Gods, reimagining the baseball cards of his youth and effortlessly turning them into a lamp to shine on his own memories in this fascinating read." --Bert Randolph Sugar, author ofBert Sugar's Baseball Hall of Fame: A Living History of America's Greatest Game "To say Josh Wilker writes beautifully about baseball, or boyhood-as he does-is to halve his ample achievement. Like Frederick Exley'sA Fan's Notes,Cardboard Godsnails the worshipful contortions and rueful ecstasies of fandom, and its pure dexterity with memory amounts to an athletic event of its own. Evocative, painful, affectionate and funny,Cardboard Godsis astonishing. Like Henry Aaron's home run ball described herein, Wilker's book wears its own ha

SynopsisCardboard Gods is the memoir of Josh Wilker, a brilliant writer who has marked the stages of his life through the baseball cards he collected as a child. It also captures the experience of growing up obsessed with baseball cards and explores what it means to be a fan of the game. Along the way, as we get to know Josh, his family, and his friends, we also get Josh's classic observations about the central artifacts from his life: the baseball cards themselves. Josh writes about an imagined correspondence with his favorite player, Carl Yastrzemski; he uses the magical bubble-blowing powers of journeyman Kurt Bevacqua to shed light on the weakening of the powerful childhood bond with his older brother; he considers the doomed utopian back-to-the-land dreams of his hippie parents against the backdrop of inimitable 1970s baseball figures such as "Designated Pinch Runner" Herb Washington and Mark "The Bird" Fidrych. Cardboard Gods is more than just the story of a man who can't let go of his past, it's proof that -- to paraphrase Jim Bouton -- as children we grow up holding baseball cards but in the end we realize that it's really the other way around.