Country Hardball

My emotions were completely raw after reading Country Hardball. I had to go just sit, alone, and let this novel sink in. Steve Weddle has taken eighteen short stories and woven them into a blanket of beauty. The book is about a man, Roy Alison, that made a terrible mistake as a young man. Because of that mistake he has been in juvenile detention and jail. He decides he wants to go back home to his little hometown and try to make something go right in his life. He starts out by spending some quality time with his grandmother. She tells him stories and he listens. In the meantime he is trying to put together the puzzle of what really happened to his grandfather. Roy is following that road called life. He comes across a lot of bumps and he comes across some forks which require him to make some important decisions.

The story of Roy is the link in all the short stories in this novel, but every story takes you into a person's life in this rural town. These people work hard and have hard lives. You just feel a veil of sadness throughout the book, but it doesn't keep you from wanting to keep reading it. In fact, you find yourself taking a deep breath, and diving back in to see what will happen next in this community.I found myself feeling as if these characters were family.

I just thank Steve Weddle for writing such a great book that, definitely, tugged at my heart. What is so amazing is this is his debut novel. I hope this is the beginning of many more novels from Weddle.