The Devil's Snake Curve: A Fan's Notes from Left Field (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781566893459)

The Devil's Snake Curve offers an alternative American history, in which colonialism, jingoism, capitalism, and faith are represented by baseball. Personal and political, it twines Japanese internment camps with the Yankees; Walmart with the Kansas City Royals; and facial hair patterns with militarism, Guantanamo, and the modern security state. An essay, a miscellany, and a passionate unsettling of Josh Ostergaard's relationship with our national pastime, it allows for both the clover of a childhood outfield and the persistence of the game's service to those in power. America and baseball are both hard to love or leave in this by turns coruscating and heartfelt debut.

Josh Ostergaard holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Minnesota and an MA in cultural anthropology. He has been an urban anthropologist at the Field Museum and now works at Graywolf Press.


Author: Josh Ostergaard
ISBN-10: 1566893453
ISBN-13: 9781566893459
Publisher: Coffee House Press
Language: English
Published: 04/15/2014
Pages: 236
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.30w x 1.00d

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 03/01/2014 pg. 12
Publishers Weekly 03/10/2014
Shelf Awareness 04/25/2014
New York Times Book Review 06/29/2014 pg. 16
New York Times Book Review 07/06/2014 pg. 22