Product Description

A fan's notes for the ages, Faithful grew from an email exchange last summer. Filled with the heady mix of exhilaration and frustration familiar to all Boston Red Sox fans, Stewart O'Nan fired off a note to fellow Sox fan, Stephen King, who responded with his thoughts on Pedro, Nomar, Manny, Mueller, and Theo. From the supposed Curse of the Bambino to f###in' Bucky Dent to the recent off-season battle for Alex Rodriguez, Sox fans have seen it all since 1918...except for that elusive World Championship. Baseball history has transformed these fans into a "nation" -- not to mention the most dedicated, knowledgeable fanbase on the planet. Stewart O'Nan and Stephen King, proud members of Red Sox Nation, will chronicle the 2004 baseball season from spring training to the last game of the season -- the important plays, the controversial managerial decisions, the significant front office moves, and the spectacular finish (whether heartbreaking or joyous). Attending games together, keeping a running diary of observations and arguments, and occasionally evoking great or tragic events in Red Sox history. King and O'Nan will cheer on their beloved team with the eternal hope that this just might be the year. If you don't have season ticket box seats right behind the firstbase dugout, you can't beat Faithful.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #94948 in Books
• Published on: 2004-12-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 432 pages

Amazon.com Review
Fans watching the 2004 baseball playoffs were often treated to shots of Stephen King sitting in the stands, notebook in hand. Given the bizarre events on the field, from the Red Sox's unprecedented comeback against their most hated rivals to their ace pitcher's bleeding, stitched-together ankle--not to mention the Sox's first championship in 86 years--you could be forgiven for thinking King was writing the script as he went along, passing new plot twists down to the dugouts between innings.

What he was writing, though, along with his friend and fellow novelist Stewart O'Nan, was Faithful, a diary of the 2004 Red Sox season. Faithful is written not from inside the clubhouse or the press room, but from the outside, from the stands and the sofa in front of the TV, by two fans who, like the rest of New England, have lived and died (mostly died) with the Sox for decades. From opposite ends of Red Sox Nation, King in Maine and O'Nan at the border of Yankees country in Connecticut, they would meet in the middle at Fenway Park or trade emails from home about the games they'd both stayed up past midnight to watch. King (or, rather, "Steve") is emotional, O'Nan (or "Stew") is obsessively analytical. Steve, as the most famous Sox fan who didn't star in Gigli, is a folk hero of sorts, trading high fives with doormen and enjoying box seats better than John Kerry's, while Stew is an anonymous nomad, roving all over the park. (Although he's such a shameless ballhound that he gains some minor celebrity as "Netman" when he brings a giant fishing net to hawk batting-practice flies from the top of the Green Monster.)

You won't find any of the Roger Angell-style lyricism here that baseball, and the Sox in particular, seem to bring out in people. (King wouldn't stand for it.) Instead, this is the voice of sports talk radio: two fans by turns hopeful, distraught, and elated, who assess every inside pitch and every waiver move as a personal affront or vindication. Full of daily play-by-play and a season's rises and falls, Faithful isn't self-reflective or flat-out funny enough to become a sports classic like Fever Pitch, Ball Four, or A Fan's Notes, but like everything else associated with the Red Sox 2004 season, from the signing of Curt Schilling to Dave Roberts's outstretched fingers, it carries the golden glow of destiny. And, of course, it's got a heck of an ending. --Tom Nissley

From Publishers Weekly
Of all the books that will examine the Boston Red Sox's stunning come-from-behind 2004 ALCS win over the Yankees and subsequent World Series victory, none will have this book's warmth, personality or depth. Beginning with an e-mail exchange in the summer of 2003, novelists King and O'Nan started keeping diaries chronicling the Red Sox's season, from spring training to the Series' final game. Although they attended some games together, the two did most of their conversing in electronic missives about the team's players, the highs and lows of their performance on the field and the hated Yankees ("limousine longballers"). O'Nan acts as a play-by-play announcer, calling the details of every game (sometimes quite tediously), while King provides colorful commentary, making the games come alive by proffering his intense emotional reactions to them. When the Red Sox find themselves three games down during the ALCS, King reflects on the possibilities of a win in game four: "Yet still we are the faithful... we tell ourselves it's just one game at a time. We tell ourselves the impossible can start tonight." After the Sox win the Series, O'Nan delivers a fan's thanks: "You believed in yourselves even more than we did. That's why you're World Champions, and why we'll never forget you or this season. Wherever you go, any of you, you'll always have a home here, in the heart of the Nation." (At times, the authors' language borders on the maudlin.) But King and O'Nan are, admittedly, more eloquent than average baseball fans (or average sportswriters, for that matter), and their book will provide Red Sox readers an opportunity to relive every nail-biting moment of a memorable season.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
In ON WRITING, Stephen King advises novelists not to determine the ending before they begin writing. Apparently the same rules apply for nonfiction. King and co-author Stewart O'Nan, started FAITHFUL, a record of the 2004 Red Sox season, unaware that it would end with one of the greatest comebacks in sports history. The result is a book-length conversation between two great gothic novelists about a mys-terious baseball curse. O'Nan (whose voice is narrated by Adam Grupper) and King (voiced by Ron McLarty) give baseball fans a lot of bang for their buck--nearly 16 hours of stats and play-by-play--but there's a little something for everyone here, including a rundown on the origins of the Standells' hit "Dirty Water" and a glimpse into King's TV habits. Would you believe the master of suspense loves "All My Children"? (And speaking of Stewart O'Nan, when is somebody going to release A Prayer for the Dying on audio?) R.W.S. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Baseball Heaven
Written by fans, written for fans.

That is FAITHFUL in its very essence. And you don't even need to be a Sox fan. What you do need, though, is a rabid love for the game of Baseball.

On paper, this book looks to impress. You got two wonderful writers, Stewart O' Nan and Stephen King, both with impressive resumes (O' Nan's not as popular as King, obviously, but he wasn't voted one of the top 20 among young writers in the States for nothing) and a substantial amount of published works between the two of them, they could almost sell this book on pure reputation. But this book is much more than that. It has tons of character, emotion and honesty, which is exactly what a baseball book, any baseball book, should have. Baseball is a passionate game and this book does a good job of that, not because of the duo's skill, mind you, but because of their passion and their brutally honest love for the game of Baseball and, of course, the Red Sox.

That's not to say the writing's bad by any means. The writing is what you would expect from the duo. And they have kept the writing fresh and interesting throughout which I find impressive; not often do you see the game of Baseball being portrayed in such vibrancy over so long an account. And not often do you get a full recap of a FULL baseball season done so well, and you're getting all 400+ pages of it. But I believe it's more because of the passion in their veins and not technical skill.

So, you're asking, why should I bother? I'm not a Red Sox fan! Well, I dare say this book transcends even that, I dare say that no matter what fan base you belong to, you will come away from the book with a smile on your face, because, although this book is biased towards the Sox, any fan can appreciate the level of content this account of Baseball has. It was a histrorical win after all and the Sox winning the World Series after 80 plus years has got to appeal to us baseball fans because baseball is a historical sport by nature.

So I believe, to baseball fans, this book will be an addiction, a celebration of the game of Baseball. It will touch the universal heart of the Baseball fan.

So, Baseball fans, get this book will you? I guarantee you will soon be in Baseball heaven.

A Fan's Chronicle
We already know the ending, so the fun in reading "Faithful" is all about squirming along with the authors as they bare their frustrations and insecurities about the BoSox in a series of diary entries and e-mail exchanges. It's a fun read, although O'Nan quite often gets bogged down in the play-by-play details of games instead of the stories surrounding the games. And, after he snagged his 20th baseball of the season, I stopped counting and started wondering where O'Nan has room for the dozens of outfield flies and foul balls that he catches during the course of the season?

Although O'Nan and King aren't reporters, I can't stop thinking about why their publisher didn't hook them up with player interviews or behind-the-scenes access. As it is, the book is more about the art of being a fan rather than about the 2004 Boston Red Sox.

The title says it all: take it for what it is
Anyone who thinks that this book should be entertaining to anyone but a Red Sox fan needs to re-read the title. This book was never advertised as anything more than two fanatics game by game reactions to and experiences with each Red Sox game of the 2004 season. For a Red Sox fan, it was a great read, especially knowing how the whole thing ends. For anyone else other than those who are just true sports fans, I can clearly see how it would be a huge bore just as a book entitled "Astrophysics: Two Diehard Scientists Chronicle the History of the Science" would bore the hell out of me. Frankly, I enjoyed the season itself and then enjoyed reliving it through the eyes of O'Nan and Uncle Stephie. It's a shame that more authors haven't picked up on this notion for other sports teams looking at promising seasons.