Review of the Day: The Aurora County All-Stars (Part Two)
(CONTINUED FROM PART ONE)
Don’t get me wrong. There were things I liked in the book as well. I imagine the character of House being played by a twelve-year-old Gary Cooper. House has the same good-hearted reticence as Cooper, complete with strong short sentences and a kind of basic decency you look for in an old-fashioned hero. Since Wiles’ novels all seem to take place in a kind of no-time (an era when soap operas and small town baseball games exist within the same sphere) it makes sense that House’s actions and mannerisms should conjure up the hero of a time past. Or maybe it’s Cooper’s portrayal of Lou Gehrig in "The Pride of the Yankees" that connects all these dots in my mind.
I also enjoyed how Wiles drew in such different dynamic elements as segregated ball teams and individual protests against an unjust world. I liked the author’s slow reveal of House’s relationship with Frances. Wiles teases it out so slowly and so well that you don’t realize that the two even have a past behind their more infamous encounters until the novel is nearly at its end. There were elements and flickers of light evident in Wiles’ work here. Clearly "The Aurora County All-Stars" was a labor of love on her part and clearly she worked at it. What falls flat are those moments that could have stood a bit of consolidation and refining without much loss or pain. Instead, the book ends up unexpectedly bloated. Adult Wiles fans will be able to push past these problems and love the lesson at the heart of the novel. For others, it will be a little more difficult to unfocus their eyes enough to see the book that could have been. I look forward to Deborah Wiles’ next.
Notes on the Cover: Marla Frazee is a god. And you can take that to the bank. I’ll probably never critique a cover she has laid her hand to. Certainly not this one.
Other Blog Reviews: bookshelves of doom, Sarah Miller: Reading, Writing, Musing, A Year of Reading, and The Kingdom of Books.
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Filed under: Reviews
About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Kirkus, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on BlueSky at: @fuse8.bsky.social
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