It’s been a long time since I experienced the dichotomy of wanting to hurry, hurry, hurry and finish a book while simultaneously wanting to slow down and have the book last forever. But Summerland, Michael Chabon’s baseball fantasy novel (as opposed to a fantasy baseball novel — a very different concept), gave me just that reaction.

The main character is 11-year-old Ethan Feld, possibly the worst player Clam Island has ever seen in its long history of baseball. That is, until Ethan gets recruited by a group of Little People (aka Ferishers) to save their beloved home, the Summerlands — and, incidentally, the entire universe.

His challenge? To prevent Coyote (known also as “the Changer. Monkey. Raven. Weasel. Loki, Herm, Legba, Glooscap, Eshu, Shaitan. Prometheus.”) from ruining the well that feeds the roots of the Tree of Life.

Luckily, Ethan doesn’t have to do this all on his own. He starts out on his journey with two of his teammates — Jennifer T. and Theo — and the king of the local Ferishers, Cinquefoil, and is joined along the way by a werefox who loves balogna, a female Sasquatch, a tiny giant, a Ferisher princess, and a washed-up pro player. They must discover their own individual gifts and learn how to work together as a team as they battle their way across the fantastic landscape of the Summerlands by playing baseball against some of the wildest teams imaginable — including a team of folktale heroes and, ultimately, a team of reputed demons, headed by Coyote.

Chabon draws on folklore, mythology, and a love of baseball to craft a terrific novel for readers of any age who have stretched during the seventh or sweated it through the bottom of the ninth.

One caveat: The book starts out a little slow (which gives me renewed hope for Chabon’s Pulitzer-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, a book I just couldn’t ever get into), but the characters are interesting ones and I recommend staying with them for the first few chapters until Chabon finds his rhythm.

Best scene in the book:

Jennifer T. has asked Spider-Rose (the Ferisher princess) why she’d been imprisoned. Spider-Rose answers, “Is there anything duller in all the game of baseball than watching the pitcher hit? Pitcher goes up there, if she even gets the bat off her shoulder it’s to give it a few weak waves like she’s shooing a little moth away. And then, big surpirse, three or four pitches later, she’s out. Well, Coyote said, and I couldn’t argue with him, why does the pitcher have to hit? That’s all. Just a little thought. Let somebody else hit for the pitcher. One of the old-timers, somebody whose legs, maybe they’re not what they were. Or one of your born sluggers who can’t catch or run or field a position too well, but can knock the hide off a ball with one swing. Somebody who ain’t –”

“The designated-hitter rule,” Jennifer T. said, shaking her head…. “You deserve to be in here for that.”

Best sentiment in the book:

“The fundamental truth [is that] a baseball game is nothing but a great slow contraption for getting you to pay attention to the cadence of a summer day.”

Final score: A, for one of the most engaging, original reads I’ve come across in a while.

Next up: …? Anyone have any suggestions for a good read?