~Playing with the Enemy~

-by Gene Moore

*ENDING SPOILERS*

(This has been in my draft box for quite a while now...!)

I really did enjoy this "school required" book...until I got to the end.

I'm a sucker for happy endings, which is why I was dissapointed when the main character, Gary Moore, never makes it to the majors and refuses to talk about his past. Why don't you just rip my heart out?

He was the perfect catch, the perfect leader, and the perfect all-around person. But it's not a fairytale book, which is what I didn't think I would have to remember.

As I said before, I love happy endings, and this is definetly not a match in the puzzle. It's one of those "exceptions" to the list. Like the pieces you cram together because they look right, but really they don't.

It is a very good read though, and definetly worth the time if you are expecting the major heart-break in the end.

Gene stepped out onto Madison Street, unable to reconcile the contrast in sights and sounds between Sesser and Chicago. In Sesser, sounds flowed through the trees, fields, and rolling hills. In Chicago, the noise bounced back and forth from building to building. The sounds echoing in front of Union Station reminded Gene of being in a gymnasium in rural Illinois. He was outside, and yet he felt closed in.

The game had almost forgotten about him, but he never forgot about the game.

"You Americans are not as smart as you think," Mueller said with a determined shake of his head. "You do it wrong. You should have been playing [baseball] to entertain the German troops." "Why's that?" "Baseball could be your secret weapon," smiled Mueller. "You could have bored us to death and won the war already."