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By James Sturm<\/strong> (Drawn & Quarterly Publications) Set in the 1920s American Heartland, James Sturm’s The Golem’s Mighty Swing<\/strong> harks back to happier, darker times in American history to relate a tale of the early, less enlightened days of baseball. These were times when every city and most towns had ball teams, but also when non-white, non-Christian sportsmen were barred from competing with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Real Americans\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n The Stars of David are a Jewish ball team, barely eking out a living touring the country, capitalising on their ethnicity to attract the local yokels to the games \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and their livelihood. So when a sharp four-flushing promoter makes them a degrading yet potentially lucrative offer\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n Hiring a Black player and billing him as a son of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Lost Tribe of Israel\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is incautious, but the hype goes too far when he is touted as an actual Golem \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a clay statue animated by Rabbinical magic. Things go terribly wrong during a game when the spectacle-starved ball-fans riot, enflamed by stupidity and the anti-Semitic racism that was so much a part of that era.<\/p>\n It’s a beautifully rendered and powerfully compelling book, powerfully evocative, fearsomely authentic and subversively underplayed for maximum effect. Sturm’s art is subtle and simple relating a sad yet oddly life-affirming tale.<\/p>\n You can read this superb book as a parable about race, culture, integration or human nature\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 just as long as you do read it.<\/p>\n \u00c2\u00a9 2003 James Sturm. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By James Sturm (Drawn & Quarterly Publications) ISBN 10: 1-89659-771-8 ISBN 13: 978-1-896597-71-3 Set in the 1920s American Heartland, James Sturm’s The Golem’s Mighty Swing harks back to happier, darker times in American history to relate a tale of the early, less enlightened days of baseball. These were times when every city and most towns … <\/p>\n
\nISBN 10: 1-89659-771-8
\nISBN 13: 978-1-896597-71-3<\/p>\n