The Great American Novel (Vintage International)

A richly imagined novel centered on the only homeless major league baseball team in American history, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Pastoral.

"Roth invents baseball anew, as pure slapstick.... An awesome performance." —The New Republic • "Shameless comic extravagance."—The New York Times

Gil Gamesh, the only pitcher who ever literally tried to kill the umpire. The ex-con first baseman, John Baal, "The Babe Ruth of the Big House," who never hit a home run sober. If you've never heard of them—or of the homeless baseball team the Ruppert Mundys—it's because of the Communist plot, and the capitalist scandal, that expunged the entire Patriot League from baseball memory.

In this ribald, wickedly satiric novel, Roth turns baseball's status as national pastime and myth into an occasion for unfettered picaresque farce, replete with heroism and perfidy, ebullient wordplay and a cast of characters that includes the House Un-American Activities Committee.