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Wait Till Next Year
By the award-winning author of Team of Rivals and The Bully Pulpit , Wait Till Next Year is Doris Kearns Goodwin’s touching memoir of growing up in love with her family and baseball.
Set in the suburbs of New York in the 1950s, Wait Till Next Year re-creates the postwar era, when the corner store was a place to share stories and neighborhoods were equally divided between Dodger, Giant, and Yankee fans.
We meet the people who most influenced Goodwin’s early her mother, who taught her the joy of books but whose debilitating illness left her and her father, who taught her the joy of baseball and to root for the Dodgers of Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, and Gil Hodges. Most important, Goodwin describes with eloquence how the Dodgers’ leaving Brooklyn in 1957, and the death of her mother soon after, marked both the end of an era and, for her, the end of childhood.
Set in the suburbs of New York in the 1950s, Wait Till Next Year re-creates the postwar era, when the corner store was a place to share stories and neighborhoods were equally divided between Dodger, Giant, and Yankee fans.
We meet the people who most influenced Goodwin’s early her mother, who taught her the joy of books but whose debilitating illness left her and her father, who taught her the joy of baseball and to root for the Dodgers of Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, and Gil Hodges. Most important, Goodwin describes with eloquence how the Dodgers’ leaving Brooklyn in 1957, and the death of her mother soon after, marked both the end of an era and, for her, the end of childhood.
272 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1997
About the author
Doris Kearns Goodwin
40 books4,695 followersDoris Helen Kearns Goodwin is an American biographer, historian, former sports journalist, and political commentator. She has written biographies of numerous U.S. presidents. Goodwin's book No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1995. Goodwin produced the American television miniseries Washington. She was also executive producer of "Abraham Lincoln", a 2022 docudrama on the History Channel. This latter series was based on Goodwin's Leadership in Turbulent Times.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,224 reviews
March 7, 2019
Women’s History Month 2019 continues with a reread of a personal favorite. Did anyone ever discover a book that was written just for them? Wait Til Next by Doris Kearns Goodwin, one of the United States’ master historian storytellers, is such a book for me. I first discovered Doris Kearns Goodwin in 1994 when Ken Burns sought a female voice to balance out the men as a narrator for his new documentary Baseball. Missing the season cut short by a strike, I turned to Burns’ film for comfort but was more enamored by a female historian and baseball fan who could clearly hold her own with the men. I shortly discovered that she had at the time written history books on both the Roosevelts and Kennedys and had maintained her love of baseball into adulthood. In essence, Ms Goodwin was an adult version of myself, and I was determined to be her when I grew up. This feeling was enhanced when she published Wait Til Next Year in 1997, the year I graduated from high school. It was then that I was determined to become a history major and follow in her footsteps.
Doris Kearns was born on January 4, 1943, a surprise baby to her parents Michael and Helen Kearns of Rockville Centre, New York. Already the parents to fourteen-year-old Charlotte and nine-year-old Jeanne, the Kearns’ did not expect to be parents again in their mid to late thirties. They already had two girly girls on their way to teenage popularity and a career as nurses, so they were determined to have their new daughter Doris Marguerite follow in the mold of Rosie the Riveter and chase whatever dream she desired. Helen was an avid reader and taught Doris how to read from the earliest of ages. She became a vociferous reader and enjoyed stories like Nancy Drew and the Bobsey Twins and later Gone With the Wind and David Copperfield. Yet, it was her father’s love of baseball that he passed on to his youngest daughter and the family’s love of the Brooklyn Dodgers that shaped and molded Doris’ childhood. Through good times and bad, the Kearns family were Dodger fans through and through.
Southard Avenue in Rockville Centre was emblematic of New York in the 1940s and 1950s. The home to three major league franchises the Yankees, Dodgers, and Giants, New York was the capital of baseball. Doris’ next door neighbor and best friend Elaine Friedle was a Yankees fan and loved Billy Martin as much as Doris stuck with Jackie Robinson. Other neighbors rooted for the Giants as the kids on the block enjoyed a friendly rivalry with one another. This rivalry only heightened if the teams played one another, and no where was it clearer than during the 1951 pennant race. With the Dodgers and Giants neck and neck, the Giants won the pennant after a three game playoff culminating with Bobby Thomson’s shot heard around the world. It was Doris’ worst moment as a fan and she would not even go out in public until the Giant fan owners of the corner Bryn Mawr Meat Shop sent her a bouquet of roses. It was at eight years old that she truly learned how to be a Dodgers fan and bought into the saying that many fans know all too well: wait till next year.
Helen Kearns was often sickly and bought into the polio scare and Cold War, often keeping her daughter close to home. It was in this environment that Doris’ love of baseball and reading increased with each passing year. Although Helen was in the hospital for months at a time, she was well enough to enjoy Brooklyn’s only World Series championship in 1955. A half century before constant media replays, fans had to create memories for themselves. The Kearns family celebrated their long sought after championship in Brooklyn and congratulated the team outside of the hotel where they would celebrate their victory party. The mood outside was jubilant as the Dodgers were bums no more. Michael Kearns remarked that Helen looked as happy as the twenty year sweetheart that he married. Unfortunately the family’s jubilation would be short lived.
In 1957, Jackie Robinson announced his retirement from baseball. Doris Kearns Goodwin remarked that her childhood was coming to a close. Friends moved away including both the Giants and Dodgers to California. Helen Kearns would die months later and Michael nearly crumbled himself if it weren’t for the memories of baseball seasons past to keep him buoyant. Doris would not attend another baseball game for nearly twenty years as her disgust for the new Dodgers owners kept her away from the ballpark. It was not until she was studying in Boston that a friend took her to Fenway Park for the first time and she was instantly reminded of the trips to Ebbets Field of her childhood, that Doris returned as a baseball fan and adopted the Red Sox as her team. The 1970s Red Sox reminded her of the 1950s Dodgers, and, as such, her continuity as a baseball fan was cemented by a trip to an iconic ballpark.
Today, Doris Kearns Goodwin is a historian and baseball fan extraordinaire. I have read her times on Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt and Taft and in my biased opinion found them excellent. Yet, in between the writing of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s presidential books, I will continue to reread my favorite sections of Wait Til Next Year. It is a reminder to me of the wholesomeness of the 1950s when baseball was America’s pastime and entire neighborhoods were united by allegiances to their teams. Ms. Goodwin is a personal reminder to me that a girl can go from being a fun loving, baseball loving girl to become one of our country's leading historians. She remains a kindred spirit and influence to me as one who can balance the equally important subjects of history and baseball and without knowing it encourages me to reach for the stars.
5+ stars
Doris Kearns was born on January 4, 1943, a surprise baby to her parents Michael and Helen Kearns of Rockville Centre, New York. Already the parents to fourteen-year-old Charlotte and nine-year-old Jeanne, the Kearns’ did not expect to be parents again in their mid to late thirties. They already had two girly girls on their way to teenage popularity and a career as nurses, so they were determined to have their new daughter Doris Marguerite follow in the mold of Rosie the Riveter and chase whatever dream she desired. Helen was an avid reader and taught Doris how to read from the earliest of ages. She became a vociferous reader and enjoyed stories like Nancy Drew and the Bobsey Twins and later Gone With the Wind and David Copperfield. Yet, it was her father’s love of baseball that he passed on to his youngest daughter and the family’s love of the Brooklyn Dodgers that shaped and molded Doris’ childhood. Through good times and bad, the Kearns family were Dodger fans through and through.
Southard Avenue in Rockville Centre was emblematic of New York in the 1940s and 1950s. The home to three major league franchises the Yankees, Dodgers, and Giants, New York was the capital of baseball. Doris’ next door neighbor and best friend Elaine Friedle was a Yankees fan and loved Billy Martin as much as Doris stuck with Jackie Robinson. Other neighbors rooted for the Giants as the kids on the block enjoyed a friendly rivalry with one another. This rivalry only heightened if the teams played one another, and no where was it clearer than during the 1951 pennant race. With the Dodgers and Giants neck and neck, the Giants won the pennant after a three game playoff culminating with Bobby Thomson’s shot heard around the world. It was Doris’ worst moment as a fan and she would not even go out in public until the Giant fan owners of the corner Bryn Mawr Meat Shop sent her a bouquet of roses. It was at eight years old that she truly learned how to be a Dodgers fan and bought into the saying that many fans know all too well: wait till next year.
Helen Kearns was often sickly and bought into the polio scare and Cold War, often keeping her daughter close to home. It was in this environment that Doris’ love of baseball and reading increased with each passing year. Although Helen was in the hospital for months at a time, she was well enough to enjoy Brooklyn’s only World Series championship in 1955. A half century before constant media replays, fans had to create memories for themselves. The Kearns family celebrated their long sought after championship in Brooklyn and congratulated the team outside of the hotel where they would celebrate their victory party. The mood outside was jubilant as the Dodgers were bums no more. Michael Kearns remarked that Helen looked as happy as the twenty year sweetheart that he married. Unfortunately the family’s jubilation would be short lived.
In 1957, Jackie Robinson announced his retirement from baseball. Doris Kearns Goodwin remarked that her childhood was coming to a close. Friends moved away including both the Giants and Dodgers to California. Helen Kearns would die months later and Michael nearly crumbled himself if it weren’t for the memories of baseball seasons past to keep him buoyant. Doris would not attend another baseball game for nearly twenty years as her disgust for the new Dodgers owners kept her away from the ballpark. It was not until she was studying in Boston that a friend took her to Fenway Park for the first time and she was instantly reminded of the trips to Ebbets Field of her childhood, that Doris returned as a baseball fan and adopted the Red Sox as her team. The 1970s Red Sox reminded her of the 1950s Dodgers, and, as such, her continuity as a baseball fan was cemented by a trip to an iconic ballpark.
Today, Doris Kearns Goodwin is a historian and baseball fan extraordinaire. I have read her times on Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt and Taft and in my biased opinion found them excellent. Yet, in between the writing of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s presidential books, I will continue to reread my favorite sections of Wait Til Next Year. It is a reminder to me of the wholesomeness of the 1950s when baseball was America’s pastime and entire neighborhoods were united by allegiances to their teams. Ms. Goodwin is a personal reminder to me that a girl can go from being a fun loving, baseball loving girl to become one of our country's leading historians. She remains a kindred spirit and influence to me as one who can balance the equally important subjects of history and baseball and without knowing it encourages me to reach for the stars.
5+ stars
March 16, 2019
Although the 1950's was before my time, this was an awesome nostalgic read. This takes place in upper New York, and I was raised in Chicago. Despite that I could identify with so many things in this book. Your neighborhood, your whole world, filled with all your friends. Games played outside, corner stores, a place where you knew everyone and everyone knew who you were, where you belonged. Such a sense of community that has vanished today.
Not a Dodgers fan, but a Cubs fan, but again could identify with the bonding over baseball, friendly competitions though in Chicago it depended on what part of town you were from. Still, if your a baseball fan at all it would hard to not recognize the names that Doris adored, and some she didnt. Jackie Robinson, Campanella, DeRoucher, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra. Such great times bonding over baseball games with her father.
Don't think this is just a baseball lovers book, though it is certainly that. It is also a history of the time period, the scare of the polio epidemic, the threat of nuclear attack, McCarthyism, the electrocution of the Rosenbergs. Very much a family story, of times past, a time we will never see again. In many ways a time of innocence, community, family and charm.
I had this sitting on my Nook for many years, until my friend Brina told me I would love it. She was right!
Not a Dodgers fan, but a Cubs fan, but again could identify with the bonding over baseball, friendly competitions though in Chicago it depended on what part of town you were from. Still, if your a baseball fan at all it would hard to not recognize the names that Doris adored, and some she didnt. Jackie Robinson, Campanella, DeRoucher, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra. Such great times bonding over baseball games with her father.
Don't think this is just a baseball lovers book, though it is certainly that. It is also a history of the time period, the scare of the polio epidemic, the threat of nuclear attack, McCarthyism, the electrocution of the Rosenbergs. Very much a family story, of times past, a time we will never see again. In many ways a time of innocence, community, family and charm.
I had this sitting on my Nook for many years, until my friend Brina told me I would love it. She was right!
April 11, 2021
Who would have thought that keeping score of Brooklyn Dodger baseball games in her red scorebook would lead to a career as a leading American historian? That's what Doris Kearns Goodwin did as she recants her childhood and teen years in this engaging memoir.
The author intersperses her joy and heartache of listening to and watching her beloved Dodgers along with her joy and heartache of growing up in a Brooklyn neighborhood.
A well-done, fun read that brought back memories of many baseball greats from the three New York major league teams of the late 1940's to the late 1950's.
The author intersperses her joy and heartache of listening to and watching her beloved Dodgers along with her joy and heartache of growing up in a Brooklyn neighborhood.
A well-done, fun read that brought back memories of many baseball greats from the three New York major league teams of the late 1940's to the late 1950's.
June 20, 2023
Nostalgic. Tender. Humorous. Kind-hearted reflection on family and suburban living, current events and social issues during the time that Goodwin was growing up from the late 40s-60s. This is Goodwin’s memoir.
For anyone who has ever read her presidential biographies, readers can appreciate her excitement when writing about anything that has anything to do with history. She has a way of sharing small town and the pursuit of the American Dream that puts us in to the center of her world and the era in which she grew up.
And, you gotta love baseball...cuz if you don't...well you will from her perspective!
We sense the virtue of loyalty that was part of her growing up years, that was given to her by her father.
We see Goodwin as curious, enthusiastic, highly spirited and thoughtful.
An enjoyable read about an incredible woman.
For anyone who has ever read her presidential biographies, readers can appreciate her excitement when writing about anything that has anything to do with history. She has a way of sharing small town and the pursuit of the American Dream that puts us in to the center of her world and the era in which she grew up.
And, you gotta love baseball...cuz if you don't...well you will from her perspective!
We sense the virtue of loyalty that was part of her growing up years, that was given to her by her father.
We see Goodwin as curious, enthusiastic, highly spirited and thoughtful.
An enjoyable read about an incredible woman.
November 7, 2018
Goodwin is one of my favorite historians. She is a superb writer and meticulous researcher. This book is her memoir about growing up in the 1950s and her love of baseball. I found her descriptions of growing up on Long Island idealistic. It was safe, simple and a comfortable life. It was the exact opposite of my life; therefore, I found it fascinating that someone actually grew up in such an ideal way. I found the memoir interesting and helpful in understanding her interest in history.
I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is eight hours. Susanne Toren does an excellent job narrating the book. Toren is an actress and long-time audiobook narrator. She has won many awards such as Earphone Awards and Audie nominations. She also was awarded The American Foundation for the Blind’s Scourby Award for Narrator of the Year in 1988. The Audiofile Magazine named her Best Voice in Nonfiction and Culture in 2009.
I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is eight hours. Susanne Toren does an excellent job narrating the book. Toren is an actress and long-time audiobook narrator. She has won many awards such as Earphone Awards and Audie nominations. She also was awarded The American Foundation for the Blind’s Scourby Award for Narrator of the Year in 1988. The Audiofile Magazine named her Best Voice in Nonfiction and Culture in 2009.
August 26, 2022
I enjoyed both of the Goodwin biographies I've read, Team of Rivals, her epic account of Abraham Lincoln's genius in juggling the outsize personalities and agendas of his cabinet while leading the nation through the Civil War, and No Ordinary Time, her Pulitzer Prize-winning history of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt's wartime years in the White House.
This memoir of her own childhood on Long Island during the 1940s and 50s gives insight into the origins of her interest in the past and exceptional storytelling skills, but it's also a warm reminiscence of her youth, weaving together life within her close family, her Catholic upbringing and faith, and the love of baseball and the Brooklyn Dodgers her father passed on to her. While she mostly avoids looking too deeply into her interior life and that of her family members, she anchors their story firmly into what was going on in the nation at the time, touching on the civil rights movement, the trial and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the McCarthy hearings, Sputnik, the changing expectations of women, and more.
The narration by Suzanne Toren on the Recorded Books edition was excellent and the memoir was a perfect choice for a long driving trip to a family wedding my wife and I just returned from.
This memoir of her own childhood on Long Island during the 1940s and 50s gives insight into the origins of her interest in the past and exceptional storytelling skills, but it's also a warm reminiscence of her youth, weaving together life within her close family, her Catholic upbringing and faith, and the love of baseball and the Brooklyn Dodgers her father passed on to her. While she mostly avoids looking too deeply into her interior life and that of her family members, she anchors their story firmly into what was going on in the nation at the time, touching on the civil rights movement, the trial and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the McCarthy hearings, Sputnik, the changing expectations of women, and more.
The narration by Suzanne Toren on the Recorded Books edition was excellent and the memoir was a perfect choice for a long driving trip to a family wedding my wife and I just returned from.
February 11, 2013
Not a big fan of anything New York, but I enjoyed this memoir. It's nice to read something written by a woman in a genre that's usually the bastion of men. There are many women baseball fans; it's nice to read the memoirs of an intelligent, talented writer like Ms. Goodwin.
March 7, 2019
Goodwin is an enthusiastic 'voice' that I remember quite well from Ken Burns' "Baseball" documentary. Not for nothing did her dad nickname her 'Bubbles,' as she relates in this book. My dad taught me how to keep score when I was very young, as did hers, and I also felt that baseball connection with my dad that she had with hers.
As far as memoirs goes, this book is okay, especially if you have no idea what it was like to be a Catholic child growing up in the '50s in the U.S., or perhaps if you are nostalgic for the time period. That era is 'before my time,' but I must know 'enough' about it, because there was nothing groundbreaking here for me; though I did find it psychologically interesting how easily the Army-McCarthy hearings infected the children's play. (Think The Crucible. Miller knew what he was talking about.)
My favorite parts were about her relationship to the Brooklyn Dodgers, especially the story of getting her hero Jackie Robinson's autograph and of the year the Dodgers finally won the World Series. (Probably because the reaction of Brooklyn seemed very similar to the reaction in New Orleans when the Saints won the Super Bowl.)
One side note: I hated that the singular Dodger was used as an adjective, instead of the plural, throughout the book. I know it's said like that in speaking, but reading it bothered me. I wish I didn't notice these things so much, but I seem to be unable to help it.
As far as memoirs goes, this book is okay, especially if you have no idea what it was like to be a Catholic child growing up in the '50s in the U.S., or perhaps if you are nostalgic for the time period. That era is 'before my time,' but I must know 'enough' about it, because there was nothing groundbreaking here for me; though I did find it psychologically interesting how easily the Army-McCarthy hearings infected the children's play. (Think The Crucible. Miller knew what he was talking about.)
My favorite parts were about her relationship to the Brooklyn Dodgers, especially the story of getting her hero Jackie Robinson's autograph and of the year the Dodgers finally won the World Series. (Probably because the reaction of Brooklyn seemed very similar to the reaction in New Orleans when the Saints won the Super Bowl.)
One side note: I hated that the singular Dodger was used as an adjective, instead of the plural, throughout the book. I know it's said like that in speaking, but reading it bothered me. I wish I didn't notice these things so much, but I seem to be unable to help it.
August 23, 2021
Why does someone become a historian? In the case of Doris Kearns Goodwin, she credits her close-knit family and neighborhood, her love of books, some excellent teachers—and baseball.
In this warm and heartfelt memoir, she describes her near-idyllic childhood in suburban Rockville Centre on Long Island in New York. The neighborhood was like one big family that enlarged her world. “For the lives within these homes, the stories of each family, formed a body of common lore through which I could expand the compass and vividness of my own life.” Books expanded her world even more. “The books I read filled my imagination, multiplying my daydreams, allowing me to supplement my own collection of stories, previously drawn mostly from my family and my neighbors, with characters and events far removed from the realities of Southard Avenue and Rockville Centre.”
From the time she was a little girl, Doris was a devoted Dodgers fan like her father, who had grown up in Brooklyn, two blocks away from Ebbets Field, the Dodgers’ ballpark. By 1949, when she was six years old, she learned how to keep a detailed scorecard, and she kept one for every game as she listened to it on the radio. She enjoyed visualizing the games and loved listening to her father’s stories of great players of the past.
When she was in the third grade, her parents took to her to Franklin Roosevelt’s home in Hyde Park. There she was fascinated by the details of FDR’s life. “I realized that day I could play an inner game with history just as I did with baseball. If I closed my eyes I could visualize Roosevelt in his room with [his dog] Fala, just as, when I listened to the stories my father told, I could see the great players of the past—Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig and Zack Wheat—knock the mud from their cleats, settle into the batter’s box, narrow their eyes on the pitcher, and unleash their majestic swings.”
Doris’s childhood coincided with the golden age of New York baseball, when all three New York teams usually had good seasons and vied for championships. Her neighborhood was filled with fans of all three teams, many as obsessed as Doris. With the innocence of childhood, she believed that she had a personal connection with the Dodgers and could sometimes even influence their play. After she asked rookie pitcher Clem Labine for his autograph while other fans were ignoring him, he won three games in a row. When Gil Hodges was in a hitting slump, she gave him a St. Christopher medal and he promptly ended his slump. But such passionate devotion to the Dodgers also meant that her heart was often broken. After all, the title of the book is the classic lament of Dodgers fans of the era: “Wait till next year.” Her worst baseball day, she writes, occurred when Bobby Thomson of the Giants hit his famous “shot heard ‘round the world” home run to beat the Dodgers for the 1951 National League pennant. She couldn’t bring herself to complete her scorecard for that game.
If the 1951 season ended in the worst way possible, the 1955 season was the best, as the Dodgers finally won their first World Series championship by beating the mighty Yankees. The joy for Doris and all the other Dodgers fans was short-lived, though, as the Dodgers left Brooklyn for Los Angeles after the 1957 season. Doris gave up on the Dodgers and turned her attention away from baseball for a while, until she attended a Boston Red Sox game while she was at Harvard working on her Ph.D. in history.
She was enamored with baseball once again. “Addiction or obsession, love or need, I was born a baseball fan and a baseball fan I was fated to remain. Nor could I have found a team more reminiscent of the Brooklyn Dodgers than my new team, the Boston Red Sox. Perpetual bridesmaids, exciters of hope and destroyers of dreams, the Red Sox often seem like Flatbush North.” (Of course, she wrote this in 1997, when the Red Sox were still stuck in one of the longest championship droughts in baseball. Since then, the Red Sox have become one of baseball’s elite teams, having won four World Series championships in the 21st century.)
I really enjoyed this book and read it in one sitting. Doris Kearns Goodwin is an excellent storyteller. She’s told a great story here filled with nostalgia about her 1950s childhood. In her case, the story is specifically about being a girl who’s crazy about the Brooklyn Dodgers, so if you’re a Dodgers fan, you’ll especially enjoy it. But I think you’d like it even if you have no interest in baseball, because it’s just an engaging story about growing up in America.
In this warm and heartfelt memoir, she describes her near-idyllic childhood in suburban Rockville Centre on Long Island in New York. The neighborhood was like one big family that enlarged her world. “For the lives within these homes, the stories of each family, formed a body of common lore through which I could expand the compass and vividness of my own life.” Books expanded her world even more. “The books I read filled my imagination, multiplying my daydreams, allowing me to supplement my own collection of stories, previously drawn mostly from my family and my neighbors, with characters and events far removed from the realities of Southard Avenue and Rockville Centre.”
From the time she was a little girl, Doris was a devoted Dodgers fan like her father, who had grown up in Brooklyn, two blocks away from Ebbets Field, the Dodgers’ ballpark. By 1949, when she was six years old, she learned how to keep a detailed scorecard, and she kept one for every game as she listened to it on the radio. She enjoyed visualizing the games and loved listening to her father’s stories of great players of the past.
When she was in the third grade, her parents took to her to Franklin Roosevelt’s home in Hyde Park. There she was fascinated by the details of FDR’s life. “I realized that day I could play an inner game with history just as I did with baseball. If I closed my eyes I could visualize Roosevelt in his room with [his dog] Fala, just as, when I listened to the stories my father told, I could see the great players of the past—Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig and Zack Wheat—knock the mud from their cleats, settle into the batter’s box, narrow their eyes on the pitcher, and unleash their majestic swings.”
Doris’s childhood coincided with the golden age of New York baseball, when all three New York teams usually had good seasons and vied for championships. Her neighborhood was filled with fans of all three teams, many as obsessed as Doris. With the innocence of childhood, she believed that she had a personal connection with the Dodgers and could sometimes even influence their play. After she asked rookie pitcher Clem Labine for his autograph while other fans were ignoring him, he won three games in a row. When Gil Hodges was in a hitting slump, she gave him a St. Christopher medal and he promptly ended his slump. But such passionate devotion to the Dodgers also meant that her heart was often broken. After all, the title of the book is the classic lament of Dodgers fans of the era: “Wait till next year.” Her worst baseball day, she writes, occurred when Bobby Thomson of the Giants hit his famous “shot heard ‘round the world” home run to beat the Dodgers for the 1951 National League pennant. She couldn’t bring herself to complete her scorecard for that game.
If the 1951 season ended in the worst way possible, the 1955 season was the best, as the Dodgers finally won their first World Series championship by beating the mighty Yankees. The joy for Doris and all the other Dodgers fans was short-lived, though, as the Dodgers left Brooklyn for Los Angeles after the 1957 season. Doris gave up on the Dodgers and turned her attention away from baseball for a while, until she attended a Boston Red Sox game while she was at Harvard working on her Ph.D. in history.
She was enamored with baseball once again. “Addiction or obsession, love or need, I was born a baseball fan and a baseball fan I was fated to remain. Nor could I have found a team more reminiscent of the Brooklyn Dodgers than my new team, the Boston Red Sox. Perpetual bridesmaids, exciters of hope and destroyers of dreams, the Red Sox often seem like Flatbush North.” (Of course, she wrote this in 1997, when the Red Sox were still stuck in one of the longest championship droughts in baseball. Since then, the Red Sox have become one of baseball’s elite teams, having won four World Series championships in the 21st century.)
I really enjoyed this book and read it in one sitting. Doris Kearns Goodwin is an excellent storyteller. She’s told a great story here filled with nostalgia about her 1950s childhood. In her case, the story is specifically about being a girl who’s crazy about the Brooklyn Dodgers, so if you’re a Dodgers fan, you’ll especially enjoy it. But I think you’d like it even if you have no interest in baseball, because it’s just an engaging story about growing up in America.
February 15, 2023
Doris Kearns Goodwin’s memoir of growing in New York in the 1950s, and her love of the Brooklyn Dodgers. It heavily features her relationship with her father, who taught her to keep score at an early age. It includes historical context (e.g., McCarthyism, Sputnik, Korean War, the Rosenberg trail) and how sports helped inspire her to become a writer. The tone is nostalgic. It is so much more than a memoir about the Dodgers, and I enjoyed it very much.
January 22, 2023
Such an easy read, and charming.
In a way, the wealth of detail made the story convincing. Yet it also left me curiously uninvolved.
Mainly I admired how meticuously researched this memoir was. Never did I feel that I met the woman, though. Although in this case, she was not serving as a historian. Wouldn't have been disparaged for "making up" more sharing of her inner life.
Correct me if I'm mistaken but...
Wasn't. This. Book. Supposed. to Be. about. Goodwin's LIFE?
In a way, the wealth of detail made the story convincing. Yet it also left me curiously uninvolved.
Mainly I admired how meticuously researched this memoir was. Never did I feel that I met the woman, though. Although in this case, she was not serving as a historian. Wouldn't have been disparaged for "making up" more sharing of her inner life.
Correct me if I'm mistaken but...
Wasn't. This. Book. Supposed. to Be. about. Goodwin's LIFE?
June 1, 2010
One of my all time favorites, on so many levels.
August 17, 2014
Doris Kearns Goodwin is best known for her presidential biographies. However, she is also an inveterate lover of baseball. Kearns Goodwin grew up in Long Island, NY, in a close, lower middle class neighborhood in the 1940’s and 1950’s. At that time there were three baseball teams in NY – the Yankees (it’s hard for me, a Red Sox fan to even write that name) in the Bronx, the Giants in Manhattan, and the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Dodgers were (was?) Jackie Robinson’s team, and during Kearns Goodwin’s childhood the team featured many legendary players in addition to Robinson, including Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges and others. At an early age Kearns Goodwin’s father taught her the elaborate skills of recording each ball game play on scorecards, and baseball became their special bond. Her mother was ill throughout most of her childhood.
For me the most enjoyable episodes in the book were those that combined the authors’ love of baseball and Catholicism. When Roy Campanella came to her small Long Island town, he spoke in a local Black church (Protestant). Kearns Goodwin was upset when she realized that Catholics were not allowed to go to Protestant churches. But her father said it was permitted because she wasn’t going to a church service. This reminded me of my mother allowing me when I was about 6 years old to attend a neighborhood ice cream social in the local Presbyterian church because it was in the basement. This was pre-Vatican Council, which relaxed these “rules”. Later, at her first confession, Kearns Goodwin confessed the “sin” of going to see Campanella in a Protestant church. The priest, it turned out, was also a Dodgers fan, and assured her this was not a sin. She also confessed praying that various players on other teams would suffer injuries, but the priest advised her that a victory achieved this way was not a true victory, and the Dodgers would win without wishing harm on others.
Kearns Goodwin recounts Dodger games, especially the heartbreaking, late season losses, in great detail. It reveals that she is a true fan, and not a poser. I have met one other young woman, a Red Sox fan, who was as knowledgeable, but this is becoming rare. I have been a baseball games with other female friends where we find ourselves explaining what just happened to the younger men seated near us who barely understand the game.
Kearns Goodwin’s childhood gave her a great foundation for her later career as a historian and author. She got her PhD at Harvard in 1968, which brought her to Massachusetts. For years after the Dodgers left Brooklyn, she avoided all things related to baseball. Finally a male friend at Harvard convinced her to go to Boston’s Fenway Park, a subway ride away. Fenway Park felt familiar to her, like “Flatbush North”. Kearns Goodwin adopted the Red Sox as “her” team and raised her three sons in much the same way her first generation Irish American father raised her – to love baseball. This book was written before the Red Sox became World champions in 2004. I can only imagine how thrilled she was. And finally, the title "Wait til Next Year" is a phrase very familiar to Red Sox as well as Brooklyn Dodger fans.
For me the most enjoyable episodes in the book were those that combined the authors’ love of baseball and Catholicism. When Roy Campanella came to her small Long Island town, he spoke in a local Black church (Protestant). Kearns Goodwin was upset when she realized that Catholics were not allowed to go to Protestant churches. But her father said it was permitted because she wasn’t going to a church service. This reminded me of my mother allowing me when I was about 6 years old to attend a neighborhood ice cream social in the local Presbyterian church because it was in the basement. This was pre-Vatican Council, which relaxed these “rules”. Later, at her first confession, Kearns Goodwin confessed the “sin” of going to see Campanella in a Protestant church. The priest, it turned out, was also a Dodgers fan, and assured her this was not a sin. She also confessed praying that various players on other teams would suffer injuries, but the priest advised her that a victory achieved this way was not a true victory, and the Dodgers would win without wishing harm on others.
Kearns Goodwin recounts Dodger games, especially the heartbreaking, late season losses, in great detail. It reveals that she is a true fan, and not a poser. I have met one other young woman, a Red Sox fan, who was as knowledgeable, but this is becoming rare. I have been a baseball games with other female friends where we find ourselves explaining what just happened to the younger men seated near us who barely understand the game.
Kearns Goodwin’s childhood gave her a great foundation for her later career as a historian and author. She got her PhD at Harvard in 1968, which brought her to Massachusetts. For years after the Dodgers left Brooklyn, she avoided all things related to baseball. Finally a male friend at Harvard convinced her to go to Boston’s Fenway Park, a subway ride away. Fenway Park felt familiar to her, like “Flatbush North”. Kearns Goodwin adopted the Red Sox as “her” team and raised her three sons in much the same way her first generation Irish American father raised her – to love baseball. This book was written before the Red Sox became World champions in 2004. I can only imagine how thrilled she was. And finally, the title "Wait til Next Year" is a phrase very familiar to Red Sox as well as Brooklyn Dodger fans.
July 9, 2024
Starved for baseball, I decided to open this book which has on its cover a baseball stadium in the heavens. I couldn’t be happier that I did. The author of one of my favorite presidential biographies—the book the movie Lincoln is based on, Team of Rivals—wrote this intimate memoir of her childhood, published in 1997. A history of the historian Doris Kearns Goodwin.
Growing up outside of Brooklyn, in a metropolitan area with three professional baseball teams, meant that the sport was very much a part of her life. Her parents followed the Dodgers, her best friend was a Yankee fan, and the store owners down the block who lovingly razzed her about how their team was better, supported the New York Giants. She kept scorecards of every game at 8 years old, was eager to talk baseball with the boys on her sister’s dates and with the men on the train into the city with her dad. Her loyalty was with the Brooklyn Dodgers, but she loved the game.
The chapters present personal memories of her friends, family, religion, and neighborhood, and weave them together with stories from baseball, as if there is no separating her life from the game. Doris’s story-telling puts the reader in the places described, and stirs the feelings she must have experienced herself, though on a greater scale. It’s a beautifully-crafted mosaic of childhood and sport. I felt a new affection for Jackie Robinson. I hadn’t rooted for the Dodgers this much since 1988, when Kirk Gibson made up for Bobby Thompson.
Lovers of baseball will adore this book. Those disinterested in the sport have found parts of it boring, but I will never understand the sorry souls who can’t see the magic in the game. As life changed drastically for Doris in the mid-1950s, so did professional baseball. When her allegiance shifted to Boston later in life, it meant that she suffered witness to three of baseball’s most notable moments, all costing her team the greatest prize. I couldn’t remember: Did "dem bums" ever win it all before they left for Los Angeles?
Growing up outside of Brooklyn, in a metropolitan area with three professional baseball teams, meant that the sport was very much a part of her life. Her parents followed the Dodgers, her best friend was a Yankee fan, and the store owners down the block who lovingly razzed her about how their team was better, supported the New York Giants. She kept scorecards of every game at 8 years old, was eager to talk baseball with the boys on her sister’s dates and with the men on the train into the city with her dad. Her loyalty was with the Brooklyn Dodgers, but she loved the game.
The chapters present personal memories of her friends, family, religion, and neighborhood, and weave them together with stories from baseball, as if there is no separating her life from the game. Doris’s story-telling puts the reader in the places described, and stirs the feelings she must have experienced herself, though on a greater scale. It’s a beautifully-crafted mosaic of childhood and sport. I felt a new affection for Jackie Robinson. I hadn’t rooted for the Dodgers this much since 1988, when Kirk Gibson made up for Bobby Thompson.
Lovers of baseball will adore this book. Those disinterested in the sport have found parts of it boring, but I will never understand the sorry souls who can’t see the magic in the game. As life changed drastically for Doris in the mid-1950s, so did professional baseball. When her allegiance shifted to Boston later in life, it meant that she suffered witness to three of baseball’s most notable moments, all costing her team the greatest prize. I couldn’t remember: Did "dem bums" ever win it all before they left for Los Angeles?
January 17, 2019
Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Wait Till Next Year" is simply wonderful. Beautiful! It is the book (memoir) that I wish I had the ability to write. The similarities between our childhoods (even though she is two decades ahead of me) are striking: We were both raised Catholic (in the true sense of the religion), the love of baseball ran through our bodies and members of our family like a life force, and the neighborhood and friends we grew up with were seen as extensions of our family. Neighborhoods where everybody knew each other and looked after each other.
I doubt I have ever read a book that so parallels my own childhood and took me back to a happy time that is almost impossible emulate, and will forever live in my memory.
I doubt I have ever read a book that so parallels my own childhood and took me back to a happy time that is almost impossible emulate, and will forever live in my memory.
June 29, 2020
Most baseball fans like to tell stories of when they first became fans as children. Some stories are certainly more entertaining and told better than others. One collection of baseball stories that fits this description is this very good memoir by Doris Kearns Goodwin that tells about her childhood when she was cheering for her beloved Brooklyn Dodgers.
Goodwin is a well-known historian and was also a sports writer when it was not filled with many opportunities for women. Given how she writes about her memories of the Dodgers and the many memories she has of them and her family, it is easy to see why she chose and succeeded in these professions. Her recollections of not only her fandom of the Dodgers but also those of her childhood friends, her loving family and her Catholic upbringing are excellent reading and will be enjoyed by all who love to read about family, baseball or childhood.
So many fellow readers and reviewers have enjoyed this book and I am happy to be another one who recommends this book to nearly everyone. It was a quick, happy read that while it wasn't long on substance, it was loaded with fun, love and the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was very impressive to read just how much she knew about "dem Bums" back in her formative years.
Goodwin is a well-known historian and was also a sports writer when it was not filled with many opportunities for women. Given how she writes about her memories of the Dodgers and the many memories she has of them and her family, it is easy to see why she chose and succeeded in these professions. Her recollections of not only her fandom of the Dodgers but also those of her childhood friends, her loving family and her Catholic upbringing are excellent reading and will be enjoyed by all who love to read about family, baseball or childhood.
So many fellow readers and reviewers have enjoyed this book and I am happy to be another one who recommends this book to nearly everyone. It was a quick, happy read that while it wasn't long on substance, it was loaded with fun, love and the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was very impressive to read just how much she knew about "dem Bums" back in her formative years.
July 3, 2011
Lots of fun, even if you come from a family of Yankees fans.
Doris Kearns Goodwin is better known for her presidential histories. I've enjoyed her The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys and Team of Rivals. In this memoir we get to learn more about her own life and upbringing.
She grew up in Rockville Centre, Long Island, in the late '40s and '50s. The important themes of her childhood seem to be [A] Catholicism and [B] the Brooklyn Dodgers, not necessarily in that order.
And I have to say, her childhood seems really idyllic. A real town center with shopkeepers who were known by everybody. A real sense of community, with all of the kids in the neighborhood running in and out of each others' houses. And her parents' generation, many of whom came from poor neighborhoods and slums in NYC, moved to the suburbs for the good life. She points out how amazing it was for the older generation, who lived through the Great Depression and World War 2, to get exciting new technology like televisions and refrigerators that cooled themselves (rather than having to wait for the ice man to arrive with his truck of ice and giant tongs).
One of the things I found really interesting was the conflict between the Dodgers fans and the New York Giants fans (before the team moved to San Francisco). I grew up in NYC with a father who arrived here at age 9 and became a Yankees fan because a kid who picked on him was a Dodgers fan. Growing up I heard a lot about the competition between the Yanks and the Dodgers, but I had no idea about the intense rivalry between the Dodgers and the Giants.
I recommend the book to anybody who wants to know more about the New York/Long Island area in the '50s, people who enjoy baseball, or people who just enjoy reading about childhood experiences in different regions and times.
Doris Kearns Goodwin is better known for her presidential histories. I've enjoyed her The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys and Team of Rivals. In this memoir we get to learn more about her own life and upbringing.
She grew up in Rockville Centre, Long Island, in the late '40s and '50s. The important themes of her childhood seem to be [A] Catholicism and [B] the Brooklyn Dodgers, not necessarily in that order.
And I have to say, her childhood seems really idyllic. A real town center with shopkeepers who were known by everybody. A real sense of community, with all of the kids in the neighborhood running in and out of each others' houses. And her parents' generation, many of whom came from poor neighborhoods and slums in NYC, moved to the suburbs for the good life. She points out how amazing it was for the older generation, who lived through the Great Depression and World War 2, to get exciting new technology like televisions and refrigerators that cooled themselves (rather than having to wait for the ice man to arrive with his truck of ice and giant tongs).
One of the things I found really interesting was the conflict between the Dodgers fans and the New York Giants fans (before the team moved to San Francisco). I grew up in NYC with a father who arrived here at age 9 and became a Yankees fan because a kid who picked on him was a Dodgers fan. Growing up I heard a lot about the competition between the Yanks and the Dodgers, but I had no idea about the intense rivalry between the Dodgers and the Giants.
I recommend the book to anybody who wants to know more about the New York/Long Island area in the '50s, people who enjoy baseball, or people who just enjoy reading about childhood experiences in different regions and times.
Read
September 18, 2015Continuing to work through Goodwin's books before I get to meet her in November. This being her memoir, and centered on her lifelong love of baseball, I pretty much expected to just check it off. In fact I thought reading it would leave me feeling bummed out and envious, because I cannot relate my own upbringing to hers in any way. I found it very touching. Which surprised me. She's clearly a very spirited person who appreciates her roots. She can certainly write masterfully if even I rode the emotional roller coaster of her Dodgers stories. Very well done. Now back to the biographies.
March 27, 2019
Although the author is 12 years older than I am, I found her memoir to be very nostalgic, bringing back many memories. Her life growing up during the 50's in a close knit neighborhood was a time now gone with the wind. I felt her intense love of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the special connection it made with her father was the focus of the book, but her memoir is well written and incorporates a great deal of that era's history. I am not the baseball fan she is, but one of my earliest memories is the sound of Harry Caray as announcer of my dad's beloved St. Louis Cardinal baseball team!
October 12, 2014
This book was so enjoyable to read primarily because it so reminded me of my own childhood.
Read "Barbara's" review, it's perfect. I could never do it any better. Enjoy!
Read "Barbara's" review, it's perfect. I could never do it any better. Enjoy!
March 24, 2023
3.5 stars
Doris Kearns Goodwin is a fine historian, and I was curious to read her memoir after her participation in Ken Burns' Baseball documentary. It was thoroughly enjoyable.
Goodwin's childhood was dominated by her Brooklyn Dodgers fandom, an interest shared by her family and the majority of her neighborhood. Her personal story is interwoven with the Dodgers' last decade or so in Brooklyn before defecting (her perception, for sure) to California. She also includes many historical markers she witnessed as a child, such as the Korean War, the McCarthy era, and Sputnik launch. I loved the sense of community she experienced as a young child, and regret that today's world has lost that. She had the concrete knowledge of who she was--a Dodger fan, a Catholic, a Rockville Center resident, an American--yet still had the space to explore who she wanted to be and become.
Good, quiet read.
Doris Kearns Goodwin is a fine historian, and I was curious to read her memoir after her participation in Ken Burns' Baseball documentary. It was thoroughly enjoyable.
Goodwin's childhood was dominated by her Brooklyn Dodgers fandom, an interest shared by her family and the majority of her neighborhood. Her personal story is interwoven with the Dodgers' last decade or so in Brooklyn before defecting (her perception, for sure) to California. She also includes many historical markers she witnessed as a child, such as the Korean War, the McCarthy era, and Sputnik launch. I loved the sense of community she experienced as a young child, and regret that today's world has lost that. She had the concrete knowledge of who she was--a Dodger fan, a Catholic, a Rockville Center resident, an American--yet still had the space to explore who she wanted to be and become.
Good, quiet read.
June 6, 2017
I'm glad I read Wait Till Next Year after November 2, 2016, the day Chicago Cubs won the World Series in the best. game. ever.
I can't imagine watching one's team lose the World Series five times (1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953) before witnessing a glorious Brooklyn Dodgers Game 7 win in 1955. Doris Kearns Goodwin's family danced around the porch, tears streaming down their cheeks. Yes, I cried, too.
Beyond a lyrical lovefest to baseball, Goodwin's memoir is a superb cultural portrait of the first postwar decade of 1945-1955.
:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::
There was a harvest of what I call 'reading intersections', where the book you're reading references a thing or person you have recently read in a different book. It's a beautiful 'aha!' moment!
1. Goodwin's father was raised in the tenements of New York; I shuddered after having read Jacob Riis' How the Other Half Lives.
2. DKG, raised a Catholic, writes As Easter had been preceded by forty days of sorrow, it was followed by fifty days of rejoicing, leading to the feast of Pentecost. I'm familiar with the liturgical calendar, but I had never made the connection of 40>E>50; I read this sentence on Pentecost Sunday.
3. Whittaker Chambers (spy, writer, poet), DKG briefly notes, was an alumnus of her high school. I just read his name in Christopher Buckley's Losing Mum and Pup.
4. Another DKG school friend was the noted Shakespearean scholar, Marjorie Garber, whose Shakespeare After All I am currently reading.
I can't imagine watching one's team lose the World Series five times (1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953) before witnessing a glorious Brooklyn Dodgers Game 7 win in 1955. Doris Kearns Goodwin's family danced around the porch, tears streaming down their cheeks. Yes, I cried, too.
Beyond a lyrical lovefest to baseball, Goodwin's memoir is a superb cultural portrait of the first postwar decade of 1945-1955.
:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::
There was a harvest of what I call 'reading intersections', where the book you're reading references a thing or person you have recently read in a different book. It's a beautiful 'aha!' moment!
1. Goodwin's father was raised in the tenements of New York; I shuddered after having read Jacob Riis' How the Other Half Lives.
2. DKG, raised a Catholic, writes As Easter had been preceded by forty days of sorrow, it was followed by fifty days of rejoicing, leading to the feast of Pentecost. I'm familiar with the liturgical calendar, but I had never made the connection of 40>E>50; I read this sentence on Pentecost Sunday.
3. Whittaker Chambers (spy, writer, poet), DKG briefly notes, was an alumnus of her high school. I just read his name in Christopher Buckley's Losing Mum and Pup.
4. Another DKG school friend was the noted Shakespearean scholar, Marjorie Garber, whose Shakespeare After All I am currently reading.
June 25, 2022
I read this book because it is ostensibly about baseball. The author is clearly a fan and there are accounts of games that she witnessed or that she listened to on the radio or watched on TV. And reading of these games through the eyes of a young girl was certainly different than Roger Kahn's descriptions of the same games in The Boys of Summer. But it also delves into the semi-mystical quality of baseball to bring people together and connect generations. Indeed, I was tempted to write a review that would have been kind of the poor man's version of the explanation James Earle Jones gives Kevin Costner about why people will pay him money to watch baseball games in his corn field between players who have been dead for 30 years.
But like Field of Dreams, baseball is the backdrop for this story, which is primarily about relationships, and like Ray Kinsella's story principally about the relationship between the authors and their respective fathers. I found the narrative compelling and well-written, even when it was not about baseball.
And although I am several years younger than the author, I still found her account of growing up in the fifties familiar. I too practiced getting under my school desk to protect me from nuclear holocaust. Ms. Goodwin relates how she spent a clear autumn evening on a blanket with her boyfriend looking for Sputnik. Possibly on the same evening 500 miles to the south, I too was looking for the Russian satellite to pass overhead, but my only companion was likely my 5-year-old brother, and we were actually looking for the dim light passing through the sky. I think the author owes it to her readers to share what base she and her boyfriend made it to on that night, after all, it is a book about baseball.
But like Field of Dreams, baseball is the backdrop for this story, which is primarily about relationships, and like Ray Kinsella's story principally about the relationship between the authors and their respective fathers. I found the narrative compelling and well-written, even when it was not about baseball.
And although I am several years younger than the author, I still found her account of growing up in the fifties familiar. I too practiced getting under my school desk to protect me from nuclear holocaust. Ms. Goodwin relates how she spent a clear autumn evening on a blanket with her boyfriend looking for Sputnik. Possibly on the same evening 500 miles to the south, I too was looking for the Russian satellite to pass overhead, but my only companion was likely my 5-year-old brother, and we were actually looking for the dim light passing through the sky. I think the author owes it to her readers to share what base she and her boyfriend made it to on that night, after all, it is a book about baseball.
July 28, 2020
I don't usually read memoirs, but I sure am glad I made an exception with this book! Also thanks to a Goodreads friend who wrote a great review and made me realize what I would miss if I didn't read it. Essentially it's her memories of her coming of age as a Brooklyn Dodger fan. There were so many aspects of the author's childhood that were similar to mine, especially living immersed in baseball. She is 7 years older than I am, so she had a head start on the 1950s, but I remember the days of very small television screens and neighbors gathering at the houses of those fortunate to upgrade as larger screens became available. My father was a living baseball encyclopedia, so on those summer afternoons when I watched the games with him, I was given an extensive education in the history and strategy of the game. It's one of my earliest and fondest memories of childhood. Ms. Goodwin also talks about the significant events of the 1950s, some good, some not very good at all, eventually leading into the definitely not that good 60s. In her story, she includes reactions of her family and friends to life events in such a way that it feels like you're reading a novel.
I am so happy to have immersed myself in this thoroughly enjoyable journey back in time, with all the laughter and tears that came with it. It's not often that you finish a book wishing you could meet the author. It's obvious that she knows how to enjoy and appreciate life!
I am so happy to have immersed myself in this thoroughly enjoyable journey back in time, with all the laughter and tears that came with it. It's not often that you finish a book wishing you could meet the author. It's obvious that she knows how to enjoy and appreciate life!
July 26, 2020
Wait Till Next Year is Doris Kearns Goodwin's wonderful memoir of her childhood growing up in a Long Island neighborhood in the 1950s. Her mother taught her a love of reading and her father taught her a love of baseball in an era when baseball was America's pastime. Goodwin was obsessed with her beloved Brooklyn Dodgers and idolized Jackie Robinson. She describes season after season of highs and lows as the Dodgers fight for the elusive prize, the World Series Championship. She was also very influenced by her Catholic education. The juxtaposition of her childish understanding of her religious faith and the superstitions of a passionate baseball fan made for some very funny moments.
She also brings to life her childhood neighborhood where everyone knew everyone else and some of the world events that defined the post war era - the Cold War and the air raids, televisions becoming more and more ubiquitous, the Rosenberg trials, McCarthyism, and the heating up of the Civil Rights movement. Although I'm a few years younger and my childhood community was very different in many ways, I felt transported back in time and a bit nostalgic reading this book. It's a lovely memoir, skillfully written, poignant, and moving.
She also brings to life her childhood neighborhood where everyone knew everyone else and some of the world events that defined the post war era - the Cold War and the air raids, televisions becoming more and more ubiquitous, the Rosenberg trials, McCarthyism, and the heating up of the Civil Rights movement. Although I'm a few years younger and my childhood community was very different in many ways, I felt transported back in time and a bit nostalgic reading this book. It's a lovely memoir, skillfully written, poignant, and moving.
April 16, 2016
When I find a writer I really love, I always want to know more about her. I'm curious to know what it was about her childhood or family life or life experience that shaped her thinking and writing. Doris Kearns Goodwin is my favorite non-fiction writer, so when I recently discovered that she had written a short memoir about her childhood growing up in the suburbs of New York in 1950's and her passionate love of the Brooklyn Dodgers, I quickly scrounged up a copy (thank you Amazon) and read it in a couple days (something you can't do with all of her other books that weigh in around 900 pages).
This book is really good, even for someone (like me) who cares nothing for baseball, and even for someone who has never read Goodwin's other books. It's a nostalgic, tender story about love of family and community and a certain snapshot of a period in American history that was the calm, idyllic lull before the larger social storms that raged in the 60's.
This book is really good, even for someone (like me) who cares nothing for baseball, and even for someone who has never read Goodwin's other books. It's a nostalgic, tender story about love of family and community and a certain snapshot of a period in American history that was the calm, idyllic lull before the larger social storms that raged in the 60's.
August 26, 2015
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin recounts her childhood in an idyllic New York suburb. The story revolves around Goodwin's obsession with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and how that obsession forged bonds in her family and community. I had to skim through some of the descriptions of baseball games, but I enjoyed this funny and kind-hearted memoir. Goodwin's depiction of her childhood obsessions and neurosis is amusing, and she creates an evocative portrait of a lost time. Although Goodwin is nostalgic, she also addresses how the dark side of the 1950s (such as the McCarthy hearings) affected her community and her own intellectual development. A good, fun read.
March 6, 2019
Doris Kearns Goodwin and I seem to have had similar upbringings. She rooted for her Dodgers and I for my Detroit Tigers. We were both raised in the Catholic Church. Those two entities guided so much of our lives.While I listened to this, I felt as if I was reliving my youth.
I always love Ms. Kearns-Goodwin's books. This was no exception.
I always love Ms. Kearns-Goodwin's books. This was no exception.
May 2, 2024
Narrated by the author who was born in 1943, this book focuses on the neighborhood camaraderie engendered by fans of professional baseball, in particular the Brooklyn Dadgers.baseball
July 7, 2011
9/10
A couple of years ago, I attempted to listen to Team of Rivals (also written by Doris Kearns Goodwin). I hate to not finish books (especially good ones), but it was so long, and I couldn't finish it before it was due, and then there was a massive hold list...and so I gave up.
But this book was different. For one thing, is was about 600 pages shorter. And because I love reading about the lives of other people, memoirs almost always hold my interest. But unlike other memoirs, this one sometimes masqueraded as a history, and I loved that aspect of it. In Goodwin's unique style, it was the perfect mix between the personal and the factual. She could talk about racism in Alabama and her mother's ill health and somehow tie it all together.
The memoir is set in Brooklyn in the 1950's during Goodwin's childhood. Baseball is the unifying thread through the decade. I would say that you don't have to love baseball to love this book, but Mike also listened to it and definitely wasn't as taken in by the drama of it all like I was. Out of all ball-sports, baseball is the one I understand the best, so luckily I could follow most of the terminology. I think I also have more nostalgia attached to the sport than Mike does (although not nearly to Goodwin's extent). The ending (with the Dodgers finally winning the World Series and then moving to Los Angeles) was actually a little emotional for me.
So whether you love baseball or not, this book will make you feel more American, making it the perfect read for summer.
A couple of years ago, I attempted to listen to Team of Rivals (also written by Doris Kearns Goodwin). I hate to not finish books (especially good ones), but it was so long, and I couldn't finish it before it was due, and then there was a massive hold list...and so I gave up.
But this book was different. For one thing, is was about 600 pages shorter. And because I love reading about the lives of other people, memoirs almost always hold my interest. But unlike other memoirs, this one sometimes masqueraded as a history, and I loved that aspect of it. In Goodwin's unique style, it was the perfect mix between the personal and the factual. She could talk about racism in Alabama and her mother's ill health and somehow tie it all together.
The memoir is set in Brooklyn in the 1950's during Goodwin's childhood. Baseball is the unifying thread through the decade. I would say that you don't have to love baseball to love this book, but Mike also listened to it and definitely wasn't as taken in by the drama of it all like I was. Out of all ball-sports, baseball is the one I understand the best, so luckily I could follow most of the terminology. I think I also have more nostalgia attached to the sport than Mike does (although not nearly to Goodwin's extent). The ending (with the Dodgers finally winning the World Series and then moving to Los Angeles) was actually a little emotional for me.
So whether you love baseball or not, this book will make you feel more American, making it the perfect read for summer.
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