Reno

Ian A. Andrews is a high-school social sciences teacher and editor of the New Brunswick Teachers’ Association’s Focus.

For those who grew up in the 1950s and followed baseball, the picture on
the cover of Reno is very familiar. Baseball cards in packages of bubble
gum were becoming popular to the baby-boom generation, and rookie cards
seemed to eclipse in number those of established stars. People listened
to baseball on radio as television was in its infancy; they rode in
their family’s big-finned cars, and sent for glossy photos of hockey
stars from the Bee Hive Corn Syrup people.

This short novel brings back that era. Written in the first person,
Reno is set in 1957 when Reno Bertoia, a native of Italy who moved as a
child to Windsor, Ontario, made the major leagues with the cross-border
Detroit Tigers. The narrator, a 12-year-old boy named Henry, contracts
polio and is forced into seclusion. During this time he becomes
infatuated with baseball in particular, and celebrity in general. To
keep occupied, he turns to writing about celebrities and sports figures,
and asking them for autographed photos. Over time, he receives replies
from hockey players like Henri Richard, ball players like Ted Williams,
entertainers like Louis Armstrong, and even a personal letter from John
Diefenbaker, the prime minister at the time. His communication with
evangelist Billy Graham led to a brief flirtation with religion. But his
overtures to local hero Bertoia remain unanswered, until….

Reno’s light, often humorous, narrative immerses the reader in life
as experienced by a youth in the late 1950s. The movie stars, singers
and songs, comedians, politicians, and hockey and baseball stars of the
period all come to life. Gervais cleverly makes this happen.