Wow, this story is crazy! I planned on doing two journal entries for Blockade Billy, but I'm actually afraid I can't say much about the second half of the book without giving something away. I will say that it is good -- very good, and a big surprise for me. I liked it a lot.
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The narrator, Granny Grantham, is both energetic and insightful. As an old man, he enjoys King's company and hopes King will return and talk more. By using Grantham's voice and speaking as if talking TO Stephen King, King has again made himself a character in the story. Innovative..
Though not exactly a story of revenge (but almost), this short novel would have fit neatly into Full Dark No Stars. Reading King lately has been a joy. His recent work is not only very good, it's exceptional. Under The Dome, Morality, Full Dark No Stars, Blockade Billy have all shown King at is best. He has aid for years that he hopes that he is getting better as a writer, and I think recent books really display his gift and passion for writing. King doesn't let constant readers down.
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Bill Sheehan writes in the Washington Post, "Blockade Billy" works as well as it does for a couple of reasons. The first is the narrative voice that King has conjured up for Granny Grantham. Funny, sharply observant and casually profane, it is the voice of a quintessential baseball insider who happens to be a natural raconteur. Equally important is the lovingly detailed evocation of the game as it was played in 1957, when, with few exceptions, the players were neither celebrities nor millionaires but "working stiffs" who earned, on average, $15,000 a year. King's descriptions of these tough, hard-bitten men and the hardscrabble contests they engaged in add both a dash of nostalgia and a touch of gritty reality to this dark, absorbing portrait of a vanished era."
