James Sturm pens this richly evocative graphic novel set in the 1920s. The Stars of David, a barnstorming Jewish baseball team, travel from town to town earning a living by playing local squads. They all sport beards, a gimmick to attract patrons but when financial difficulties threaten to end their season they cast their lot with a Chicago promoter who has just seen the hugely successful German silent film Der Golem... With the golem, a baseball game is transformed into a mythical pageant. Fear and curiosity fills the stadium, but it also stokes the flames of anti-Semitism. Winning the game for the Stars of David becomes less important then surviving it. With a sepia-tinted cinematic style, this compelling book reminds us that making it home is at the heart of baseball.
About the Author, James Sturm
James Sturm's barnstorming career as a cartoonist and teacher has taken him coast to coast. He currently lives and works in Hartland, Vermont along with his wife and two daughters.
With the strategy of a top manager Sturm artfully mixes Jewish mythology with the mythology of baseball as a way of exploring the myth of America. It's a big subject, and not an easy one. You can tell when the baseball-as-America metaphor gets used as an easy trope by a literal player-hater. But The Golem's Mighty Swing, has the beauty, universality, thoughtfulness, and sweep of baseball at its best. — Andrew D. Arnold
