Baseball, earthquakes, and the healing power of friendship in the author’s new San Diego book

Chris Barron’s medium novel is set in the Bay Area during the 1989 World Championships, after the friendship of two outcast young men

Credit: Macmillan Publishing Group

Above: Details from the cover of San Diego author Chris Barron’s novel for middle grade poetry, “The Magical Imperfect,” published June 15, 2021.

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Chris Barron’s medium verse novel, “The Magical Imperfect” is set in the Bay Area during the 1989 World Series, after the friendship of two outcast young men as they navigate lineage and disease… Read more →

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“I sometimes feel like poetry is my mother tongue,” said Chris Barron, author of the new middle-grade novel on poetry, “The Magical Imperfect.” A novel in a house is a type of narrative written using poetry, rather than prose, but otherwise behaving like a novel.

Barron said, “All the elements of storytelling—the plot, the characters, the setting, the conflict—are all there, but I think poetry brings it another dimension. And there’s the kind of intimacy with the reader that takes place in a poetic novel.”

This is Barron’s second novel, which follows Clooney’s novel, which was also written in poetic narrative format.

Related: A novel for middle school students dealing with body image and self-acceptance

“I also think poetry could explore the character’s inner landscape a bit more, especially for middle-grade readers. They have a lot going on inside,” Barron said. “The verse allows this more inner scene, that intimacy with their thoughts and emotions to come out.”

The Magical Imperfect tells the story of 11-year-old Eitan, the grandson of a Jewish immigrant who came to the Bay Area via Angel Island. Eitan’s mother was hospitalized, and since then, he has developed a form of selective mutism.

“When I left,

I felt like I was part of my voice

He went with her.

[…]

when I got off

To say goodbye one last time,

She said, I love you, Eitan,

Just like you used to smoke in it

After I finished the story.

But when I opened my mouth to say it again,

no words

went out.”

Eitan befriends Malia, a homeschooled girl who lives on the outskirts of town. Malia suffers from severe eczema covering her body with a red rash and swelling. The neighborhood kids refer to her as “the creature.”

“Personally, I love the stories of untouchables who find each other and realize that they are not really untouchables, that they are just as valuable and important as everyone else,” Barron said.

Malia and Eitan’s friendship is rich and interconnected – not only for them, but also for society. Their relationship is also no-fuss, celebrating the ways in which wanting the best for another person can be uncomplicated and empowering.

The lives of Etan and Malia and their families and friends are beautifully intertwined with rich historical facts, detail, and action – using both sports and geological history. The story unfolds against the backdrop of 1989 in San Francisco, including the 6.9 magnitude earthquake that occurred during Game Three of the World Series.

Barron said earthquakes can have a profound effect on young people, who often deal with their own fault lines.

“Something as solid as the Earth suddenly isn’t coming back,” Barron said. “And it’s a powerful kind of metaphor for children growing up as the world shakes and changes.”

After the first two matches of the World Championships, Eitan’s father explains what it might mean for the Giants to return from two losses, hoping they will now see “what made the Giants”.

Then he leans inward.

be brave

Even if it seems so

Like you you have no chance

of winning.”

Eitan understands how this resilience applies to his family and friends as well, and how “financially made one of the strongest things” is.

Baron said the story of Eitan and Malia’s immigrant ancestors is another source of strength and understanding for Eitan. Eitan’s grandfather and Lula came from Malia to Angel Island on the same ship.

The fictional little town of San Francisco that the characters call home was built by immigrants, and as this generation gets older and life gets in the way of younger generations, the time they spend together has dwindled.

The book is full of rituals, ancestral traditions, and magic. There is a magical mud that Eitan and Malia hope will heal each other. There are memories of Shabbat gatherings, relics, and stones preserved from Eitan’s grandfather’s home.

“I think a big part of the story is intergenerational, it brings the idea of ​​the old world and the new world together and what happens when the old rituals are brought to new life,” Barron said. “I wanted the book and the story to explore the beauty of this ritual and the challenges that come with it and the way, as I said, the old world collides with the new world and the new way of things, but also how they hold it all together.”

When their community (literally) shakes up, Etan and Malia have to step up to pick up the pieces—the ink is barely drying on their individual empowerment.

From the relevant school earthquake drills in the opening scene to the little revolution brewing beneath the surface in two young men, “The Magical Imperfect” is about community, resilience, history, and re-imagining what it means to be healed.

On Saturday, July 31, Baron will be honored by the San Diego Book Festival with the 2021 San Diego Festival Award, in the main ceremony beginning at 9:30 a.m.

Julia Dixon Evans Arts Calendar Editor and Producer

I write the weekly KPBS Arts newsletter and edit and produce the KPBS Arts calendar. I am interested in engaging San Diegans in the diversity of art and culture made by the creative people who live here.

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