Magic Season: A Son's Story

by Wade Rouse

Overview

*A Michigan Notable Book of 2022*

"Honest, authentic, heartbreaking and healing. I devoured it in one day."—Jenny Lawson, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Wade Rouse, bestselling author under the pen name Viola Shipman, finds solace with his dying father through their shared love of baseball in this poignant, illuminating memoir of family and forgiveness.

Before his success in public relations, his loving marriage and his storied writing career, Wade Rouse was simply Ted Rouse's son. A queer kid in a conservative Ozarks community, Wade struggled at a young age to garner his father's approval and find his voice. For his part, Ted was a hard-lined engineer, offering little emotional support or encouragement. But Wade and Ted had one thing in common: an undying love of the St. Louis Cardinals.

For decades, baseball offered Wade and his father a shared vocabulary—a way to stay in touch, to connect and to express their emotions. But when his father's health takes a turn for the worst, Wade returns to southwest Missouri to share one final season with his father. As the Cards race towards a dramatic pennant race, Wade and his father begin to open up in way they never thought possible. Together, inning by inning during their own magic season, they'll move towards forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace.

Heartfelt, hilarious and lovingly rendered, Magic Season is an unforgettable story of love, family and forgiveness against the backdrop of America's favorite pastime.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781335475176
Publisher:	Hanover Square Press
Publication date:	05/03/2022
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	511,393
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Wade Rouse is an internationally bestselling author of thirteen books, which have been translated into twenty languages and selected as Today Show Must-Reads, Indie Next Picks and Michigan Notable Books. Rouse writes fiction under his grandma’s name, Viola Shipman, to honor the working-poor Ozarks woman whose memory inspires his writing. He lives in Michigan and California, and hosts Wine & Words with Wade, a literary happy hour, every Thursday.

Editorial Reviews

"Magic Season is a beautiful, poignant and, yes, magical memoir that captures the tough and tender bonds between father and son. At turns hilarious and heartbreaking, this book will captivate readers from start to finish."—John Searles, New York Times bestselling author of Help For The Haunted and Her Last Affair

"Honest, authentic, heartbreaking and healing. Magic Season explores, in such a poignant yet hopeful way, the complicated family relationships that break us and make us. I devoured it in one day."—Jenny Lawson, #1 New York Times bestselling author


“The beauty of Magic Season is Wade Rouse’s ability to illustrate the tensions between a conservative father and his gay son while simultaneously presenting their irrefutable love affair. The story moves readers deftly through the vicissitudes of traditional patriarchy and misogyny and demonstrates how these cultural norms strangle boys who refuse the assumed allure of toxic masculinity. Using the game of baseball as theoretical frame, this moving memoir teaches not only truths about the difficulty of masculine healing but also the joy of life a man knows once he attains it.”—Daniel Black, author of Don’t Cry for Me

"Eloquent, profound, and as funny as it is heartbreaking, Magic Season is a poignant reminder that those of us who've had rocky upbringings have a choice—we can turn mean, or we can go down to our tenderest parts and truly be ourselves, open to love. Wade's story will make you realize that things in life—like people—can always change, if you just don't give up on them. This glorious memoir hits it out of the park."—Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of With or Without You


“Wade Rouse's masterful memoir about coming out and coming to grips with his cantankerous, conservative father over a shared love of baseball is a pitch-perfect blend of storytelling, emotional discovery, and survival humor. Home run!”—Meredith May, author of The Honey Bus and Loving Edie


"A poignant and heartfelt story about a father and son reestablishing a connection...equal parts heart-rending and humorous, and at all points filled with love.”—Library Journal

From the Publisher

04/02/2022

Parents and children often disagree, but occasionally that rift becomes an unsurpassable ravine. Rouse (It's All Relative) and his father found it hard to connect about anything and were driven apart by differences and an unwillingness to meet in the middle. Luckily, Rouse and his father Ted have one thing in common—a deep-seated love of the St. Louis Cardinals. Rouse's new memoir is a poignant and heartfelt story about a father and son reestablishing a connection. Their shared love of baseball provides them a vocabulary to reconnect at the end of Ted's life and provides the tools to rebuild their relationship. This memoir is equal parts heart-rending and humorous, and at all points filled with love. It is a story that's more than just about a conservative father and his gay son, it's about the power of family and shared experience. VERDICT Libraries looking to increase their LGBTQ+ memoir collections will not want to miss this worthy entry.—Ahliah Bratzler

Library Journal

2022-03-08
A gay son and his judgmental father bond over baseball.

“I was born in 1965, the unlikely product of an ultra-conservative father and an independent-thinking mother,” writes Rouse. “If Dick Cheney had fathered a child with Cher, I would be the result.” His mother, a nurse, was a lifelong Democrat; his father voted for Trump. His mother supported him when he came out; his father refused to talk to him for two years. His mother nurtured his dream of becoming a writer; his father derided him. Growing up queer in the Ozarks, Rouse felt unable to please his father, who wanted him to be a rugged man’s man. Rouse, though, was a disappointment. “My father couldn’t teach me baseball, I couldn’t learn to play,” but they did follow every game, spring through fall. “The gay kid and the Ozarks man listened, watched and attended thousands of Cardinals games together.” The Cardinals’ 2015 season forms the throughline for Rouse’s frank memoir of his difficult, frustrating relationship with a man who “was always a bit of a mystery, the chemical engineer and logistical human who measured, calculated, weighed everything, even emotion.” His father abused alcohol and later painkillers— behavior that was unchallenged, like any other problem in the family’s life. For too long, the author lied to his family and friends about being gay, and he recounts his struggle to own his identity and find love. After his mother died in 2009, Rouse saw his father decline physically and mentally, becoming dependent on caregivers, including his son, who still yearned for closeness. When he visited, they sat side by side watching their beloved team. True fans, he notes, “always believe that a miracle can happen, that a magical season will occur and obliterate all the bad memories that came before. A true fan believes in his heart that even a terrible team can turn into a great one.”

A poignant memoir of pain and hope.

Kirkus Reviews

09/01/2022

Rouse, the pen name of best-selling author Viola Shipman, is back with his most emotional book yet. It's a memoir that delves into the contentious relationship he had with his father. Wade was not the son his father wanted, and he never let Wade forget it. But they shared one thing: the St. Louis Cardinals. Baseball became the story of their lives. The majority of the audiobook occurs during October 2015, the last month of his father's life. Told through nine innings of a baseball game, it goes backward to see key glimpses of the author's childhood, teen years, and adulthood. In light of those details, it would have been understandable if the author had been unable to forgive his father for years of emotional abuse. He explains, however, how he overcame those challenges to grow into a man capable of love, emotion, and forgiveness. Rouse narrates his own book and comes across as personable and genuine. The voices he uses for his parents are not caricatures but are as close to his memory as possible. It makes for compelling listening. VERDICT This audiobook will appeal to a wide audience, especially those dealing with an aging parent. Libraries should purchase.—Jodi L. Israel

Library Journal - Audio