"Racine native's first novel generating literary buzz"

From (Milwaukee Jouranl Sentinel) JSOnline:

"Racine-born author Chad Harbach spent 10 years laboring on his first novel.

"It's about baseball, love, loss and dreams, all set at a fictional Wisconsin college along the shore of Lake Michigan.

"While many of his former classmates at Harvard University found success in the workplace, Harbach struggled with the book and struggled to make financial ends meet. He took part-time copy-editing jobs while also cofounding the literary journal n+1.

"Harbach's novel, 'The Art of Fielding,' receives its official release Wednesday, and it is bound to be among the big publishing events of the fall season.

"The book, published by Little, Brown and Co., has already brought a financial windfall to Harbach, who received a reported $650,000 advance.

"And the novel just received what may be the most important seal of approval in the bookselling world: a rave review in The New York Times from critic Michiko Kakutani.

"In the kind of lead paragraph every first-time novelist longs to read, Kakutani wrote: 'Chad Harbach's book "The Art of Fielding" is not only a wonderful baseball novel - it zooms immediately into the pantheon of classics, alongside "The Natural" by Bernard Malamud and "The Southpaw" by Mark Harris - but it's also a magical, melancholy story about friendship and coming of age that marks the debut of an immensely talented writer.'"

Read more: http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/129320048.html

I don't know Chad Harbuch or anything about his book. I just think it's neat that a Racine author has hit the big time. Congratulations, Chad.