"The Celebrant," by Eric Rolfe Greenberg, is a historical fiction novel set in New York City in the early 20th century, but written in the 70s/80s. The narrator, Jackie Kapp|Yakov Kapinski, is a Jewish immigrant whose family assimilates and, over the course of decades, establishes a thriving jewelry business. Jackie is also a huge baseball fan; he loves the New York Giants and their star pitcher, Christy Mathewson. All the baseball in the book is real, and a lot of it I'd been familiar with from various secondary sources (there weren't as many secondary sources at the time the book was written, so Greenberg's research is more impressive in that context). So it's one of those "I know how the pennant race is going to turn out, but tell me more about Jackie and his relationships."
For whatever reason, this non-speculative historical fiction book is calling out to me for absurd, over-the-top fannish tropes. I'm not sure if I'll have time to do something for this event, but I'm hoping to write an AU with unreliable narrator Jackie dealing with plot devices that definitely weren't in canon. (Also, probably not for this event, but the Mathewsons and McGraws would be a great sedoretu foursome.)
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
The Celebrant
Date: 2025-02-28 23:04 (UTC)For whatever reason, this non-speculative historical fiction book is calling out to me for absurd, over-the-top fannish tropes. I'm not sure if I'll have time to do something for this event, but I'm hoping to write an AU with unreliable narrator Jackie dealing with plot devices that definitely weren't in canon. (Also, probably not for this event, but the Mathewsons and McGraws would be a great sedoretu foursome.)
A lot more thoughts here.