The Oakland Quartet
by
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This is a story in black and white, like the year in which it takes place, 1958. It's a story about an old neighborhood, Oakland, with its sagging frame houses, broken sidewalks, trash-choked alleys. Like an old couch, Oakland had a crumpled, lived-in look, too many late nights, too many unwashed days. It's a story about a steel mill neighborhood, where working-class families turned their backs on outsiders. Oakland had its own rules, minded its own business, expected you to do the same. It's a story about gritty streets and mill smoke, about grim lives and grimy wash hanging in unweeded backyards. Most of all, it's a story about four flawed boys -- young men of promise -- wanting to play ball, learning to hustle, waiting on the army, dealing with the crime they committed, piecing together the rest of their lives. It's a story of four boys who didn't understand limits, who didn't know when – or how – to stop. Ultimately, it's a story about one act that destroyed their lives.
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About the Book
From the award-winning author of Paradise Boys, Scotch and Oranges, Ghost Dancer, and End of the Road, comes the startling, visionary The Oakland Quartet. Set in Oakland, a working-class American-Irish neighborhood of steel mills and saloons, the novel, set in 1958, chronicles four teenaged baseball players -- Stash and Nig, Mongol and Whitey, the slickest-fielding infield the city had ever seen -- who, on a hot, sulfurous night, commit an unspeakable crime -- and must live with its consequences. Supported by a stellar cast of barkeeps, city councilmen, neighborhood enforcers, and Catholic priests -- as well as such historic figures as Mayor David Lawrence, baseball Hall of Famer Pie Traynor, and many more -- the Oakland Quartet make a decision that will ultimately ruin their lives. Narrated by Beef, their former teammate and catcher, The Oakland Quartet closely examines these small, stunted lives -- while their priest, Father David Reddy, searches to save those who have who have lost their way.
About the Author
Versatile, award-winning writer Abby Mendelson is the author of two previous novels, Paradise Boys and Scotch and Oranges, as well as two collections of stories, Ghost Dancer and End of the Road. In addition, he wrote the number-one best-selling The Pittsburgh Steelers: The Official History, now in a fourth, revised edition; The Pittsburgh Steelers: Yesterday and Today; Pittsburgh: A Place in Time, a collection of his writings about Pittsburgh neighborhoods, in a second, revised edition; Reckoning with Rainbows: The History of The Pressley Ridge Schools, and A Century of Caring: The History of Holy Family Institute. Abby served as a by-line contributor to Pittsburgh Born, Pittsburgh Bred, the official 250th Pittsburgh anniversary book; Pittsburgh: Fulfilling Its Destiny; Pittsburgh Characters; and The Power of Pittsburgh. As an editor, he has handled a variety of complex projects, including various histories and biographies, Countdown to Renaissance II, the first study of the 1970s Pittsburgh urban revitalization, and Wilderness Within, Wilderness Without, about the lives of troubled teens in a treatment center. Currently, he teaches English and writing at Chatham University, Point Park University, and the University of Pittsburgh. He holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Pittsburgh and lives in Pittsburgh with his wife Judith.