Book Review: Whiz Kid by Joel Burcat

Reviewed by Peggy Kurkowski

Immersive & culturally rich—a novel about lifechanging choices—and temptations—over the course of the Phillies miraculous 1950 season

In 1950, Ben Green is twenty-five and married with a baby on the way. But life starts throwing curveballs that could make or break his new family—just as his beloved baseball team makes a glorious run for the World Series. Whiz Kid is an authentic, time capsule of a novel for the historical fiction fan.

One of Ben’s biggest passions in life is baseball, with warm memories of his father taking him to a Philadelphia Phillies game as a boy, before a car accident took him away too soon.

Ben and his pregnant wife Debby live in her father’s house—which is attached to his button and trimming business—on Seventh Street in Philly, known to Jewish shopkeepers and customers as the Zibbiter, or Jewish market.

Courtesy of the GI Bill, Ben—a veteran who fought on Okinawa in World War II—is finishing four years of college at the University of Pennsylvania. The big question looms: what to do with his life? His love of writing fuels dreams of writing and selling a novel, but his old Navy friend Stan wants him to come work with him at his father’s advertising firm as a copywriter.

Ben is entering his last summer of school with nostalgia, drinking, and baseball games at Shibe Park. That’s where the “Whiz Kids” play. The phrase was a nickname that journalists gave to the 1950 Phillies squad.

Ben’s primary drive is to write a new type of novel, as “he thought the country was ready for a new generation of writers who respected those who crafted their work before the Second World War, but who weren’t wedded to the fussy pre-war version of America.” His story is about an amateur tennis player who wins Wimbledon (entitled Match Point ), portions of which are reproduced in the narrative.

The arrival of this novel is touching in and of itself. Author Joel Burcat takes up where David S. Burcat, his father, left off in his manuscript; David passed away before the book could come out. David’s entries in the story might not play largely into Ben’s story arc, but they show us how he is writing and further develops the theme on writing. Writers will appreciate this one on both a personal, creative, and relatable level. Debby is concerned Ben’s naïve approach to getting published will put her and the baby in a precarious position, and it’s revealed in raw and realistic exchanges that writers will attach to.

While the story revolves around the events of the summer of 1950, the major plot line is a love (or lust) triangle between Ben, Ilene, and Debby. Ilene is overly handsy with Ben, and once Debby sees it with her own eyes, the tension goes through the roof. While Ben is extremely attracted to Ilene, he does not want to hurt Debby or jeopardize their future. Will Ilene get the hint or keep pushing the envelope with this very married man?

Meanwhile, Stan sets Ben up with a job interview with his anti-Semitic father for the copywriter job—steady income and security that Ben and Debby need for their family. But in this final summer of freedom, Ben wrestles with multiple dilemmas: make a go of the novel or settle down to a job he does not really want? He also cannot seem to stay away from the alluring Ilene. What is a Phillies fan to do?

An emotionally resonant tale of love, loyalty, and finding one’s path, Whiz Kid is a cerebral, personal reading experience. But it is also about the love of baseball. “I don’t like baseball. I love baseball.” Like so many of the best baseball novels, Ben compares baseball to life in affecting prose: “It’s different than any other sport. It’s like life. The only way you can appreciate it is slowly … The drama of baseball is in every moment of the game. It builds until the last out.”

As the dam of pent-up emotions between Ben and Ilene comes to a head, a medical emergency threatens everything that Ben holds dear. While the story might benefit from more showing and less telling, the character interactions are thoughtful, real, and emotionally grounded. Even the characters positioned as villains come across as flawed, realistic human beings.

Both historically and culturally rich, especially for the Philadelphia fan, Whiz Kid is a vivid evocation of a lost era in America, where baseball and love were enough to get people up in the morning.

Thank you for reading Peggy Kurkowski’s book review of Whiz Kid: South Philly vs. The Main Line by Joel Burcat and David S. Burcat! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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