The Captive

It is 1965 and Vietnam is about to explode. At eighteen, David Mandel feels the heat all around him. His friends are off to war, his girlfriend wants to get married, his future looks blockaded by uncertainties. As his coming of age adventure unfolds, the only certainty in his life is his veneration of a particular baseball hero by the name of Sandy Koufax All this takes place with the epic music of the times playing in the background. The Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, and the Beatles are launching new sounds as the characters zoom up and down the highways of the California coast all captives of the Vietnam generation. In his debut novel, The Captive, Grossman takes a huge swing attempting to deliver two untold sagas. The first is the story of those who stayed back from the war and painfully endured the helpless suffering of their brethren as they were drawn into the conflagration, some by choice, but most by a sickening sense of resignation. The second tale conveys the impact of the great Jewish baseball player whose simple decision not to play ball on the holy of holist days created a legend not only for Jews, but for all people of conscience devoted to still honor the separation of the sacred and the profane. Much ink has been dedicated to the enigmatic lefthander and with justification. Yet, this novel portrays a perspective not from the baseball world, but from the intimate point of view of those who regarded Koufax as a hero beyond reproach during years of divergence and despair.