Preview

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Natural

By: Bernard Malamud
Narrated by: Fred Berman
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $19.95

Buy for $19.95

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Introduction by Kevin Baker

The Natural, Bernard Malamud's first novel, published in 1952, is also the first - and some would say still the best - novel ever written about baseball. In it Malamud, usually appreciated for his unerring portrayals of postwar Jewish life, took on very different material - the story of a superbly gifted "natural" at play in the fields of the old daylight baseball era - and invested it with the hardscrabble poetry, at once grand and altogether believable, that runs through all his best work.

Four decades later, Alfred Kazin's comment still holds true: "Malamud has done something which - now that he has done it! - looks as if we have been waiting for it all our lives. He has really raised the whole passion and craziness and fanaticism of baseball as a popular spectacle to its ordained place in mythology."

©1980 Bernard Malamud (P)2019 Audible, Inc.
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Featured Article: The Best Baseball Audiobooks of All Time


Ask any baseball fan and they'll tell you: some of their favorite sounds can only be heard at the ballpark—the smooth, satisfying pop of a catcher’s glove as a pitch hits its mark; the crack of a bat as it tears into a fastball, explosive and hopeful, drawing the crowd to their feet. Our list, a roundup of outstanding baseball audiobooks, offers a glimmer of that same ballpark magic with just a few of the greatest stories from our national pastime.

What listeners say about The Natural

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    61
  • 4 Stars
    46
  • 3 Stars
    24
  • 2 Stars
    9
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    81
  • 4 Stars
    33
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    54
  • 4 Stars
    30
  • 3 Stars
    25
  • 2 Stars
    10
  • 1 Stars
    6

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

OY! I LIKED THE MOVIE BETTER!

Wow, did this book surprise me! I have been a fan of Bernard Malamud since--well, since I was like eight years old and discovered my love affair with baseball! The elementary school I attended had a small school library, and there was a book of baseball short stories that included (at least) one of Malamud's. Years later, I saw "The Natural" with Robert Redford and Glenn Close, and loved the story! (This is one of the perhaps dozen movies that I have seen in my life that I will watch again no matter when it comes on, unless my wife is home and in possession of the remote!). So...I was pretty excited to read "The Natural," and with props to Mr. M., it's a great book and totally well-written; but...nothing like the movie story version (especially the end), and for that reason, I hated it. In the book, "Roy" ends up being an amoral shell of a man who seems only interested in his own narcissism related to the "heroic legacy" he'll leave to the game. I don't want to spoil the ending for anyone, but think 180-out of how the movie leaves him (and Iris) in the happy-ending version. Oy, so disappointed in Roy.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Depressing…

…. For any number of reasons primarily the movie. Anyone who has seen Robert Redford in the cinematic “the natural“ – and who hasn’t? – Will get a big dose of gloom out of the literary version. Like other reviewers have remarked… The movie is much better… That’s a rare occurrence. “TheGreatEscape“, “little big man“ are only a few examples that come to mind when the movie outstrips the book… Perhaps “the Godfather“ is another. But certainly anyone who’s ever been uplifted by Robert Redford‘s elegant performance… And feel good pathos will walk away from the authors version with a heavy heart. Naturally, one has to take his hat off to the original… but even that seems to borrow just a little too much from actual history. The narration was mediocre… It’s a short lesson, but spare yourself the disappointment.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

loved the premise

while very different than the movie(which was fine) There are periods of this book that go off the rails of any semblance of reality. well read, but the story which had its of promise had me losing interest throughout.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Movie was better

Very different story than the movie. One of the few instances where the movie is better than the book. The Hobbs character isn’t even very likable in the book. Overall, the book was a good listen if for no other reason than to experience Malamud’s original version.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Sad and unreal

At times, a story containing components of the beauty of the love of the game, mixed with the life story of a tragic character, that sadly and somewhat unrealistically, time, and again, makes major errors in judgment, indicating his apparent in ability to learn from experience.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Liked the movie better

It's a good book, but if you've seen the movie you will be a little disappointed. I couldn't separate the way Redford played Hobbs and how Hobbs is in the book is really not the same character.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

The Natural

Most people who read this book are drawn to it by seeing the movie first, right? Maybe. If you're like me, you're disappointed.

The character of Roy Hobbs is much more of a bumpkin, not the charismatic character portrayed in the movie. The death of his father, the love interest of his boyhood, the son? Nope, no part of this story. Roy does get shot, but years later falls for the fem-fatalé. The silver bullet that near ends Roy's life, let alone career, isn't even mentioned. He does wind up in the hospital, but for stress/exhaustion, something equally mundane. The rest of the story, Pop, Wonderboy, throwing a game, all adheres to the story arc of the movie, except for the ending. No spoilers, but *sniff*, it is nowhere near as thrilling. Not even close.

Yet, the actual field action of "baseball" - good stuff!

The movie is considerably more uplifting. Considerably.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

disappointed

I can't believe I'm saying this, but if you love the movie, the natural, like I did, I would not read this book. The book does not have any real issues that it deals well with philosophically, it's baseball issues are old and hard to relate with, and worst of all, has characters that do not resound.
Call me old fashioned, but I think the reader deserves a happy ending to such a pedantic story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A Dark, Dark Hero

This is a classic example of a book being so, so much better than the movie. There is some great baseball, on and off the field, but the story belongs to Hobbs, a dark, deeply disturbed disaster of a human being. A great story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Best last hour of a baseball novel ever

The story of a hero and tragedy. So much of a deeper story than the movie. Absolutely terrific writing and Emotionally committed performance. Loved it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful