If There Were a Magical-Realist Novel About Josh Satin

If there were a magical-realist novel about Josh Satin, it would begin with a description of Josh Satin, rounding the bases like normal after having hit a home run against Brewers reliever Jim Henderson on September 26, 2013.

If there were a magical-realist novel about Josh Satin, it would also feature a description of how, just after hitting that home run but before running, how Satin reacted in a manner not unlike that one depicted in Fig.1 below — disappointed, it would seem, that he’d hit only a foul ball.

One assumes, if there were a magical-realist novel about Josh Satin, that said novel would explore in some depth — perhaps for the duration of the novel itself — that peculiar interval in which Satin acquainted himself with a reality (represented by Fig. 2) in which he hadn’t actually hit a foul ball, but rather a home run.

It almost goes without saying that, were there a magical-realist novel about Josh Satin, that it’d be written by a recently exiled native of South America, an author visited by a recurring dream of this sport he hardly understands narrated in a language he barely knows.

It’s not difficult to imagine, if there were a magical-realist novel about Josh Satin, that it would feature a brief introductory piece not unlike the present one, which entertains the possibility of a magical-realist novel about Josh Satin, as if such a thing could possibly exist.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2