Book Review: Spillage

Reviewed by Nick Rees Gardner

A Faustian baseball drama with plenty of quirk and kick, Michael Gross’s Spillage blurs the line between politics and spiritual intervention in a raucous rendition of ‘70s New York. 

A spin on the musical Damn Yankees, Spillage features an eclectic cast of characters ranging from the star-crossed protagonists, Joan and Eliot, to a star baseball pitcher known as “The Swan.” The Devil himself even plays a prominent role. The plot is as unpredictable as Nick “The Swan” Spillage’s screwball, but Michael Gross’s fluid language deftly links each section together for a satisfying finish. Filled with role-switching characters, magic, and, of course, baseball, Spillage doesn’t shy away from its critique of 1970s New York in what, at heart, is a story about the political and spiritual forces that try to draw lovers apart and the personal tenacity required to bring them back together.

Joan and Eliot have lived in the Bronx together for years. Barely leaving their bed to busk in the subway or attend iconic concerts like Woodstock, tensions build when Eliot, in hopes of starting a family with Joan, takes a job at The Burger Boat. Left to her own devices, Joan falls for rookie pitcher phenom, Nick “The Swan” Spillage, and, confused by her conflicting desires and traumas from her past, makes a deal with the Devil to leave Eliot for the Yankees’ pitcher. 

Meanwhile, Eliot falls in with the Satanic Vanguard, a terrorist organization, in hopes that he can win Joan back. In a confusing mixture of Devil deals, magic, and rigged elections, both Joan and Eliot find themselves transferred into the bodies and roles of a famous singer and a baseball coach, respectively, taking solo journeys that will either bring them together or tear them and their beloved New York apart.

While the plot with its many characters and their frequently shifting roles may require work from the reader, the prose is the glue that holds it together. Michael Gross uses rhythmic language, at times as surprising as a Jimi Hendrix guitar solo and at others, soft and quiet. He makes a risky move from the third-person omniscient narrator into short bursts of second person narration, and he succeeds at using this second person to make, for example, Joan’s traumatic upbringing much more visceral and immediate. Gross’s language sucks the reader into the urgency of the story at large, creating characters that, even though they change bodies and roles, are unforgettable. 

For those readers unfamiliar with Faust or Damn Yankees, Gross’s novel can be difficult to follow, and its complex and wide-ranging cast requires quite a bit of authorial exposition to reveal, creating a narrative that is, at times, slow moving and information-heavy. However, each of the several characters from Satan’s employee, Raoul, to presidential prospect Mayor Lightly, to the ghost of Joan’s abuser, Big Daddy, are all displayed in great depth. Each character is exposed with enough history and desire to make them worthy of their own individual story. While the complete novel may lose some momentum in order to catch the reader up on its elaborate plot, its intricacies are nevertheless intriguing and unique.

With Spillage, difficult issues like spirituality, family, women’s rights, gentrification, and, of course, the Yankees in the World Series are exposed and commented on in a unique and fresh way. While the reader can easily revel in the language and the characters, they are also forced to question their understanding of the outside forces that complicate our relationships. With all its parody and satire, Spillage is not a flippant book, but a unique expression of a time and place: New York City, 1976. A history that reverberates into our present day.

---

Thank you for reading Nick Rees Gardner’s book review of Spillage by Michael Gross! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.