Word: ben
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...this climatic contest, this scenario is absolutely believable. Nancy Willard has taken her numerous talents--as a poet, an award-winning children's and short-story author, and a baseball fan--and woven a tale so compelling that nothing could be more natural than a game played because one Ben Harkissian has made a bet with Death...
...throws one curve and back on base Willie Harkissian, a wheeler-dealer before he even leaves the womb, is born with his twin, Ben. The agreement: Willie will have "what the world calls brains"; Ben will "get out of this cave first." He will play Abel to Willie's Cain, and also be a deadly left-handed hitter, deadly that when, years later, he slams a teammate's pitch into a dark summer night on a date, he hits Clare Bishop in the forehead and she goes into a coma...
...hospital and takes her on trips outside her body. Meanwhile, her level-headed parents, Hal and Helen, her nephew Davy and an as ortment of eccentric relatives and neighbors try to cook up cures for her paralysis. A temporary remedy comes in the force of--yes, Ben, overwhelmed by guilt, and then by Clare...
...HOWEVER, as much as Clare is overwhelmed by Bet., Willard lingers over every detail as she sets up the denouement of Things Invisible to See, narrating from both Ben's and Clare's perspectives, and establishing deliberately the eternal relevance of concepts like death, good, evil, love and baseball. In Ben's first visit to Clare, Willard captures all the agony of the first crush and even love at first sight...
...melodramatic perhaps, but this is really the only clear picture we get of Ben. Some lucky coin--to which Death owns the rights--draws much closer scrutiny...