Cancer Lurks Deep

Kilgore Trout, a pitcher for the Chicago Cubs, returns to his boyhood home in upstate New York after a career ending injury to his throwing shoulder. He intends to take over his father's business, but instead goes into real estate. His transition to New York is not without great difficulty. He finds selling houses very difficult, and his wife soon leaves him as well. Compounding his difficulties, Kilgore loses both parents within six months of each other, and this sets him on a downward swirl of depression. He checks himself into a hospital in hopes of feeling better. There he meets a woman. He and the woman become close and decide to marry, and Kilgore soon learns he will be a father. His joy, though, is bittersweet: His wife dies from complications of childbirth. At home with his infant son, Kilgore is left to raise the child by himself. During the boy's naps, Kilgore takes up writing fiction. He is mesmerized by the experience, and describes it as a magic. A magic, he promises, to teach to his son.