The DiMaggios

June 1, 2013

Readers familiar with Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak or his brief marriage to Marilyn Monroe may not know much more about him, including that two of his brothers, Vince and Dominic (Dom), also played major league baseball. Clavin (editor, East Hampton Independent; Gil Hodges) aims here to present a thumbnail sketch of the DiMaggio family and its history, discuss the brothers' experiences in pro baseball, describe their relationships with one another, and highlight their lives after baseball. The book provides an excellent guide to the ups and downs of the brothers' seasons in the sport, from pennant races to World Series championships, as it introduces readers to other heroes of the era, such as Ted Williams. For a deeper exploration of the brothers' relationships with one another, readers may want to try Jerome Charyn's Joe DiMaggio: The Long Vigil, or, for a closer look at Dominic DiMaggio and his Boston Red Sox teammates, David Halberstam's The Teammates. VERDICT Baseball fans as well as armchair historians of the culture before, during, and after World War II will be most interested in this book.--Nathan Rupp, Yale Univ. Lib., New Haven, CT

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2013
Just a few years after the death of the last surviving brother, Dominic, at age 92, Clavin offers a collective biography of the best known of all sports siblings, with the emphasis, of course, on the iconic Joe (Giuseppe Junior). The story is a familiar one to baseball fans: sons of Italian immigrant parents and discouraged from sports as youngsters by their San Francisco fisherman father, the three brothersVince, Joe, and Dominicall went on to Major League careers, in Joe's case also to the Hall of Fame and celebrity well beyond the baseball diamond, notably Joe's enduring love of Marilyn Monroe. Clavin's treatment of their baseball lives is heavily statistical, almost encyclopedic (he's gone through all the Yankee clippings), and, regrettablylike the brothers' personalities (Vince possibly excepted)it lacks panache. Oddly, the book is at its best in dealing with their later years: Vince's personal struggles, Joe's loneliness, Dom's business success. Though often sad, the account achieves, toward the end of the story, its drama and real poignancy. The DiMaggios is, ultimately, the family story its title implies.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)