Former A.V. Club editor releases debut novel The Ringer

Good writing is about making the right choices. In The Ringer, first-time novelist Jenny Shank displays an unerring sense of direction while steering her book through rugged emotional terrain with a deft touch and obvious skill. And it’s no wonder—Shank honed her craft during a stint working here as The A.V. Club’s Denver city editor. 

In the novel, Shank brings to life the story of Patricia Maestas—whose husband, a Mexican immigrant, was shot and killed in a no-knock police raid—and Ed O’Fallon, the officer who shot her husband. The characters’ lives intersect not only through the tragedy, but also because their sons play competitive youth baseball in the same Denver league. Shank’s genuine love of baseball is evident on nearly every page of the novel, and her characters share that passion for the game, which reaches across racial and cultural divides.

“In my fiction, I've often written about sports, because sports brings people from different backgrounds and cultures together, and I thought baseball would be a good medium to draw the families on both sides of this conflict into each other’s orbit.” Shank says. “I wanted to write a novel that would take the reader into the world of intense competitive youth baseball, with all its dramas, enthusiastic fans, bickering parents, and unusual characters.”

She succeeds by avoiding the cheap plot devices, emotional pandering, and easy answers that plague even more seasoned writers. Instead, she delivers an excellent novel in her first at bat. Shank will be doing a book launch for The Ringer at 7:30 p.m. on April 8 at the Historic LoDo Tattered Cover Book Store (1628 16th St. at Wynkoop, Denver, 303-436-1070), where she will read and sign her novel. If you miss that event, you can catch her next reading at 7:30 p.m. on April 27 at the Boulder Book Store (1107 Pearl St.).