An impressive set of golf tales that features well-developed characters.
Elasky presents a collection of stories centered on the culture of golfing.
A yip is an involuntary wrist twitch that can negatively affect a golf game’s outcome—a term popularized by Scottish golf champion Tommy Armour. In Elasky’s collection of 10 tales, such misfires may be cosmically induced or psychologically triggered. In the tender opener, “Marlena’s Debut,” overprotective wine purveyor Fred consoles his 32-year-old friend Marlena Fissel, whose husband Frank just left her for another woman. At the country club where they golf, she considers lifechanging decisions, such as joining a nudist resort, getting cosmetic surgery, and trying to “Hook a big one before our dues run out.” Fred, meanwhile, sees an opportunity to act on his lifelong crush on Marlena. In “The Breaks,” a struggling songwriter, mountain cabin-dweller, and amateur golfer laments an encroaching new development on his hillside but changes his outlook when a singer expresses interest in some his songs. Elasky’s dynamic golf-story collection never becomes repetitive, thanks to his ability to amusingly touch on several genres. A whimsical and entertaining Sherlock Holmes spoof, “The Mystery of the Disappearing Duck-Hooks,” is set on an English fairway where the good detective, battling cocaine withdrawal, investigates why golf balls are disappearing into a green’s leafy vale; this time around, however, his ever-present companion Dr. Watson steals the show. Lovers of creative SF will appreciate the author’s worldbuilding talents in futuristic tales such as “The Immortals” or the title story, as well as in the silly, circuitous satire of “Balls,” which details the discovery of a long-buried green on the planet Dilapidees.
The author adventurously nods to the memoir genre in the cross-cultural splendor of “In the Shadow of Bhujanga,” in which an intrepid explorer chronicles how, in the early 1950s, he courageously introduced the sport of golf to a ruler of a kingdom in “one of the most isolated corners of this planet.” The collection also features the lengthy Northern California-set “The Cult of Golf and Sex,” which follows a sect that promotes the intersection of golf and intercourse. With an inventive backstory, discourse about what “The Yips” means, and memorable characters, such as Guru Virgil and Pilgrim Tim, this story forms an ideally inspired, energetic, and imaginative center to an inventive, triumphant volume. The joyful appeal of Elasky’s tales lies in their wide-ranging themes, as well as in the author’s reliable storytelling skills: Characters continuously relate realistic dialogue in stories with vivid imagery, which makes scenes and exchanges creative and believable. Some pieces, such as the standout opening love story, include golfing as an afterthought, but readers won’t mind as Elasky presents engrossing storylines about life, love, longing, and loyalty. In tales that put greens, golf balls, driving instructions, and lush resorts in the forefront, the author provides rich atmosphere for his dramatically enchanting yarns. Overall, lovers of character-driven sketches—especially those who play golf—are likely to find this collection to be uplifting and immensely entertaining.
An impressive set of golf tales that features well-developed characters.Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2023
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
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BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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