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SCRATCH

Name: SCRATCH
Author: Troon McAllister
ISBN: 1-59071-006-1

by Troon McAllister ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2003

McAllister aims frequently for high-impact wackiness but generally achieves a lukewarm silliness.

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There are precious few ways to make golf interesting to read about, much less funny, as the pseudonymous McAllister (a.k.a. Lee Gruenfeld) makes abundantly clear.

McAllister has carved himself a special little niche as one of the foremost practitioners of golf fiction. Here, he gives us the third in a series (The Green, 1999, etc.) about the supposedly-entertaining high jinks of one Eddie Caminetti, apparently not only the greatest golf hustler of all time but possibly the smartest man who ever lived. Eddie’s old buddy, “Fat Albert” Auberlain, had until very recently been one of the sport’s rising stars, but all of a sudden he developed a crushing inability to hit the ball with even a fraction of his former power and precision. Partly inspired by Auberlain’s need, and also by the desire to make gobs of money, Eddie makes friends with egghead extraordinaire Norman Standish to make the world’s most incredible golf ball. Called “Scratch,” the result has a smart little logo of a she-devil on it, is rumored to move like a bullet, retails for $100 a dozen, and causes riots at pro shops. Threatened by this new arrival, the gargantuan golf-supply conglomerate Medalist throws together a spurious lawsuit to hurl at Eddie and his upstart company. But the suit proves to be no worry, as Eddie, who turns out to be a quick study at lawyering, gives the lying, thieving execs at Medalist something to worry about. Meanwhile, he also manages to find time to hustle just about everyone he comes across. He never lies in order to win; it’s just, like old Scratch himself, that he finds the devil in the details of his agreements with his victims. Unfortunately, none of all this is terribly entertaining, since Eddie is so preternaturally street-smart and capable that there’s never any question of a contest’s outcome.

McAllister aims frequently for high-impact wackiness but generally achieves a lukewarm silliness.

Pub Date: April 1, 2003

ISBN: 1-59071-006-1

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Rugged Land

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE ALCHEMIST

by Paulo Coelho & translated by Margaret Jull Costa ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1993

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.

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Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.

The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.