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I would like to say "a long story short"…. But I have to admit that it's already a really short book so I will try to summarize it without giving too any spoilers. The story is about a man named Bob Andrews that just loves playing Golf but doesn't have the talent to be good at it. So when he purchases' a very expensive set of golf clubs and continues to play poorly; he breaks them in a tantrum and cuts off playing golf for the rest his life, then one day he meets an old man who used to be a Golf club maker and suddenly his life just turns upside down.
Let's get a bit deeper to the maker of this book. The author is Walt Sautter, he has written six other books and I haven’t read any of his books except this one. This book is half good and interesting and the other half is just BAD. I liked that in the prologue the author wrote all the common definitions of the terms used in Golf such as "par" and "birdie" to provide a familiar environment for readers who don’t know golf, to somehow form a relation with the reader. He was being funny by adding a few cursing words that indicate a bad score, and I liked that, so that encouraged me to proceed with reading the book. I also liked that the story had a vibe of mystery from start to finish, the story-line wasn't repeated and it had small twists and turns, it would be a good short book for a summer time, and surprisingly it wasn't boring.
But I must say that there were lots of negative aspects in this book. For starters there were some grammar and spelling mistakes and the style of writing was at times confusing. But the things that matter the most to me were the complete lack of a main idea and a theme, I couldn't grasp the purpose of writing the book. There was no value or point or concept or situation or tragedy to learn something from, just a series of real events written with a hint of fiction.
I believe that any good book should raise any emotions during reading it such as anger, pain, happiness, curiosity and so on; a book should be your escape from you real life and a place to sink into the infinity of the story you are currently living in. And this book didn't raise any of them in me or do that to me. A fiction book should portray and magnifies a writer's imagination; in setting, language, character's background. I felt no imagination in this book. The author failed to connect me with any of the characters; I had no insight about who they really are other than the already known from the surface. For me the main character was portrayed as a selfish, cheater that only wanted to be the best golf player in any expense. The ending left me stunned even though it was definitely not expected, it still wasn't welcomed.
The book was starting out good but gradually became less and less interesting for me. It would have been a great book if it wasn't fiction. It could have been a funny biography of some famous golf player who had a new unique experience with golf and that would be a nice read for golf fans. At last I would like to advice the author to concentrate more on displaying the theme, the main idea and some depth to the characters to relate to them in any way in his future books.
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Buy "Sticks - A Golfer's Tale" on Amazon
