Fore! Play: The Last American Male Takes Up Golf Review
If someone didn't think this book was funny.....there is really something wrong with them!!! Laughed through the whole book, actually the audio tape of book. Didn't want to get out of the car sometimes.....a little like "all things considered" on NPR. What is not funny in this Fore! Play....I don't know? Read it, listen to it...whatever....IT'S GREAT! P.S. I am not a golfer...it doesn't even matter!
Fore! Play: The Last American Male Takes Up Golf Overview
Why does America love golf? Is it the beautiful scenery? The languid pace? The stylish slacks? Puzzled by these pressing questions, Bill Geist, who had never picked up a club before, sets off determined to learn the game and to uncover what accounts for America's overwhelming infatuation with this "royal and ancient" sport. Geist goes through the embarrassing rites of passage--buying clubs, joining a country club, purchasing a wardrobe, and of course, taking lessons-all observed with the same offbeat humor that made Little League Confidential a national bestseller. Geist's unique approach provides uproarious insight into the nuances of the game that will ring true for any golf lover.
Fore! Play: The Last American Male Takes Up Golf Specifications
It was only a matter of time before Bill Geist, the comic bard of suburban life, collided with the royal and ancient game. "Golf fever. It's serious, it's viral, it's epidemic, and," he observes in Fore! Play, "unlike West Nile no one is spraying for it." And if it hasn't thoroughly infected him, too, it's at least brought out enough writer's curiosity to spur an odyssey in search of why the game casts such a spell over so many devoted pilgrims.
His curiosity hits most of the expected stops on a beginning golfer's journey, and at times--his community night-school golf lessons, his interview at a ritzy country club, brief chronicles of trouble-filled rounds with his wife and son--he hits with enough spin to keep the humor pin-high and his narrative moving. But this is, in the end, an old story, one that every golfer has likely experienced and heard before, and Geist brings little new to it beyond his wry persona. More often than not, he winds up in a rough of his own making, reaching too hard for laughs that just aren't there. His Geistian golf definitions and tips ("Don't bend over to tee up your ball with a bag full of clubs over your shoulder or they'll spill out and make you look like Jerry Lewis") are simply silly when they're not out-and-out sophomoric. Of course, golf does have a knack for bringing out the worst in people. When Geist swings too wildly for a laugh in Fore! Play, the consequence is inevitable: he shanks it. --Jeff Silverman
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Customer Reviews
Its been a long time since I read anything nearly as funny - Ravindra Okade - MD, USA
Yes .. the last time I laughed so much was when I read PG Wodehouse. There are pockets of humor in the book, waiting to explode on you. I read the book on NYC subway and had a hard time avoiding laughing out loud !
Shanked it - Brian M. Ayres - Valrico, FL USA
I'm sorry, but am I slow? I found no memorable lines or sections that could even remotely categorize this book as laugh-out-loud funny or even giggle, ha-ha humorous. This book went absoultely nowhere, and frankly I could only make it 100 pages in before I had had enough. As a golfing male, I could relate to the experiences of Mr. Geist, but I just didn't see the humor in anything. Although fiction, read Rick Reilly's Missing Links or Dan Jenkins' Dead Solid Perfect for an understanding of what true hackers are like.
Laughed till I cried! - -
Bought this book for my husband (an avid golfer) to read on a plane trip. He was lauhing so hard he was crying and passed it over to me -a nongolfer! I started to read it and I too was in tears! Bill Geist captures the everyday obsurdities of the game and serves them up in a hilarious fashion. Golfer and nongolers alike will be unable to resits the urge to laugh out loud! A funny quick read.
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