Collected Miscellany

As long time readers of this blog know, I am a sucker for short, interesting, and well packaged books. There is just something about small (in size) books that say: “Buy me, you will read and enjoy me immediately.” Recently, I made just such an impulse buy, picking up Blue Road to Atlantis by Jay Nussbaum. It has a cool cover and unique perspective:

Told from the perspective of a remora named Fishmael, who is traveling with his mentor, a wise and beautiful marlin known as the “Old Fish,” BLUE ROAD TO ATLANTIS intertwines a spiritual parable with Hemingway’s classic The Old Man and the Sea. The result is a lighthearted yet moving allegory about leading a more fulfilling life. By setting forth the idea that the quest for a higher vision and the acceptance of life’s currents brings true peace and happiness, this contemporary tale becomes a profound meditation that is as entertaining as it is transformational.

Roped in by this description, I picked up the book and immediately began reading. It is a unique and intriguing book and, as is my growing habit these days, I decided an interview with the author would be worth pursuing. Using the magic of the internet and the power of the blogosphere I arranged just such an interview.

Blue Road is Jay Nussbaum’s first published novel. He?s a graduate of Brandeis University and Boston University School of Law and has practiced real estate law in New York City. Not content with clinching million dollar deals in the big city, Jay moved with his wife to Ithaca, NY so she could pursue a degree at the Cornell Veterinary School and he could pursue full time fiction writing. Jay holds a black belt in Karate, has operated his own dojo, and has taught martial arts around the world; including a class at Cornell entitled: Taoism in the Dojo. Below he talks about the ideas in his book, the perils of publishing, and what he is up to next. Enjoy.

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Haven’t been posting much outside of sports lately largely because outside of watching football and work I have been reading. Right now I am reading an interesting novel I picked up as a bargain book: The Ordinary White Boy. Since that title could very well be used for my autobiography, I was intrigued. It is a story about a 27-year old under achiever trying to comes to terms with his life in a small town in upstate New York. I have enjoyed the quirky writing and comments on small town life so far. I will let you know what I think when I am finished.

Slate has been talking about some sort of participatory book club for awhile. It looks like they are finally going to do it. This week Jacob Weisberg asked everyone to Join the Slate Book Club:

Here’s how it will work: First, get the book we’ve chosen a few weeks in advance. It will be a work of fiction or nonfiction, something current or a classic. Read it by the deadline. Then, offer your views to other readers and Slate’s critics in a special section of “The Fray.”

Sounds fun to me. Since my Blog Book Club idea failed misarably what is there to lose?

The first book is The Fortress of Solitude. Better get cracking the book is 528 pages!

August 12, 2003 Kevin interviews Tucker Carlson.

September 13, 2003 Salon interviews Tucker Carlson (subscription or “free day pass” required).

Just saying . . .

Richard Brookhiser is an author I admire a great deal. His insightful and elegant “moral biographies” are a great read and full of great history. Trust me, as someone who has spent some time in graduate school, this is a rare quality. Brookhiser is also a Senior Editor of National Review. If I remember correctly he was an intern at NR at a very young age and has been there practically ever since. Mr. Brookhiser is also a columnist for the The New York Observer and his writings have appeared in “The New Yorker,” “The Atlantic Monthly,” and “The New York Times.” If you think you have him pegged read his interesting testimony before Congress on the use of medical marijuana.

Brookhiser’s most recent book is Gentleman Revolutionary : Gouverneur Morris, the Rake Who Wrote the Constitution, an engaging biography of largely unknown founding father. In addition to this book, he has written several others including “Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington,” “Alexander Hamilton, American,” and “America’s First Dynasty: The Adamses, 1735-1918.”

I thought this would be a great time to ask Mr. Brookhiser a few questions and he graciously agreed. I will post a review of the book soon but let me peak your interest with some Q&A.

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Prior to the advent of Tiger Woods and the popularization of golf, most players were seen as robot like, country club, rich kids, making a living playing a silly game. Golf was something wealthy, white, Republicans did. This was probably not an accurate picture then but, if it was largely true in the past, it certainly is no longer the case. Bud, Sweat and Tees : A Walk on the Wild Side of the PGA Tour
certainly reveals a life far removed from tony country club living on the East coast. Its main character, Rich Beem, is not a spoiled trust fund brat reaping the reward of an easy childhood. Instead, the book is an inside look on a couple of kids trying to live their dream and trying to figure out how to handle it once they get there.

Bud, Sweat, and Tees tells the story of PGA Tour rookie Rich Beem’s 1999 season. Along the way, it tells the story of his life and the life of his caddy, Steve Duplantis. Beem is the son of a one time PGA professional turned golf pro, who takes a very circuitous route to the Tour and ends up winning a tournament his rookie year. Duplantis is a Canadian whose obsession led him to being a caddy after he realized he wasn’t quite good enough to play “between the ropes.” Both Beem and Duplantis have the talent but both have personal obstacles to overcome. Beem seems unable to focus and allows his desperate need for social contact distract him from playing up to his natural abilities. This leads to his bouncing around from Texas to Seattle to the Dakotas. Sometimes his dad helps him get a job as a club pro in North Dakota or El Paso but for a time he was even a stereo/cell phone salesman. Along the way, he plays in the minitours and toys with the idea of making it to the PGA. After seeing fellow University of El Paso grads J.P. Hayes and Paul Stanokoski meet with some success, he finally decides to take his game seriously and take on Q-school, the grueling qualifying tournament that is the key to getting your PGA Tour card. Remarkably, Beem manages to win the Kemper Open his rookie year, forever changing his life and his game.

Duplantis’ love of the game leads him to head for the States to try and make a living playing golf. After some early success and plenty of struggles, he takes up caddying as a way to pay for college. But soon carrying the bag is his job and college is forgotten. This is largely because his first passionate fling leads to a child that forever changes his life. A quickie marriage and a young child are not the most stabilizing of events, add in the hectic PGA Tour and you have a recipe for chaos. Duplantis doesn’t make it any easier on himself with his penchant for partying and volatile relationships. Remarkably, Duplantis ends up caddying for Jim Furyk just as his young career takes off. The money and prestige of this job help Duplantis overcome his chaotic and soap opera style life, for awhile anyways.

The book describes how Beem and Duplantis hook up and what unfolds as they try to manage life on the PGA Tour. The story is not nearly as titillating as the title might suggest, although their certainly is a lot of drinking and carousing going on behind the scenes. But what the book really describes is two, for the most part, immature but talented people as they chase their dreams and try to stay one step ahead of their demons. It is an interesting perspective on a life few of us can imagine but it is a story most of us can sympathize with because it is built around human foibles. Who can’t relate to the frustration of failing to develop the discipline you know is necessary to achieve your dreams? Who can’t relate to the feeling of losing control of events as circumstances seem to combine to trip you up? Who can’t relate to the in-securities and pressures that come from trying to live up to the expectations of family and friends?

In the end, it is this ability to relate that makes the book interesting. Sure, the fascinating and money filled world of the PGA Tour makes for an interesting backdrop, but it is the flawed nature of the main characters, and their struggle to overcome them, that makes the book more than a sports celebrity tell all. With that said, however, this book is far from an inspirational classic. The story has an emotional pull but it is flawed by mediocre writing and a sort of frat boy tone at times. There are far too many cliches throughout the book (one course is described as being like Angelina Jolie: “gorgeous but nothing but trouble”) and in too many spots it reads like an extended newspaper article. This is not to be overly critical, it is not easy to relate the background involved in Beem and Duplatis’ lives and tell the story of a golf season. The author does his best to creatively relate the important golf rounds involved, but they get repetitive eventually. Given that this is his first book, one has to give Shipnuck a lot of credit. The story is interesting and the book provides a real inside look at life on the tour; and one that is not sugar coated or a glossy puff piece.

If you like golf or are interested on what life on the Tour might be for a rookie, you will find this book worth reading. If you aren’t interested in golf or in what it takes to succeed in the game and on tour you might not find it quite so interesting. One thing is for sure, when I watch golf on TV I will appreciate what it takes to be there “between the ropes” a lot more and watch the caddies a little more.