Customer Reviews

Blue Fairways: Three Months, Sixty Courses, No Mulligans

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4 star:		(3)
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It's a book about golf - but it's also a book about life. Every page reveals something beautiful. From quirky courses and companions, to nostalgic pictures of childhood golf, Charles takes us down life's path via Route 1.

His descriptions are stunningly vivid, painting the picture of his journey. Long overtaken by interstate 95, Charles describes a stretch of Route 1 in the south: "Here the old highway seems to have lost its reason for being. Hollowed-out husks of roadside motels molder in the sun like beetle shells..." Just beautiful! I find these jewels on almost every page.

Humorous, nostalgic, and clever, and cloaked under pretense of Golf, Blue Fairways gives us all a little more insight into ourselves.

Through the eyes of a gifted writer, we travel as the author's partner from Maine to Florida and play golf with a spectacular array of people and in a delightful selection of places. With striking insights and humor, Charles Slack let's us in on the joys of playing the game with the rich, the poor, the sophisticated and otherwise. Nifty historical tidbits spring from every page as this amiable young man fulfills a dream to make this journey. The book is beautifully written by a seasoned business reporter who had the guts to slip off not just for an afternoon--but for three delicious months. Anyone who likes golf--or likes just knocking around with a nice fellow--will love this book.

Slack is not a good golfer, but he sure knows how to write. Don't buy this for instruction, buy it for laughs, wonderful stories, and great scenery. Every golfer will enjoy his travels and appreciate his travails. And for anyone who has never picked up clubs, Blue Fairways conveys the pleasure (and regular pain) that brings the rest of us to golf courses on and off Route 1.

We should all be grateful to Barbara Slack for permitting her husband to take an extended leave from family to indulge in a golfing odyssey that starts at the top of Route 1 in northern Maine and finishes in the Florida keys. His gift for describing the pleasures and perils afforded by public courses and their denizens fills the pages with rich humor, colorful stories, and canny insights. Slack is the Everyman golfer, scattering too many 8's and an occasional birdie on scorecards wherever he goes, but never giving up on his hopeless quest to get one round below 80. His blackest throes and most transcendent exultations are so well expressed that they capture thoughtscapes that you will swear you have experienced after selected shots. His descriptions of the courses and the scenery that line Route 1 are vivid and engaging. In its modest way, this book is an apotheosis to the democratization of golf that marks the end of our century. Even as John Updike strides the luxurious fairways of his Myopia Hunt Club in relative seclusion, Slack introduces us to boisterous companions wandering among the dry divots of Dyker Beach, Cobb's Creek and Pohick Bay. A great holiday gift for the public golfer, and one that will make the country club member reconsider the humanity he may have forsaken when he entered Shangri-La.

If you've ever topped a drive off the first tee or missed a three-footer on 18 while trying record your career low round, you'll be able to identify with Charles Slack's golf game. When it comes to writing, though, he's scratch. One brief example will suffice. Describing the contrast between the front and back nines at the Ponce De Leon course in St. Augustine Florida, he says, "The back nine plunges into the jungle with the suddenness of a Disney ride, into a lush, dark, secretive world of mangrove swamps and ponds curving tantalizingly like lost lagoons. Moving from the ninght to the tenth holes is like putting down a volume of P.G. Wodehouse and picking up Heart of Darkness, all in one morning."

The book is filled with wonderful insights like that one and reminds us on nearly every page of the real reasons why golfers love this sometimes maddening, often magical, game. For those of us who never will have the pleasure of sharing a round with Charles Slack, this book is a delightful substitute.

slack is no slacker when it comes to writing about golf.....watching the americans come back at the ryder cup may have been more exciting, but nowhere near as entertaining as slack's masterpiece. i truly believe there is a medal waiting for him in stockholm thanks to his words in this book.. thelast book i read that came close in terms of sheer insight, humor and wit was james solomon's real world book of a couple of years ago. this should be mandatory reading for anyone who plays golf, knows someone who plays golf, or knows someone whose father once knew a guy whose buddy played golf. a must read.

What Charles Slack lacks in skill as a golfer he makes up for in his ability to describe the essential attraction of the world's most aggravating game: the hope that lies at the beginning of every backswing. More than just about golf, this is a quirky tour of back-roads America. Slack has a fine, gentle sense of humor and the best kind of intelligence - sharp but unpretentious. He may not have broken par on his tour, but he sure has with this book.

Blue Fairways is thoroughly enjoyable. Slack's sense of humor, coupled with his self-deprecating writing style, make this a must read -- golfer or not. I laughed out loud and also cringed as he described some less-than-stellar golf moments. For those of us who do golf, who couldn't identify with The Look of Pity? Non-golfers will enjoy the way Slack captures what most of us will never have a chance to witness first hand -- the essence of what remains of small towns and hospitality as they teeter on the brink of chain restaurants and cynicism.

I gave Blue Fairways to an uncle who's a golf nut. He thoroughly enjoyed the read, especially the vivid descriptions of the courses, as well the golf "game" of the author. I am getting ready to buy another copy, for yet another "hacker" friend, who I know will especially enjoy the parts about Maine. Thanks, Charles.

Mark Twain had the Mississippi River. Charlie Slack has Route 1. He transforms his journey down this has-been highway--once the transportation glory of the east coast--into an insightful, fun, laugh-out-loud look at the soul of America. And he improves his handicap at the same time! A must read.