Customer Reviews

Scratch (Eddie Caminetti Novels)

5 star:		(23)
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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
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I'm a club pro (I won't say where) and can tell you without a doubt that everything this writer says about golf equipment in this very funny book is a hundred percent the dead truth. The people who make this stuff steal billions from unsuspecting golfers with false advertising and outright deception. What I'm ashamed of most is that people in my business go along with all the bull because of the fat commissions and free equipment, even though they know without question it's total bull. I've been teaching for almost thirty years and in all that time have never seen a club or a ball lower someone's handicap although I've seen members spend thousands of dollars year after year even though nothing they bought ever did them any good. In the last month I've had a dozen different manufacturer reps troop through my home club ranting about what an awful book Scratch is and why nobody in his right mind would pay good money to read that garbage. Well I did, and when I wasn't laughing or turning pages I was nodding my head up and down so hard it hurt. No wonder these guys are scared. Troon tells it like it is and pulls no punches. Don't spend money on the latest piece of junk, take lessons instead and read this book, but don't look for it it any pro shops because you won't find it there.

I haven't read this author's other books but I am going to very soon. I got Scratch for father's day and went nuts over Eddie Caminetti. The writing is absolutely excellent and the story is great. I recommend it very much to anybody, not just golfers.

Never thought I'd hear myself say this, but THE GREEN has been topped. As good as that classic is -- and it really, really is -- SCRATCH has more to say that is stingingly relevant to today's world. McAllister's splendid dialogue is just as rhythmic, his prose just as tight, his characters just as interesting and his narrative pace just as crisp, but this time he turns his rapier wit loose on the predatory marketers who spend billions trying to take us all to the cleaners...and succeed. There is always something to learn from Eddie Caminetti, and this time it's a message you can't afford to miss, and...

...ah, to heck with all of that. Think of it as just a fantastically plotted, hugely entertaining novel as gripping as Clancy and more fun than an advertising war. *HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION FOR ALL READERS*

I was wondering what to expect when I ordered this book as I had loved the first book in the Eddie Caminetti series, The Green and been very disappointed by the sequel, The Foursome. Well, the third time was a charm and Scratch comes through on all counts. It is funny, incisive, educational and thoroughly entertaining. The chapters that deal with the trial over the suit by the Medalist Golf Ball Company against Caminetti's golf ball company are as funny as anything I have encountered along those lines since My Cousin Vinny. Their is a lot of common sense wisdom imparted in the book about the gullibility of golfers
who just have to have the latest golf ball or the most advanced club in order to play up to their maximum ability. All I can say about that is read and learn. To tell the whole story line would be to give too much away. Just trust me. It is a hoot!

This is a great book that will hold your interest, even if you are not a golf junkie. Many of the characters provide laugh out loud dialogue and are put into situations that are very memorable.

This is a book that is long enough to last 2 trans continental flights and good enough to let someone borrow. All of McAlister's books have been great and I can hardly wait for the next Caminetti installment. Enjoy....

Have never swung a club in my life, but can't get enough of Troon MacAllister's golf novels. Like all great literature, the setting is less important than the other elements: character, plot, pace and humor. Scratch is right up there with the best of them, and I for one believe it's the equal of The Green, which is saying a lot. Even both my teenage kids ate it up, and all they read is CD liner notes. Am recommending it to everybody I know.

Eddie Caminetti, sure: he's everything he's cracked up to be. But for me the joy of reading Troon McAllister is the cast of fully-realized "lesser" lights, like an omni-constipated detective, a redneck judge who out-Ervins the original Senator Sam, a supremely arrogant corporate CEO and a toweringly obnoxious low-life named Wayne Chemincouver who reminds me of every gratingly annoying jerk I've ever met. McAllister's uncanny eye and eerily dead-on ear for these characters, not to mention a definite trace of affection, create a world so real and immediate it feels like you're living it rather than reading about it. Even an ostensibly invisible accounting wonk named Oscar Petanque turns out to be a finely-wrought human being who demands that we acknowledge his existence. *HIGHLY* recommended for anyone who loves great writing, whether he can tell a golf ball from a pinball or not.

I love books that are not only terrific fun to read but also have something meaningful to say. SCRATCH puts me in mind of any number of classic novels that are cautionary tales about how easily manipulated we are. Even while laughing my head off I got uneasy at how marketers and the media conspire to treat us all like sheep...and how it's ultimately our own fault for failing to look critically at what's going on around us.

But most important is the "laughing my head off" part. This is a rollicking good story with an incredible, intricate plot and one of the most delightful main characters (Eddie Caminetti) you'll ever meet.

What's Eddie going to do next...take on the government? The Vatican? Because he's already ripped the living daylights out of pro sports, the media, grasping sinners and the entire golf equipment industry. Best of all, he's done it in the hysterically funny, breakneck-speed, compelling style of his earlier stuff. "Scratch" is not only every bit the equal of the classic "The Green," I think it's even better. Don't miss it!

Before reading Scratch, you really should read the 2 previous books by this author. He has a way of making your golf fun, while teaching you that you really are your own worst enemy on the course. I enjoyed every minute of this book, and hope the author will continue with more of Eddy's adventures.