Customer Reviews

Shooting an Albatross

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Intrigued by the word play, "shooting an albatross," I decided to quickly scan the book for potential gems. However, a few beautifully crafted paragraphs drew me into the setting, the characters and the action so that I was compelled to read every word.

This is a novel to appeal to many reading styles:
-a fast paced adventure, romance, mystery story line;
-historical and vividly descriptive narrative;
-symbolic themes and images.

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For me, as a fan of Coleridge, I loved the shooting an albatross symbolism and recalled lines from "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" that describe the characters that tell the story:

Floyd's guest--"...He cannot chose but hear;
And thus spake on that ancient man..."

Floyd---"...Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung..."
"...And till my ghastly tale is told,
This heart within me burns..."

Floyd's guest--"...He went like one that hath been stunned,
And is of sense forlorn;
A sadder and a wiser man,
He rose the morrow morn."

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This is a good story, but even better if you take the time to appreciate the descriptive narrative and let your mind wander through comparable literature.

Ok, so I'm not a fiction reader, but someone recommended this book to me as a great read. I took their advice and found I couldn't put it down! The characters seem to come to life with the author's incredible way of writing. I especially like the fact (according to the author's website) that many of the details of the novel really happened -- like the US army occupying a golf course in Hollywood, CA in 1943!

You will love this book!

As one who spends most of his "reading budget" on non-fiction, I am always a little leery about throwing myself into a novel. I can't count how many books I've abandoned along the way because they simply didn't hold my interest.

Every now and then, however, the investment of time pays off. I'm not sure what element of Shooting an Albatross drew me in (I'm a golfer ... but not a golf nut, I'm enjoy military stories ... but only to a point, and I'm certainly not much of a sucker for a love-story), but somewhere along the way I got lost in the story.

For anyone looking for a smart read with some interesting twists and compelling characters, I highly recommend giving this one a try.

This book was a weird one for me. I liked the plot, and the characters, but something didn't mesh right for me. I did like the book, but there was just something a little off about it, at least for me.

The story, on it's surface is about a golf game. The true heart of the story is a touching romance. All the characters were believable and I had great images in my head of them as I read. I could see the things that were going on and I could relate to the stirring romance as it blossomed. However there was a disconnect for me that I just couldn't quite pinpoint.

I didn't get really attached to the story, even though I was able to create the "world of the book" in my mind. Even a few weeks after I've finished this one I'm not quite able to pinpoint exactly where the disconnect is. The opening of the book is intriguing, the characters were believable, the details were done well, and the writing style was easy to read. Maybe I just wasn't in the right mindset to read this one when I did.

I think it has all the elements of a really great story, and that it was executed very well, which is why I question why I didn't get into it more. I would recommend this to anyone who likes romantic stories (not necessarily romance novels...) I think in the future I will have to read this one again, at a time when I think my mindset is right.

I thought this was an excellent read. I did not want to put it down. It is a story that shows how jealousy can affect people, not just the ones that are jealous. It is a story of love, jealousy, death, war and golf.

"Shooting an Albatross" by Steven R. Lundin is a fascinating story set during WWII on a golf course in California. It is a story of love, rivalry, deceit and revenge. You don't have to be a lover of golf to follow along into the lives of the young lovers, his superior officer and the others. Lundin creates an interesting set of characters that are well developed which allowed me to dive straight into the novel and absorb myself into the tale.

As a rule I only read non fiction, but coming from a family of golfers and military men, this book hooked me. And being a native Californian I had heard of the various golf courses here in the state, near military bases who during WW2 were used by the military.

In fact its one reason so many golf courses started near military areas be it San Francisco, San Diego, and places in between. And the book doesn't read like fiction but a lot like non fiction.

And I think women as well as men would love the book. And yes, I was cheering for the Navy guys!

And if you have golfers in the family who are in Iraq or Afghanistan as we do, send them a copy.

Mr.Lundin has written a wonderful story- i read the whole book in two sittings! I found myself drawn into the world of Evan and Amanda, and you don't have to be a golfer to appreciate all of the elements that contribute to make this a very worthwhile read. I am looking forward to Mr. Lundin's next work of fiction...

I don't finish books that I don't enjoy reading. I finished this one because it is a good read, but it left me feeling cheated in regard to story structure. I don't understand why an otherwise fine writer switches from first person to third person in the fourth chapter and back again to first person in the last chapter. As a reader, I found this disruptive. It seems to me that a writer tells a story in first person to convey a specific perception; otherwise, he tells the story in third person. Steven Lundin is certainly a good enough writer to have told this story in one or the other without confusing his narration.

Although this novel purports to be based on facts, I can't imagine that a true storyteller would let facts get in the way of a telling an even better story. As such, I don't understand why the young golfer's bold behavior in charging onto a private estate in response to a scream, and his much bolder and riskier behavior concluding the golf match, both couldn't foreshadow the major development in the story. The protagonist should determine his own fate either as the victim of his hubris (in this case, recklessness), or as the hero who saves the day on the battlefield. But that's not the story told. Instead our protagonist turns out to be a hapless, unsuspecting victim of jealousy.

Neither do I understand the moral math in the conclusion of this novel. I don't understand how a reader is to draw satisfaction from the offspring of two honorable people getting away with the ultimate crime, no matter how well deserved by its victim. And even after reading the last chapter a second time, I still don't understand how this amounts to "shooting an albatross" in the mind of the narrator. An albatross, according to the narrator, is a triple par - known today as a double eagle - something requiring exceptional skill on the golf course. What this story leads up to is a cowardly act by the narrator that takes no great skill and risks little in the way of accountability.