Slim and None [Hardcover]

Dan Jenkins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 3, 2005

Introduced in Dan Jenkins’s previous uproarious novel of the pro golf tour, The Money-Whipped Steer-Job Three-Jack Give-Up Artist, Bobby Joe Grooves is now forty-four and still without a win in a major championship. A student of golf lore, Bobby Joe is well aware that only a small group of stars have ever won a major at his age or older, and among them are such immortals as Nicklaus, Boros, Irwin, and Trevino. It’s now or never for Bobby Joe, and excuse him for thinking that his chances are slim and none.

So it’s off to the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, and the rest of the PGA Tour for Bobby Joe, who’s leaving behind the prospect of a third ex-wife. On the golf courses he’ll face familiar competitors such as Knut Thorssun and Cheetah Farmer, but the rival who may loom the largest is the game’s newest child star, nineteen-year-old Scott Pritchard. His talents are the talk of the Tour—so is his arrogance—and so, by the way, is his stunning mom, Gwendolyn, a shapely adorable woman who captures Bobby Joe’s full attention and threatens not to let go.

Long revered by his peers as one of the world’s best sportswriters, and beloved by readers for such classics as Semi-Tough and Dead Solid Perfect, Dan Jenkins is at the top of his form in Slim and None. It’s packed with authentic insider gems about each of the majors and hilarious sketches of many of the characters—touring pros, officials, media, agents, caddies, and ladies—who inhabit this outrageous and endearing world of sports.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Dan Jenkins:

"Dan Jenkins is a comic genius." —Don Imus

"Dan Jenkins is the nearest thing to Ring Lardner this generation has ever seen. No one has captured the essential lunacy of the twentieth-century sports (and TV) scene as accurately and hilariously as this." —The Los Angeles Times

"Jenkins is hilarious, providing more laughs per page than any other writer in the 'bidness.'" —People

About the Author

DAN JENKINS is the author of nine previous novels, including Semi-Tough, Dead Solid Perfect, Baja Oklahoma, Rude Behavior, and, most recently, The Money-Whipped Steer-Job Three-Jack Give-Up Artist. He has also published seven books of nonfiction, most notably Fairways and Greens and The Dogged Victims of Inexorable Fate and writes an enduringly popular monthly column for Golf Digest. Jenkins is the recipient of the William D. Richardson Award from the Golf Writers Association of America, which recognizes those who have consistently made outstanding contributions to golf. He divides his time between his native Fort Worth, Texas, and New York City.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; First Edition edition (May 3, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385508522
• ISBN-13: 978-0385508520
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 0.9 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,083,129 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Slim and Fun!!, January 13, 2006

By 

John R. Linnell (New Gloucester, ME United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Slim and None (Hardcover)

Figuring out how many stars to give a Dan Jenkins book requires some experience in reading this most entertaining author. I can assure you that you will most likely look a long time to find one of his efforts on the shelves at Barbara Streisand's home and Maureen Dowd probably hasn't had the pleasure either. However, from time to time there is just no substitute for a trip through the imaginitive mind of the various characters fashioned by Mr. Jenkins.

In this instance we are returning to the PGA tour with an older, somewhat wiser and thrice divorced Bobby Joe Grooves. We have been there before with Bobby Joe in "The Money - Whipped Steer - Job Three - Jack Give - Up Artist," and this novel is a decided improvement on that one.

Somehow, Bobby Joe has managed to stay on the tour for some time and now as he turns forty-four he realizes "forty-four is not a good age for a pro if he has never won a major...and I'd clean forgotten to do that in my eighteen years on the tour."

In addition to failing to bag a major, Bobby Joe has failed in his efforts to find a life partner other than his caddie, however things begin looking up in that aspect of things as he encounters Gwendolyn Pritchard, a major league "shapely adorable" and the divorced mother of a new teen age phenom on the tour, Scott Pritchard.

The story opens with these two lines, "It had to be the first bare navel on the Master's veranda. Luckily it came with a shapely adorable."

And it only gets better as we follow the twists and turns of Bobby Joe's efforts to become the winner of a major championship through the four venues where they are played that year. The story is replete with interesting and exaggerated characters and situations and you will find yourself chuckling and laughing through all 243 pages of Jenkin's latest.

Having read all of his other fiction efforts and some of his non-fiction books, I promise you that if you are a golfer, enjoy a healthy dose of non PC humor and have spent any time in Texas, there are just two chances that you will not enjoy this latest one...........

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Loved It!! Best Effort in Years!!, August 4, 2005

By 

Mario Lawrence (Waldorf, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Slim and None (Hardcover)

I must first admit that I have been a Dan Jenkins fan for the past several decades. His recent books (according to some) have waxed and waned over the past decade but "Slim and None" in my view is one of his finest efforts ever--it should be ranked with "Semi-Tough", "Limo" and "Dead Solid Perfect" as his best works. True, it is not very long, but as one reviewer noted, there are numerous passages where you will spontaneously break out in audible laughter. I found this to be a lean, concise, hysterical read and I recommend it very highly.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A quick and fun read, June 8, 2005

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Slim and None (Hardcover)

Dan Jenkins has twice before introduced us to Bobby Joe Grooves, PGA Tour player - each time in ways that made us identify with his quests for love, fame, and of course, golf championships. Each time Bobby Joe has gotten married, divorced, won some and lost some.

Slim and None is a novel that builds on what readers have enjoyed in Jenkins' past books. Now, however, Bobby Joe is 44. Only seven men have ever won a major championship after that age and he thinks this is his last best chance, especially since he's playing well.

But then life gets in the way. 1) Scott Pritchard, the 19-year-old phenom, whose recently divorced, drop-dead gorgeous Mom may become the fourth Mrs. Grooves, and 2) A USGA official rules against Bobby Joe in several critical tournaments, each time costing him the win he so badly wants.

Jenkins is a master of peppery down-home dialogue that introduces us to language that is to say the least, colorful- and downright funny most often. There are the "inside the ropes" names for golfers we know - like Elvis Woods, Madonna Els, and Britney Mickelson. And when a fellow competitor is paired with 17-year-old golf prodigy Tricia Hunt, who out drives him by 50 yards, we hear that she successively "Americaned" him, "Continentaled" him, "Fed-Exed" him, and "Goodyear blimped" him - all colorful ways to let us know that she flew right by him.

www.ArmchairInterviews says golfers will love all the golf history that is so seamlessly woven into the story line. And observers of human nature will find plenty to watch as this story unfolds.