Customer Reviews

Spikes

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Michael Griffith's SPIKES, although ostensibly about golf, is about so much more than a game. Brian Schwan, a once promising golfer now scrapping for a win in the minor leagues of golf, poses on a whim as Bird Soulsby, his playing partner who has just shot a record-tying 59. Brian knows he is washed up. His wife Rosa has supported him all these years, but now she wants stability - a child and a full-time husband. Brian's own game withered his chances for a cut, so, when a local reporter mistakes him for Bird, he feels he has nothing to lose. For once, he wants to be a winner. The events that follow are both hilarious and bittersweet.

Told in first-person narrative, the voice here is impeccable, singing with wit and sharp-eyed insight, sometimes philosophical and others flip - but always Brian. Bird Soulsby, a character who is so mystical that he has no right to be believable, comes off as pure flesh and blood, a man worthy of both a 59 and a shot at the PGA tour. Brian's wife Rosa, although she appears only in flashbacks, carves a presence in the story, as does Brian's father as he hides in the shrubbery flanking the holes, not wanting to be seen but wanting to watch his son and his magnificent talent at work.

I have a confession: I don't like golf, but I loved this book. I'm sure golf-lovers will find even more to like than I did. Ultimately, though, golf is only a metaphor here for the trials, the decisions, the setbacks, the triumphs, and the responsibilities we face every day which define who we are.

I've never played a stroke of golf (have I even hefted a club?) and I know I can't possibly stake a claim to the game using my minigolf experience: I always did hit the windmill blade as it ratcheted past the mouse hole. But so what? It doesn't matter. You don't need to know golf to enjoy "Spikes." Open yourself up to the good old-fashioned affinal angst which gets Brian going in the morning and let the surely precise mentions of four-irons, bogeys, and green strategy breeze by: the real meat of the book lies in the question: Does this journeyman golfer have the guts to make his journey into self-discovery more than just an excursion? Will he be able to choose between strong yet delusive enticements and a marriage in which he plays the role of a human pressure plate? And all this without a therapist? Find out and be entertained along the way.

As Tallulah Bankhead once said: "Nobody can be exactly like me. Sometimes even I have trouble doing it." "Spikes" is a witty, fluent and semi-sweet novel which describes one person troubling to be what he is. Highly recommended.

It is obvious from this book that Michael Griffith knows how to employ the tools of good fiction--solid, identifiable characters that draw you in; refreshing dialogue; amusing situations that support the narrative--without cluttering the story with the usual side streets and dead ends that are so often found in first novels. While there is no doubt that golfers will get more enjoyment out of this book than nongolfers, I'd still have enjoyed this book if it was called "Bullseye" and focused on a professional darts player (a game I've never really pursued). The book is both excellent social commentary and a thoughtful exploration of personal identity. The themes are part "Ball Four," part Martin Amis (Money, Success, or The Information), and always well-pursued. I would say this is a tad more "guy fiction" than "girl fiction," if you acknowledge such distinctions--the female characters, while superbly rendered, serve as not much more than plot devices. But what would you expect, considering it is a first-person narrative by a fictional male professional golfer? That's certainly not Oprah Winfrey Book Club domain to begin with. That said, the book is deep and multilayered, and a real hoot. The best first novel I've read in 2001 by far. The only thing keeping it from five stars in my book happens in the last couple pages--I won't spoil it by saying what that is, but rest assured it won't ruin the 250 or so excellent pages that precede them.

Michael Griffith has written a real winner here. It helps if you are really into golf, but it is not necessary. A morality tale told in a hilarious way!! There is one scene where the central character, a frustrated guy trying to make it on a fourth rate golf tour for losers who can only dream of the "big tour", meets a TV commentator for dinner after he has misled her into thinking he is the guy who just shot 59. In fact he shot 77, though he played in the same group as the 59 shooter. The repartee when they meed at the appointed place and the way she puts him down is one of the funniest things I have read in my entire life. Later, when the guy who really shot 59 meets them "accidentally" just as they are getting ready to have dinner, there ensues a scene and commentary that is only a hair behind the first meeting scene in its hilarity, especially the monologue of Bird (the 59 shooter).This book is a jewel!!

With his dense, allusive voice, the narrator of Michael Griffith's first novel doesn't sound like a stereotypical professional golfer. But that's appropriate, because Brian Schwan doesn't play his sport like a professional golfer either. He never wins, doesn't earn back his tournament fees, and, when in danger of actually competing with other pros, sees his game fall apart even further. Brian's wife is after him to quit the circuit, to come home, be a real husband and start a family. So it is little wonder that when the opportunity arrives, Brian trades lives: a lovely but ill-informed TV reporter mistakes him for his successful opponent, and Brian plays along. The rest of the novel follows from this goofy premise and, within the closed world of its telling, succeeds with a charming mix of self-denigrating humor, sheer fantasy, hope and the conventional American dream of sporting success. All told in Griffith's eloquent prose. Of course, the story should trace Brian's collapse, the shattering of his athletic reputation, his marriage and his sense of self. But it doesn't, and when at the conclusion Brian says, "I feel like singing," when he reclaims his own name in a kind of triumph, the reader feels the satisfaction inherent in the best of fables. "Spikes" is a sports novel for the new millennium, its surface all attitude and posture, its depths resonant with yearning.

I absolutely love this book. It's ostensibly about golf - and more. If you're a golfer, if you're a wannabe golfer, if you like golf, read this book. Bring your dictionary and your sense of humor, and your ability to see through the golf loser context. The novel is about life, sarcastically limned. This young author is marvelous. I anxiously await his next endeavor.

Spikes is a rare hybrid, an unapologetically literary novel set in the world of competitive golf. It's full of mordant wit, wordplay, bristling energy, ingenious and playful allusions to other writers . . . and Griffith manages, too, to give a powerful sense of how hard it is to give up a dream that's sustained you since childhood--how hard it is to turn your back on the one thing that seemed to save you from being just another hapless mediocrity. This is a splendid debut.

In a genre filled with magic eight-irons and caddies half-Scottish and half-divine, SPIKES stands out. It's elegantly written, funny, literarily and psychologically complex--I think it will be be one of the classic golf novels.

Michael Griffith has written a book that I figure Richard Russo (Nobody's Fool, Straight Man and Empire Falls) would write if he chose to write a book with golf as the central activity of the main character. Brian Schwan is a former college star golfer whose star has failed to ascend to the PGA Tour, The Nike Tour or any other tour that you ever heard of. He is playing the Snapper/Gold Club Tour where "there's not enough money to go around and only the pitiless and the unthinking survive."

We join our "hero" as he is carding a sloppy 76 in the opening round of what may be his last tournament while his playing partner has fired a "Gieberger," For the unitiated that is a 59. Something that occurs so rarely in competition that it is referred to by the name of the first man to do it.

In the parking lot following the round, Schwan is asked for an interview by a female TV reporter who is easy on the eyes and who has mistaken him for his playing partner, "Bird" Soulsby who has shot the 59. Schwan pretends he is Soulsby and not only completes the interview, but manages to arrange a date with the reporter for dinner that evening.

The problem is that Schwan is married and as guilt and lust start to crowd into his mind we learn a tad more about his marriage, his life growing up and his parents than we really want to know. What takes place during the date is entertaining and it takes most of the book to go from that time to the next day when Bird and Brian tee it up again in the second round of the tournament.

As I said at the beginning, the approach to this book is more of the Richard Russo style of writing than your normal golf story and it really only uses golf as vehicle to weave the story. I found some of the psychological aspects of the books to be a bit drawn out, but it is entertaining enough for the most part. Not a ringing endorsement, but Mr. Griffith has promise.

Most golf novels I have read--particularly those of the comedic variety--tend to follow a certain pattern. While they are ostensibly about golf, what they are really about (at least in the author's mind) is the game of life--or, perhaps more accurately, the game of LIFE. In other words, while the story is amusing on the surface, there is invariably something HEAVY lurking just beneath. This novel is no exception. I found the writing excellent and the book in general is well worth reading (although I might have to disagree with those who suggest that the novel would be equally as enjoyable to a non-golf fan. Even if the book is about "more than golf", I can't imagine someone with no interest in the sport enjoying the book as much). If you do like golf however, the book is definitely worthwhile. I did have a few problems with the book however, which, taken collectively, were worth deducting a star.

First and foremost, while certain scenes--especially those where Brian is actually playing golf, those involving Bird (an excellent character), and those involving Ellen--were really fun to read, there were others--especially those involving Rosa, Brian's father, his mother and the flashbacks, which I felt were much duller and which I was wishing would end. It's not that Rosa isn't important as far as the big picture is concerned--I just felt that whenever we had to read about their relationship, the novel just dragged. Also, there were a number of soliloquies, tangents, musings and sidebars--such as (to take but one example) Bird going on and on and on about flying--which I just felt were unnecessary and really added little to the novel. It seemed as if the author was trying to show off his writing skills in some way. In short, I felt that large chunks of the novel could have been excised with no loss to those elements that made it such a fun read. Nevertheless, on balance, I certainly recommend it for anyone who likes golf novels.