The American Golfer [Kindle Edition]

Anthony Robinson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Charlie Kingston, an American PGA tour player suffering personal and professional losses at home, goes to the village in Ireland where his great-grandmother was born, for a rest and change of pace. Charlie falls in love with Lora, a beautiful Irish woman whose husband, a wealthy Brit, owns an estate with its own ultra-private golf course. The simmering politics of Ireland, political intrigue on the local level, and personal revelations, all act to change the direction of Charlie's life. There is plenty of golf in the novel, but one need not be a player or lover of the game to embrace The American Golfer.

About the Author

Anthony Robinson, the author of six novels, grew up in the Maverick Art Colony in Woodstock, NY. He graduated from Andover and Columbia, served three years in the US Navy as a junior grade lieutenant, published his first novel, A Departure From the Rules, in 1960. He joined the English faculty at SUNY New Paltz, where he taught for 30 years. He is currently working on a new novel called The Floodplain. He and his wife Tatiana make their home in New Paltz and New York City. (edited by author)

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 409 KB
• Publisher: Anthony Robinson; 1 edition (June 16, 2010)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003VYCCT4
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #177,396 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Golf is Not the Driver, July 6, 2010

By	JPru - See all my reviews

This review is from: The American Golfer (Paperback)

Don't let the golf in the title of this very nice novel throw you off. I am not a golfer and care not a fig for the game. (Well, maybe a fig...) I play roughly once a year, and tend to do rather well for about 9 holes, shooting in the high 40s, but then the final 9 devolves into a series of pitiful hacking, stabbing, lurching spasms, topping the ball one time, missing it outright the next, sending my ball off for a little swim in the pond, etc., etc. Damn the bastard who made this game 18 holes! (I play squash, the world's greatest individual sport.... But I digress.)

So it was with a bit of trepidation that I picked up this book, but I'm happy to report that the discussion of golf in this novel does just one of two things: it either moves the overall story line along, or it educates the reader about the game in a highly entertaining way. It is obvious that the author knows a lot about the game, and almost despite myself I found it made for interesting reading and wasn't preachy. Nowhere do you get the feeling that the author is trying to proselytize for the sport.

Most importantly, I got caught up in the characters: Charlie Kingston, the golfer, and the two female protagonists, Lora and Fiona, all of whom are nicely crafted.

There is also political intrigue in this story, with a small Irish town made uneasy by the ongoing saga pitting Catholic vs Protestant Ireland.

I recommend this book highly; a very good summer read; obviously good for the legions of golfers out there, but also great for those like me, who just want a good story...

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A thoroughly American novel set in Ireland, June 21, 2010

By	Martin J. Mcphillips "Martin McPhillips" (New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The American Golfer (Paperback)

Tony Robinson's "The American Golfer" is set in a most excellent place for a thoroughly American novel: Ireland.

Charlie Kingston shows up in the fictional Castlebantry, in majestic West Cork, carrying the sort of minor celebrity that can go a long way in far away places. He is the American who lost by but a stroke to Nick Faldo in the British Open. The Irish know their golf and the local pub-goers remember the bold shot that should have won Charlie Kingston a major championship.

Charlie has come to bind up the wounds of horrible personal tragedy and serious professional woe. Looking for a quiet contemplative time, his celebrity does nothing but open doors for him. Behind some doors he finds warmth and new friends. Behind others he finds trouble. He is not a meddlesome man, but he nonetheless meddles, with other men's wives and with one man's children and another's dirty secrets. He is innocent and he's not. He is good but he crosses boundaries. And that makes for a compelling story and a novel that I couldn't put down.

It is the free existential American in a land of ancient grudges that began before there was any America to speak of. He's the easy-going man from the States. He doesn't simply fit in, he illuminates because he is not trapped in the shadows of Irish obsessions. He is innocent. And he is not.

Robinson's writing is careful and smooth, like the sonorous voice of a storyteller who can hold every ear at a banquet table, but finds grit in pauses and careful throat clearing and a glare in narrowing eyes.

The backstory is the game of golf, itself a heartbreaking obsession that those caught by its muse know all too well. That should not deter non-golfers from reading this book. Golf is woven in the story not so much as a sport as a challenge to the mind's reach for precision.

Set in 1998, "The American Golfer" is a strong portrait of the individual American, with his unflinching eye on the present and future, encountering the colder and darker waters of a place where the past will not let go.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty fun book!, August 4, 2010

By	J-la - See all my reviews

This review is from: The American Golfer (Paperback)

I don't golf at all. BUt I really liked this book. A friend suggested it (he likes golf). AND... the best parts for me were when the author talked about golf! It was so interesting to hear the "lingo". I really got a sense of what it is to like golf. It made me want to try it! The story was good too! A really talented person gives it all up 'cause he's had some tragedy that split his family apart. He goes to Ireland, where they love their golf, and he's more famous than he wants to be...He goes there to reconnect with his Great Grandma's grave. It turns out she's a really famous person in her own right, in those parts! I don't want to ruin it. But this book was surprisingly fun. Especially for me, who doesn't golf at all! After the first few pages, I just wanted to know what happens.