Cinderella Story: My Life in Golf (Hardcover)

by Bill Murray (Author), George Peper (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
To many, Bill Murray is the star of movies like Ghostbusters (reissued with certain scenes deleted and a Mystery Science Theatre-style commentary in 1999). But to golf aficionados, Murray is the clown in godawful "Hee-Haw-aiian" golf garb who plays shamelessly to the crowds at charity tee-offs from Pebble Beach to the Greater Milwaukee Open. And there is only one Bill Murray role, the gopher-snuffing, turf-smoking greenskeeper Carl Spackler in Caddyshack, whose fantasy of golf heroism gives this book its title. "This crowd has gone deadly silent," Spackler mutters with club in hand and no crowd in sight, "a Cinderella story outta nowhere--former greenskeeper and now about to become the Masters champion!"

Cinderella Story is really two books. The first is a string of outrageously digressive anecdotes about Murray's club-wielding adventures with Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer ("Incandescent ... he and Patton were born to lead armies"), Mike Ditka, John Denver, Chi Chi Rodriguez ("He had more fun playing golf than any person I'd ever seen."), Clint Eastwood, and Michael Jordan ("Relax," Murray tells himself, "his nickname is 'air,' not 'sand.'"). The prose style is mock-hepcat, insanely allusive, and very smart, like his screen persona.

This book is also the amusing, affecting autobiography of a kid who started out caddying for 60 cents a half-hour with his brothers--they got busted for giving a blind golfer three hole-in-one trophies--and wound up in showbiz. There are lots of showbiz anecdotes too, especially about Caddyshack, "arguably the greatest film ever made, although perhaps that's a drunken argument," as Murray observes. He'll get no argument from golfers, who will thrill to his expert ridicule of their mutual passion. --Tim Appelo

From Library Journal
Murray's life as seen through golf.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 211 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; Stated First Edition, June 1999 edition (May 18, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385495714
• ISBN-13: 978-0385495714
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #645,081 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quintessential Murray, November 16, 1999

By	R. G. McLeod (Texas) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

One of the funniest books I've read in a long time. Not strictly a golf book, but about Bill Murray's life framed by his love of golf. While his writing style darts from fairway to bunker to rough, no matter to me. A life and golf game can be similar. A great book to read aloud next to a crackling fire.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Funny stories of growing up with golf and being Bill Murray, May 25, 1999

By A Customer

If you are a fan of Bill Murray's and a golfer you want to like this book a lot. Little disappoints in this volumn and it is a lot of fun to read. I laughed out loud at least once in every chapter. The remarkable thing about this book is just how much a part of Bill Murray's life golf really is -- and just how much a part of golf Bill Murray has become. This is by no means a literary masterpiece, in fact, in several spots the reader is sure to wonder if any one proof-read this for continuity. However, this book does a great job in bringing the reader into the "never a dull moment" golf-life of Bill Murray. I'm left to wonder what would a Bill Murray celebrity pro-am be like -- probably a "caddy challenge match" and more fun people have had in years. A good read, that leaves you happier, if not better, for having read it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Comme ci, comme ca, May 4, 2000

By	Scott Allen (Hayward, CA) - See all my reviews

I had to read some sections twice to figure out what Murray was talking about. It reads like one of his side-of-the-mouth monologues. You have to be hooked into Murray's wavelength to appreciate it. It would be much funnier to see him read this, to see his dancing eyes, his sly expressions, etc. These words often just lie there on the page. If you don't use your imagination, you won't find this funny. A good editor would have cleaned up a lot of the confusion, but Peper fell down on the job. It's worth a read if you can expend the effort. If you want something easy and accessible, this isn't for you.