Rick Bass Is One Of The Best

Golf Cannot Be Played In Anger, Or In Any Mood Of Emotiional Excess. Half The Golf Balls Struck By Amateurs Are Hit If Not In Rage Surely In Bewilderment, Or Gloom, Or In Cynicism, Or Even Hysterically - All Of Those Emotional Excesses Must Be Contained By The Professional. Which Is Why Balance Is One Of The Essential Ingredients Of Golf. Professionals Invariably Trudge Phlegmatically Around The Course - Whatever Emotions Are Seething Within - With The Grim Yet Placid And Bored Look Of Cowpokes, Slack-bodied In Their Saddles, Who Have Been Tending The Same Herd For Two Months.

Rick Bass Is One Of The Best Writers Of His Generation.

It Is Also One Of The Pleasures Of Oral Biography, In That The Reader, Rather Than Editor, Is Jury.

I Remember Being Awed By It - The Uniqueness And Nicety Of Style - And I Suspect I Was A Bit Jealous Because We Were More Or Less Of The Same Generation.

My Favorite Monologue In The Book Is Kate Harrington's Story Of Her Relationship With Truman.