Preferred Lies: A Journey into the Heart of Scottish Golf (精装) 031237299X

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内容简介

Andrew Greig, poet, novelist, and lapsed golfer, came within moments of death before his surgeon performed a last-ditch operation and saved his life.Inspired to pick up his clubs again after a thirty-five-year on-and-off again hiatus from the game, Greig traveled eighteen courses on his road to recovery---from the northernmost tip of the Orkney Islands to the celebrated fairways of St. Andrews.It was, more than anything, a journey toward reconnection with being alive.

Greig’s book tells one man’s story of connection to an ancient game, and the story of a father’s relationship with his son and the rite of passage into manhood. It is a book of reflections, not only on the pleasures of the game but also on friendship, family, and ghosts from the past.

“A masterful meditation on golf and healing.”---Steven Pressfield, author of The Legend of Bagger Vance

“Andrew Greig takes familiar turf and turns it into something keen and wry and profound, like the Scottish links he loves so well.Required reading for any lover of the game the way it was meant to be played.”---Steven Pressfield, author of The Legend of Bagger Vance

“What golfer won’t go to the links of Scotland to play a few rounds after a close call with death? Andrew Greig’s Preferred Lies makes his return to the courses of his youth charming, funny, and profound, as he plays the courses of Scotland, one shot at a time, back to good health. A wonderful book about how golf is one sure way to heal the body and the heart.“---John Coyne, author of The Caddie Who Knew Ben Hogan

“Andrew Greig’s mindfulness invokes a bounty of verities: That play is the best medicine for a heart aching with poetry and a mind chattering with anxieties. That peace cannot be found in the pounding polarity waves of hope-disappointment or joy-sadness. That while we may not be able to change what we see, we can choose how we see it. That real freedom, the most feared option of all, is always present, ours for the taking when we are done with searching everywhere else and decide to operate as our own sacred selves. To the worldly mind, seeing ourselves as gods-in-embryo is heresy, a lie. With a hearty salute to Andrew, it is exactly the lie I prefer and recommend, along with this book, to all.”---Printer Bowler, author of The Cosmic Laws of Golf

“Poignant, wise, and funny, as well as exquisitely written; a book about loss, exultation, pain, and---ultimately---healing.”---Iain Banks, author of The Algebraist

“A wonderful and wise book.”---The Irish Times

“Greig’s purely struck prose is not the only strength of this book . . . he has excellent taste in golf courses. A beautifully written memoir.”---The Guardian (UK)

“Poet and novelist Greig breaks the mold. Greig helps us remember our own perfectly struck golf shots, but he keeps his distance, recognizing the intimacy of the moment.”

---Booklist (starred)

“Gentle lyricism and distinctly Scottish outlook make this round a unique pleasure. An accomplished poet, [Greig] lends lyrical depth to blades of grass and existential musings alike and manages to cast new light on a lot of life’s oldest questions. Greig approaches each life lesson with inspiring passion and humility.”---Publishers Weekly

专业书评
From Publishers Weekly Greig, a novelist, mountaineer and poet, is not the first to view the vexing paradoxes of life through the lens of golf, but his gentle lyricism and distinctly Scottish outlook make this round a unique pleasure. After lifesaving surgery left the author with an uncooperative memory, he called upon the game he'd given up long before to help him regain his grip. Greig brings the reader along to 18 Scottish golf courses as he relearns golf and life. An accomplished poet, he lends lyrical depth to blades of grass and existential musings alike and manages to cast new light on a lot of life's oldest questions. Greig understands the limits of his metaphors, acknowledging that life is not golf, and love for an ageing parent isn't trying to play a tricky shot out of the rough. Laundry lists of maxims and aphorisms, central to the golf experience, are occasionally impossible to avoid, but Greig approaches each life lesson with inspiring passion and humility. (Dec.) Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist *Starred Review* Journeys "into the heart of Scottish golf" make up a virtual subgenre of golf literature, but usually the trekkers are misty-eyed Americans with a laptop and a new set of Pings. Poet and novelist Greig breaks the mold several different ways: he's Scottish, his clubs are old, and though once a low-handicapper, he hadn't played golf for years when he dug his cobwebby bag out of the attic and began all over again. He returns to golf as he is returning to life, the survivor of brain surgery. Drawn to the fairways of his youth, he travels his native country playing courses that have personal significance to him (only a few of which are among those on the British Open rota) and reconnecting with old friends. His story separates itself from the field on multiple levels. It is idiosyncratically but never egotistically personal?reflective, often melancholy anecdotes about his family, his past, his poetry, and his illness all weave their way unobtrusively into the text?but it is also remarkably precise about the game and its "inner-directed, individualistic" pleasures: "It's the us mystery of timing. . . . Moments when the same body that weds us to pain, aging, loss, death, becomes also our delight in this world." His philosophizing, however, never falls prey to the wispy, God-in-the-heather drivel that brings down so many golf writers drunk on the influence of Michael Murphy's Golf in the Kingdom. Grieg helps us remember our own perfectly struck golf shots, but he keeps his distance, recognizing the intimacy of the moment. Ott, Bill
作者简介

Andrew Greig grew up on the east coast of Scotland, the birthplace of golf.He is the author of six acclaimed books of poetry, two Himalayan mountaineering expedition books, and five novels.He lives in Orkney and Sheffield with his wife, the novelist Lesley Glaister.

出版社Thomas Dunne Books
作者Andrew Greig