Waggle by Joe Tigan Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $13.05 You Save: $1.90 (13%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Waggle
Book Review: Not just for golfers!
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't golf but many of the men in my life do...and some are pretty good at it. That aside, I loved this book! Hillarious, touching, colorful and intelligent, it is a thoughtful novel about life...on the golf course and off. This is an author who gets the whole notion of wanting to really amount to something in the grand scheme of things. Buckle up for this one! It's a great ride!Book Review: Spread the word! This is a good one.
Summary: 5 Stars
Ok, I'm not much of a golfer and I'm a girl, so I was not sure if I was going to like "Waggle". But, within the first chapter I knew I was going to love it! The author's use of language totally "drives" the book. This is not your typical book you pick-up off the shelf with the same old drone, page, after page, after page. With each new chapter you never know what you are going to get next. I found the variety of techniques employed to relay the story extremely clever and refreshing. It's a fun read and a book I will definitely be reading again. That is, unless, Mr. Tigan gets us that sequel first!Book Review: This is not the golf novel you've been waiting for...
Summary: 2 Stars
This could have been a good book. Really. It has a story that could have been really entertaining.
Unfortunately, the author has a quirky, sometimes ridiculous writing style. As long as he sticks to the golf, we're fine. He does a good job explaining things for the non-golfer without boring people who already know what he's talking about. Still, things get odd when he tries to get clever or funny.
You won't laugh when a golfer suggests that we should have spent money from the space program on teaching people to be like the Amish. If you're like me, you'll reread the section thinking you missed the joke somehow. It won't make sense the second time either.
Likewise, you'll be reaching for your dictionary trying to figure out words like 'aurae' and 'stamen' both misused over and over again throughout the book. To get an idea what I mean, use the Amazon search function to find 'aurae' in this book and check out the bizzaro sentences you get back. You can't even use contextual clues to figure out what word the author meant to use. Sentences with 'stamen' are downright indecipherable. Joe Redden Tigan needs a dictionary.
At one point, without any real connection to the story, the author writes, "Trees are not humid blue but are actually green and bright green." Huh? Get used to it.
This should have been a fun golf book but it is not. Use the couple of hours you'd have spent skimming this novel to work on your short game. You'll be happy you did.
Book Review: Unlike a lot of stories about suburban complacency
Summary: 4 Stars
Waggle doesn't merely set out to describe suburban complacency and say "See how awful suburbia is?". This book has remedies, not only for suburbia, but for anybody that still gives a dam. Joe Redden Tigan has used the backdrop of a far western suburb of Chicago being ravaged by commercial and residential real estate development to set the stage for consumerist blindness and all it can come with. His set-up is winding and subtle, but convincing, and very funny. Things have finally hit Waggle hero real estate appraiser Conny Bromenn in a deep enough spot to where he may want to actually do something about it. Like get involved. Seek enlightenment. His challenge is to convince his long-time friends and golfing buddies that they should join him in his quest to do things like participate in preserving the environment, beat back commercialism, outfox governmental bureaucratic oppression, and learn how to play musical instruments, just to name a few. Conny knows the only way he could get these guys to participate is if they lost a golf bet. And that's Tigan's ploy for driving his message and his book to a temporary resting place. The ploy may work for some but not all readers. Ditto Tigan's writing style. But they did for me.Book Review: makeminemink
Summary: 5 Stars
Waggle is a pure delight with several laugh out loud moments. The golfing foursome of men who grew up with Star Wars (both Lucas and Reagan) involve themselves in a review of life as they find it in paved over Chicagoland via a series of pacts on a blissful July morning of golf. Conny Bromenn provides his friends and golf buddies with extra challenges on the course--not the usual gambling stakes. When he finds himself caught between a desire to raise The Masters to its awesome potential while clearing the Earth of corruption, and a desire as strong not to lose the game, we may think we are involved in intergalactic struggles. Well, maybe, it just depends on how much power you give Hootie Johnson, chairman emeritus of the Augusta National, and the Illinois State Highway Toll Authority. Will any of the four feel that personal sacrifice is worth it? Waggle is a walk through the course with these four and a well-paced, engaging telling of a tale by a wonderful storyteller.