- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: McClelland & Stewart; 1st Printing edition (Sep 24 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0771075715
- ISBN-13: 978-0771075711
- Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 15.2 x 2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 399 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#109,592 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #19 in Books > Sports > Biographies > Golf
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
There are so many mysteries at the heart of good golf that just beginning to ponder them can put hitches in your backswing and paralyze your follow-through. The mystery at the heart of good golf writing is much simpler: the best books about golf don't actually focus exclusively on the game; they use it as a prism through which to filter larger themes. A Season in Dornoch fits that concept to a tee. In the middle of mid-life, Lorne Rubenstein, The Globe and Mail's superb golf columnist, opts to revisit Dornoch, but instead of merely passing through this time, he decides to spend an entire summer in the Highlands home of one of the most spectacular links on the planet. He wants to fill himself "with the virtues of golf," he tells us, "as a sport rather than a commercial enterprise." Fill himself he does, but not just with the virtues of golf. It doesn't take long for the author and his wife to find themselves adapting to the lolling pace of Dornoch--a place with character and characters. Rubenstein gets swept up in the history of the place: the Vikings and the Picts, the 18th-century Clearances in which the British forced the natives out, the hardscrabble lives and the haunting sounds of the pipes. Not surprisingly, the less he focuses on golf and the more he surrounds himself with Dornoch's history and geography, the better he plays and the more he enjoys playing. And if the golf and golf writing are good--and they are--it's what Rubenstein observes and experiences off the course that makes his journey memorable and this highland road certainly worth taking. --Jeff Silverman
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Most of the memoirs written about golf trips to Scotland generate in the reader as much envy as pleasure. Canadian golf writer Rubenstein's trip to Dornoch in the Scottish Highlands certainly inspires envy, but his quietly evocative prose forces us to focus on the charms of the place rather than the melancholy fact that he was there and we weren't. Because of its isolation in the far north of Scotland, Royal Dornoch Golf Club remains relatively free of the hordes of American tourists who clog the fairways on St. Andrews' Old Course. That may change after enough golfers read Rubenstein's account of spending an entire summer in the village of Dornoch, living above a bookshop, immersing himself in the rhythms of the community, and playing golf both casually (a few holes after dinner) and seriously (trying to qualify for the club's annual amateur tournament). It is the village life (evocative of the film Local Hero) even more than the golf that imbues this memoir with its seductive tranquility--that elusive quality we search for but rarely find in either our daily lives or our vacations. Whether Rubenstein is recounting fascinating bits of Highlands history or offering vivid character sketches of Dornoch natives, the prose breathes a kind of atmospheric calm that works on the reader like a mild summer breeze. Golfers interested only in assaulting the great courses of Scotland with their titanium drivers won't respond to this book at all, but for those who would rather play a quiet hole or two in the twilight, Rubenstein opens the door to a linksland version of Brigadoon. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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First Sentence
There is a point, far out on the links of the Royal Dornoch Golf Club in the Scottish Highlands, on the edge of the North Sea, where the world opens up in all directions. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
There is a point, far out on the links of the Royal Dornoch Golf Club in the Scottish Highlands, on the edge of the North Sea, where the world opens up in all directions. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful read, much more than I bargained for,
By
This review is from: Season In Dornoch (Paperback)
I bought the book for a lesson in golf history, but was fascinated by the ecology, history and culture of the Scottish Highlands as desribed by the author. It is also a beautifully written travelogue, poetic and mystical, and has certainly changed the way I think about golf. This book could only have been improved by the addition of photographs.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Green Envy,
By CT Amazonians (North Haven, CT USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Season In Dornoch (Paperback)
This is a lovely book about a lovely place. The author had the great good fortune to spend an entire summer in the north Scotland burgh of Dornoch, one of the hallowed locales for lovers of links golf. His stories of experiences with residents are charming, and along with reflections on the infamous Clearances of the 1800's, make this far more than a book about golf.As someone who cherishes the memory of a mere 2 days in Dornoch, I am green with envy, but the envy is tempered by the flood of good memories that Mr. Rubenstein brought back to me. So, I suggest: read this terrific book; also read Michael Bamberger's equally wonderful 'To the Linksland'; and finally, make it your mission to play Royal Dornoch, Cruden Bay, Macrihanish, and other splendid Scottish links. Ah..........
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Wee Bit of Dram of A Golf Book,
By This eminent, wordcrafter contributes a delightful tale of golf, not "cart-ball" as the game as become on the NA contienent. Here, it's not booming drives and high stick shots, but more the relaxation and wide open spaces with the tranquility and sereneness the game has had in these Highlands. One gets somewhat the feel that golfers rave about in Scotland, and this fine book helps those of us who have never been closer than say London in my case to get a taste of what it's like to be near the sea in sand formed links. Golfers will reverberate to his find wordsmithing such as: "Golf, not marriage, is the triumph of hope over experience. I don't konow why I shuld feel hopeful after playing dreadfully for thirteen holes and now facing the most comfounding hole on the course. That's golf. That's a golfer." Such charming writing about what every golfer that I know has ever played speaks of Dornoch, it is the essence of Donald Ross and links golf and everything the game is about. What the season life at Dornoch gives Rubenstein he also passes on, the Clearances and the plight of this people of pipes and drams and links and books. Sounds like the perfect village life many of us dream of living in.
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