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| Author: Carl Hiaasen
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $22.00
Buy New: $10.25
You Save: $11.75 (53%)
New (51) Used (14) Collectible (6) from $7.85
Avg. Customer Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 394
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.2 x 1
ISBN: 0307266532
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.352092
EAN: 9780307266538
ASIN: 0307266532
Publication Date: May 6, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New Book
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| Customer Reviews:
 Trials, tribulations, and the love of the game June 30, 2008
It is delightful to encounter a book that, in addition to being an excellent read, strikes an especially responsive chord in the reader's mind. Such was the experience with Carl Hiaasen's THE DOWNHILL LIE, an entertaining and enjoyable saga about the midlife return to the frustrating and fascinating game of golf that many readers may have gone through in their lives. As one who gave up the sport in my late 20s, when spending hours on the golf course became difficult and I found time to return to the game in my mid-40s, the Hiaasen narrative brought back many memories and nods of recognition. Perhaps more important, it offers many laugh-out-loud observations that a wise and humorous writer shares with his audience.
Many will recognize the Hiaasen name as a newspaper columnist for the Miami Herald and the author of bawdy and entertaining novels set in the State of Florida that poke fun at contemporary issues of American life. A Hiaasen novel skewers politicians, businessmen, retirees, rednecks and countless other denizens of the "Sunshine State." He has applied this formula to more than a dozen bestselling fictional works.
Now the celebrated author has turned his wry humor inward. After a 32-year absence from the game that he first played with his father, Hiaasen, now a grandfather with bad hips and other equally bad appendages, decides it's time to return to the game he abandoned in his youth. Why? Because, as he ruefully acknowledges, "I am one sick bastard."
While he may be "sick," he is wonderfully funny. Any golfer will appreciate his observation about a fine-looking new set of irons, too beautiful to throw in anger after a bad shot. As he attempts to explain the golf handicap system, most golfers will nod in approval. But, just like Hiaasen, they really have no idea how that tell-tale number that appears after their name bears any relation to golfing reality. Reading THE DOWNHILL LIE is a reminder to every golfer of the various circles of the inferno that constitutes golf, from lessons to gadgets to ecstasy and occasional humiliation. He experiences it all and shares it with readers in a fashion that every golfer will understand.
Hiaasen, of course, is not just an average guy returning to the game of his youth. Indeed, his book allows him extravagances that the average golfer can only dream about. One day, in a moment of deep depression, he emails his friend, professional golfer and television commentator David Feherty. His tale of woe and torment results in Feherty sending him the latest model Cobra Driver and ultimately a second model after the first is not quite the correct club for Hiaasen's swing. For his effort, Feherty gets the back page of THE DOWNHILL LIE in the form of a complimentary blurb.
Every gadget purchased, every club and indeed some of the most expensive lessons in golf from the prestigious David Leadbetter Academy are chalked up to research for Hiaasen's book. I must admit to pangs of jealousy that he has really come up with the perfect scam to have someone else pay the price for satisfying his every golfing whim. That envy is assuaged by two facts: unlike Hiaasen I can't write, and nothing he does seems to help his golf game. Frustration fills the pages of THE DOWNHILL LIE, and because it is a golfer other than me suffering ignoble fate, I have to admit it is pretty funny.
I know Hiaasen will never read this review, but perhaps a friend will call it to his attention. Patience, Carl. Several years ago, just like you, I returned to the game I had abandoned. I struggled for a few years, but now at age 60 I am playing the best golf of my life. True, it is mostly attributable to equipment and the humility of moving up a set of tees, but it is improvement nonetheless and I am enjoying every minute of it!
THE DOWNHILL LIE is a perfect Father's Day gift for your golfing dad, or the book to take along on your next golfing trip. Those who have never suffered through golf hell will not understand Hiaasen's anguish, but the rest of us have a wonderful reminder that there are many out there equally frustrated and tortured by the game invented by drunken Scotsmen.
--- Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman
 Shank! June 24, 2008
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
I should have known. As a fan of Hiaasen, I should have realized that by leaving the reservation to write a book about his taking up golf again that he was walking out onto thin ice. As it turns out, he was trying to walk on water.
Several descriptions of this "book" come to mind. The one that occurs the most is "unreadable." It is not funny. It is poorly structured. It has no sense of story.
After several attempts to at least complete it, I have given up and last night it ended up in my trash compactor. I would give this effort NO STARS if Amazon allowed such a rating.
Normal trials and tribulations of golf made funny June 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Millions of golfers could play like Tiger Woods only if they had his golfing skills. And millions of golfers who play and score like Carl Hiassen could write a book like this if they had his wit and writing skills.
Chuckling about Hiassen's antics on the links reduced my tension and I think was a contributing factor to one of my best games ever (right after I finished reading the book). But I will wait to see if this relaxing-Hiaaasen effect lasts before I recommend this amusing work also as a golf psychology/ self-help book.
You will relate to this guy! June 16, 2008
This book is one of the best golf related books I have ever read. I could not put it down! The author was so normal and honest and real that if you are a golfer who started playing golf again at an older age (40's) then you will really relate to his story. It is funny and just a great summer read!
 Hiaasen at his weakest June 11, 2008
Carl Hiaasen is one of the funniest writers ever. Given that both he and Dave Barry are South Floridians, one wonders if there's not something in the water that warped their DNA in a gut-splitting way. It's not possible to read "Lucky You" without constantly laughing, and marvelling at his ability to create weirder-than-life (or are they?) characters who parade through highly improbable (or are they?) sequences of events and relationships. He is also able to shift gears and write a masterpiece like "Hoot".
Having thoroughly enjoyed each of these, and a few others of his works, and having taken up golf late in life, I bought "Downhill Lie" looking forward to seeing myself skewered in it and having some good laughs.....but that was not to be. This book is a dreary explication of a diary he kept, and has all the earmarks of something written to pay the rent.
It's not a bad book, just dull. His passionate concern over what is happening to Florida comes through loud and clear. His description of "The Villages", the place shown over and over again on the Golf Channel ads, brings home the reality of what a monstrous overdevelopment it is, and the dirty little secret that "free golf for life" does NOT include the good courses at The Villages, only the ho-hum courses.
RECOMMENDATION: It's a decent read, but save it for when you've read every other book on your list. Read it at a library; buy it only if you are insistent on owning every book in the Hiaasen canon, and then only when it's on the books-for-a-buck remainder table.
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