Spikes; A Novel

New York: Arcade Publishing, 2001. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. [10], 258, [4] pages. Inscribed by the author on the title page. Inscription reads To Jane--Michael Griffith. DJ is in a plastic sleeve. A intelligent first novel set on the minor league golf circuit follows a has-been twenty-something golfer on a last-ditch tour through the South. Michael Griffith is an American novelist and short story writer. His stories and essays have appeared in literary journals such as The Oxford American, The Southwest Review, Salmagundi, and The Virginia Quarterly Review, among others. Griffith received a Master of Fine Arts from LSU in Baton Rouge, and is the former associate editor of The Southern Review. He now works as a professor of creative fiction writing at the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio and teaches fiction writing at the Sewanee School of Letters at the University of the South in Sewanee, TN. His published works include the novel Spikes out in 2001 as well as a novella plus collected stories entitled Bibliophilia released in 2003. Both works are published by Arcade Publishing. The Speaking Stone: Stories Cemeteries Tell, "a literary love letter to the joys of wandering graveyards," was published by the University of Cincinnati Press in April 2021. At twenty-six, Brian Schwan is washed up. Four years hacking away on third-rate golf courses across the South have produced a grand total of $19,000 in earnings, zero wins, and a string of spectacular tournament flame-outs. He's just shot a horrendous opening round, his wife wants him to come home and start a family, and even his father, who dreamed of seeing his son a star golfer, seems to have given up on his game. Critically acclaimed, Spikes is a sharply observed novel about the obscurity of our motivations, our capacity for self-delusion, and the surprising, unexpected possibilities for grace. Derived from a Kirkus review: Comic, allegorical first novel in which a bumbling contender learns that even if golf is a poor substitute for life, life has its moments. After four years of progressively worsening scores, Brian Schwan realizes that his dream of being a professional golfer has sunk into the sand trap of no return. Finishing shamefully behind his rival, the dashing South African autodidactic ornithologist Jim "Bird" Soulsby, Schwan retires to a seedy motel room, where he doesn't even succeed in drinking himself into oblivion. Instead, he lets fly some rants about how he has failed everyone: Dad, who lived his dreams of golfing glory through his son; Mom, who didn't complain when Brian ducked an art history major at college to try his luck on the pro circuit; and Rosa, Brian's adoring, born-again wife, who has tirelessly supported him but now wants to have a child. When he runs into a pretty TV newswoman who wants to interview Bird Soulsby, Schwan gives into "bad craziness" and pretends to be his rival, then arranges a liaison with the reporter that promises to put him in her bed. But who should invade the post-game flirtation at a picturesque Charleston, South Carolina, tavern but Soulsby himself . . . pretending to be Schwan. While Schwan fumbles and mopes, Soulsby dazzles the reporter with his wit and erudition, leaving Schwan to ponder if, by pretending to be him and walking off with his date, Soulsby might be demonstrating that pretension, like faith, can loosen up a stiff swing. By chance, Soulsby and Schwan are again paired off the next day, with Schwan's father watching on the sidelines, for a game in which Schwan discovers why golf attracts so many people who believe in miracles. A funny, winning portrait of the artist as a frustrated, helpless, but not completely hopeless young duffer.