by Bob Mitchell, Mel Foster
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Easygoing Elliott Goodman, an amateur golfer, finds himself on the operating table after a heart attack and is confronted by God. The Old Boy wants to know why the entirely ordinary Elliott should be allowed to live and, when Elliott's reasons seem lame, challenges him to 18 holes. Rather than play himself, God sends substitutes from history, including Leonardo, John Lennon, Columbus, Babe Ruth, Gandhi, Joan of Arc, Marilyn Monroe, Beethoven, Ben Hogan, etc. Mitchell doesn't lack nerve: the hole with Socrates is narrated as a Socratic dialogue, and the hole with Shakespeare as a rather dreadful attempt at a Shakespearean play. Much of the story is superficial, and many of the celebrity cameos are unconvincing, but Mitchell, like his hero, strikes an agreeable tone and is often amusing.
John Mort
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
That’s the question Elliott Goodman hears in the OR as he’s about to have emergency surgery following a heart attack. But it isn’t Elliott’s surgeon who’s asking. It’s God. As in the Almighty. And God has a wager for Elliott. He challenges him to an eighteen-hole golf match. If Elliott wins, he is saved; if he loses…So begins this witty, insightful, and very funny novel about golf and life and the lessons learned from both. To be fair (isn’t He always?), God sends down eighteen legendary opponents to play against Elliott and hopefully teach him a few tricks along the way. From Leonardo da Vinci (nice clubs) to Marilyn Monroe (nice…everything), Babe Ruth (pass the hot dogs), Abraham Lincoln (cheater!), and fourteen other luminaries, including Moses, John Lennon, Joan of Arc, Picasso, W.C. Fields, Socrates, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Beethoven, Gandhi, and Shakespeare, Elliott squares off against some of the most extraordinary people who’ve ever lived. As shots are analyzed, balls enter bunkers, and Freud drives the cart (control freak), Elliott has a chance to examine his life and his form, to see what he can correct or improve before facing his ultimate adversary. Bighearted and delightfully original, Bob Mitchell’s Match Made in Heaven is a grand celebration of golf and a profound parable of traveling our own personal fairways in a game where no effort is wasted, and every failure is just another chance to try again.
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