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Dead Solid Perfect

Dead Solid Perfect

List Price: $13.95
Your Price: $11.16
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Dan Jenkins' & relationships
Review: A little about golf and 'inside the PGA tour'... Plenty of gratuitous language 'n ornery Texans... Mostly about Dan Jenkins' views on relationships with women... Forced a couple laughs.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: One of a kind
Review: Although this book did not surpass "You've Gotta Play Hurt" in my estimation, Jenkins is no less racy and raunchy and hilarious in Dead Solid Perfect.

I have no doubt that this book could have been written this year and still rings true, although maybe not all the dope smoking.

Like many of Jenkins' books, the story revolves around the Texas mystique and a man who can ace his avocation but fail miserably in his personal life. This book mixes enough politics, gambling, golf and sex to become one of the funniest books out there.

Jenkins' style is love-him-or-hate-him, but you if like this one, you'll be searching more used bookstores for other books that are out-of-print.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: One of a kind
Review: Although this book did not surpass "You've Gotta Play Hurt" in my estimation, Jenkins is no less racy and raunchy and hilarious in Dead Solid Perfect.

I have no doubt that this book could have been written this year and still rings true, although maybe not all the dope smoking.

Like many of Jenkins' books, the story revolves around the Texas mystique and a man who can ace his avocation but fail miserably in his personal life. This book mixes enough politics, gambling, golf and sex to become one of the funniest books out there.

Jenkins' style is love-him-or-hate-him, but you if like this one, you'll be searching more used bookstores for other books that are out-of-print.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Absolutely the funniest book I have ever read.
Review: An incredibly funny account of golf, shapely adorables, gambling hustles and general all around characters. I laughed out loud so hard I cried a couple of times. The bit about Kenny Lee Puckett and Spec Reynolds creating a fictional West Texas town in order to bet on the football team and try and pull one over on their bookie is pure genius(dont worry, I gave nothing away). In todays smoothed over, politically correct world this throwback is actually quite unlike anything you will read. I have read this book twice I liked it so much. Order one used if you cant get it new.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Second-rate Jenkins
Review: As a huge fan of Semi-Tough from way back (as well as a huge golf fan), I was looking forward to this follow-up. Like Semi-Tough, Dead Solid Perfect is raunchy, tasteless, sexist,racist, and VERY politically incorrect. Unlike Semi-Tough however, which was consistently hilarious throughout, Dead Solid Perfect is only fitfully amusing at best.

It's hard to put a finger on what exactly went wrong here. Part of it I think is that while Semi-Tough seemed to have a genuine (if obviously exaggerated) locker room verisimilitude, Dead Solid just doesn't seem to ring as true. This despite the fact that Jenkins was/is if anything far better known and revered as a writer about professional golf than he ever was about the NFL (college football was his other main beat at Sports Illustrated). Perhaps this is because in Semi Tough, many of the supporting characters were narrator Billy Clyde Puckett's teammates, whereas in Dead Solid Perfect they are mostly the protagonist's ex-wives and (to a lesser extent) old high school and Fort Worth cronies. The end result is less a novel about golf, and more about a man with a colourful personal life who happens to be a professional golfer.

That wouldn't really matter much if the book were funnier. But, as mentioned, Dead Solid Perfect is very uneven. Jenkins seems to think that eccentric characters with odd names are funny in and of themselves, and that you don't have to actually give them anything funny to do or say. Instead he relies on goofy Texas aphorisms (which start to wear out their welcome long before the book is over) and occasionally REALLY racist and/or sexist remarks that add little to the package but seem designed to show us what a bold, swaggering, iconoclast the author is.

The trick in writing humour (not to mention playing good golf) is to "never let them see you sweat". Unfortunately, Dead Solid Perfect sees Dan Jenkins sweating way too hard to follow up on a classic, to considerably less effect. Of course I could be wrong there. Maybe the problem is that with this book is that Jenkins wasn't really trying AT ALL.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: a Great Read, but not for those with high brows...
Review: As golf novels go, as sports novels go, and as humorous novels go, Dan Jenkins is - to go with the lingo - "da man!" Although a little too peppered with ribaldry for the highly intellectual reader, the novel (and all of his books, in fact) do a wonderful job of making the reader feel like a drinkin' buddy. These are laugh-till-you-cry books that leave you wishing you actually knew a few of the characters. This one is probably his second-best behind "You Gotta Play Hurt."

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not as good as Missing Links but still enjoyable.
Review: I am a slow reader, and I read this book in two days. Very entertaining. It did not have quite the plot that Missing Links has, especially on the golf course, but it was just as humorous. I highly recommend it to any golf enthusiast.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent humerous golf book for golfers!
Review: I have read this book at least 10 times. Each pass through reveals some insight into why I play golf. But more than that, this book entertains the reader. I still laugh till I cry when I re-read it. Dad Jenkins truly understands the golfer mentality.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Best Book Ever Written.
Review: I like the raw humor that ever one wants in everyday life but is to afraid to say or do it.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A waste of time
Review: I thought it was awful. The only reason I kept reading it is that I was sure it would get better and eventually entertain me. It never did. What passes for humor are only sexist and racist comments (at least I think they were intended to be funny). I think I forced a smile or two; I couldn't bring up a laugh. You're time would be much better spent rereading Rick Reilly's "Missing Links".


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