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Rating: 
Summary: Awesome!
Review: As a HUGE Payne fan this is a great book. Balanced, mature. The beauty of this book is that it's not dragged down by its lack of perspective like Tracy Stewart's biography. A fine read. I recommend this before any other Stewart biography.
Rating:
Summary: Where were you?
Review: If old enough, you remember where you were when President Kennedy was assassinated. If a golf fan, you remember where you were when Payne Stewart died. I was in a restaurant having lunch with a couple of other guys. We paid only occasional attention to reports on the television behind the bar. A Lear jet was off course and expected to crash. Sadly, we soon would learn its occupants. If you read no other chapter in this excellent account of Payne Stewart's life, read the one detailing how the golfer's friends and associates learned the bad news. It's a dramatic piece of writing by Larry Guest. And it creates a bond between any reader who remembers that day and the golfer's friends in the book who talk about it. In another memorable chapter, Guest's detailed reporting makes you feel as if you're right in the aircraft during its deadly, and as yet unexplained, flight from Florida to a midwestern cornfield. This book would be a good read even for people who are not golf fans. If you do follow golf, it's a must read. If you were a Payne Stewart fan, you should have already read it.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Much better than the Tracy Stewart biography. This one has real writing and isn't afraid to give the whole side of the story.
Rating:
Summary: Where were you?
Review: Reading sports biographies is what I like to do. I have read tons -- from all sports, both genders. Frankly, the literary quality of sports biographies usually is low. So you read to pick up a thing or two you didn't know. Either that, or you're a sports nut like me. This certainly is not the case with "The Payne Stewart Story" by Larry Guest. I bought the book for three reasons: 1. Wow! The cover just blew me away. I must have stared at it for five minutes. 2. I particularly like golf as a sport to read about. 3. I had bought the book by Payne Stewart's wife and was so disappointed I had to force myself to finish it. Strictly commercial, more important for what it didn't say. I was looking for who Payne Stewart was, not empty words that left me hungry and unsatisfied. Guest's book grabbed me from the first sentence. Riveting, I think is the right word. Classy. Intelligent. The chapter on the plane crash takes your breath away. I was struck the by the amazing amount of detail. For a moment, I felt like I was there. Guest is someone who cares about detail, and so many sports authors don't. There is nearly a whole chapter is Guest's book on why Payne wore Knickers. I always wondered about that. It was as fascinating as it was funny. Guest handles the story of Stewart's maturation -- his spiritual growth, his growth as a Tour golfer, as a husband and father, as a citizen, as a man. Like the rest of us, Stewart was flawed, and Guest deals with the flaws directly but with tenderness. I really liked the way he handled that. It made the book wonderful for me. This is truly a great sports biography, five stars, very different in a way I can't explain. I just could not put it down for its honesty and its humor and its unique format. I had read 50 pages before leaving the store and taking the book home with me. This is hard for me to say, but I'm sure this is the best sports biography I have ever read. There are bigger stars, but I cannot think of a better book. "The Payne Stewart Story" informs, entertains, enlightens, inspires. Although a tragedy, the book made me feel better about things.
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