Cinderella Story: My Life in Golf

Cinderella Story is really two books. The first is a string of outrageously digressive anecdotes about Murray's club-wielding adventures with Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer ("Incandescent ... he and Patton were born to lead armies"), Mike Ditka, John Denver, Chi Chi Rodriguez ("He had more fun playing golf than any person I'd ever seen."), Clint Eastwood, and Michael Jordan ("Relax," Murray tells himself, "his nickname is 'air,' not 'sand.'"). The prose style is mock-hepcat, insanely allusive, and very smart, like his screen persona.

This book is also the amusing, affecting autobiography of a kid who started out caddying for 60 cents a half-hour with his brothers--they got busted for giving a blind golfer three hole-in-one trophies--and wound up in showbiz. There are lots of showbiz anecdotes too, especially about Caddyshack, "arguably the greatest film ever made, although perhaps that's a drunken argument," as Murray observes. He'll get no argument from golfers, who will thrill to his expert ridicule of their mutual passion. --Tim Appelo

Product Description
One of the funniest, most beloved, and most often quoted entertainers in the world tells his tale of Life and Golf--and of somehow surviving both.

With his brilliant creation, groundskeeper Carl Spackler, and the outrageous success of the film Caddyshack firmly etched into the American consciousness, Bill Murray and golf have become synonymous. Filled with Murray's trademark deadpan and dead-on humor, Cinderella Story chronicles his love affair with golf from the life lessons he learned as a caddy--"how to smoke, curse, play cards. But more important, when to"--to his escapades on the Pro-Am golf circuit at the Augusta National and as a fan at the Masters, the U.S. Open, and the Western Open. An up-by-the-bootstraps tale of a man, his muse, and our society's fascination with a little white ball, Cinderella Story is one pilgrim's bemused path through the doglegs.

It's one of the few books I read from cover to cover in one sitting. It was that funny, witty, clever, and subtlely wise...to me anyways...


Incoherent and not funny   June 20, 2002
 8 out of 11 found this review helpful

Yes, Bill Murray is one of the best comedic actors of any Hollywood era. Yes, "Caddyshack" is every bit the cinematic masterpiece people in the know tout it as, even if no published critic in the world agrees. Yes, Murray's persona and his golf background would seemingly make for a diverting read. But Cinderella Story is decidedly not that read. It's a mess of a book, written sloppily and fairly joke-free.

Big type and generous spacing make Cinderella Story about as long as this review (not very). But even in that small a frame, it becomes clear that Murray's gifts are strictly in performance and not in writing. Stories run into each other, coming out of nowhere, and only to mention some of the famous folks Murray has hit the links with (Michael Jordan, Clint Eastwood, etc.). Those stories are rarely interesting, and are told without any sense of structure. Murray (or his ghostwriter George Peper, who apparently needs a ghostwriter of his own) jumps from one story to another and back without helping the reader keep everything sorted out. Superior literary humorists, like Bill Bryson, have a talent for telling anecdotes in a concise, purposeful fashion. That's what's missing here. Only a brief, and I mean brief, recalling of the original "Cinderella story" scene from "Caddyshack" offers readers any enjoyment. The rest is muddled and ultimately boring.

Other sections of the book include pictures and filler anecdotes from other people telling stories about how funny Murray is. If only this book was. Look, Bill Murray is an outstanding comedian who is woefully underrated as a true actor. But Cinderella Story only makes you want to see him do what he does best, and not read what does poorly.


Erratic and rambling stories bog down wonderful concept.   June 4, 2002
 2 out of 6 found this review helpful

I really had high hopes for this book. Sounded to good to be true, and it was. Murray's writing is rambling and unfocused, and while there are the occasional amusing stories I mostly found myself asking what in the world he was talking about.

Shame, too, because I really am a big fan of Bill Murray.