Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780743224802
ISBN number: 0743224809
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 240
Printing Date: September 25, 2001
Publishing house: Simon & Schuster
Release Date: September 25, 2001
Sale Popularity Level: 679175
Studio: Simon & Schuster
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Brief Book Summary:
Not since Larry McMurtry's The Last Picture Show has a novelist captured the poignant contradictions of young manhood in the American West the way Bud Shrake does in Billy Boy. And no novel has ever combined history, spirituality and golf into so potent a triumph of the human spirit.
There are tough times ahead for sixteen-year-old Billy. He's just come to Fort Worth with his father, Troy, after the death of his mother back in Albuquerque. Troy's drinking and gambling will leave them all but penniless, and he'll soon move on and abandon Billy in this strange town to fend for himself. With only a vague idea of how he's going to live, Billy heads over to Colonial Country Club, where he hopes he can get work as a caddie and where he just might see his hero, Ben Hogan. What he finds there, under the watchful eye of his guardian spirit, teaches him unforgettable lessons about golf, life, love and honor.
In Billy Boy, longtime novelist and screenwriter Bud Shrake takes us back to the early 1950s, in a story thick with the Texas dust. Hardscrabble Billy, tough as he thinks he is and smarter than he knows, makes a place for himself behind the walls of privilege at Colonial. He very first draws the approval, then the ire, of the club's most eccentric millionaire member, while his looks and manner draw the attention of the millionaire's beautiful granddaughter -- to the displeasure of her boyfriend, the club champion. Billy survives a fierce initiation and a dreadful scene with his drunken father -- but most important, he comes in contact with two of the greatest figures in the history of golf in Texas, Ben Hogan and John Bredemus, each of whom takes Billy under his wing for different reasons and with different results.
Shrake skillfully weaves these historical figures and his richly drawn characters into the fabric of the town and the tenor of the time. Billy must face down his fears and doubts, and he does so in a climactic confrontation that combines the yearnings of youth with the redemption of the spirit. Billy Boy is an unforgettable novel of coming of age in a time and a place filled with mythic echoes and frontier dreams.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
When sixteen-year-old caddie Billy Boy, who's lost his mother to cancer and his gifted but war-damaged father to an explosion, finds a very old Bobby Jones seven iron in a roadside ditch, a whiff of magic drifts in on the 1950 Forth Worth, Texas air. The club belongs to famous golf course designer John Bredemus, who soon arrives in search. Bredemus seems to know a little too much about Billy Boy, but the lad needs someone to lean on while he gets his feet under him and the two quickly form an alliance.
By way of reward for finding the club, Bredemus buys supper, and the subsequent morning loans the club to Billy, insisting that he bring it to the Colonial Golf Club, where he's trying to establish himself as a caddie. "It's a very lucky club," Bredemus says.
Sure enough, Colonial Golf Club's most famous member, the legendary Ben Hogan, notices the club and asks Billy Boy if he'd like to carry his bag for a quick nine holes, setting in motion a series of events that culminate in Billy Boy's winner-take-all match with Sonny Stonekiller, the club champion and rival for Billy Boy's flame Sandra Sandpaster.
If all this seems a little too pat, never fear. "Billy Boy" is great fun and a terrific golf read and Shrake's plot beautifully set up. You'll find yourself rooting hard for Billy Boy to win out. I recommend it for those who love sports adventure themes.
Art Tirrell is the author of The VITAMAN Effect a baseball yarn with a special twist. Available on Kindle now, and in print August 2008.
Rated by buyers -
This book was a great read that was almost impossible to put down. People who like golf or just want a good book should definitely pick up this one and get sucked right in. I somewhat connected to Billy because of his sense of humour and the fact we are both caddies at a fancy golf club. Not every chapter ended with a cliffhanger but the ending sure did. The plot was believable which made it a good fiction and stayed away from science fiction. Over all I thought this was a great book and I would recommend it to all.
Rated by buyers -
This is a fabulous book. I could not put it away. It was a great story and was very dramatic. It was the ideal book.
Rated by buyers 
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There are reasons why golf is described as 90 percent mental. It's primarily to sell golf literature like Shrake's novel. Ever read an intriguing golf book about swing plane and hip rotation?
Shrake's book is one in a long line like it. The main character, Billy, loses both his parents in a matter of weeks, and it is up to him to make it on his own. Set in Texas during the 1950s, two of Texas' golfing "Gods" guide Billy from being a caddie to beating the upstart young club champion. This book has all the cliched elements, including John Bredemus' role as a guardian angel, who unveils the mental elements of game, and Hogan, who teaches Billy "the secret" of the swing.
Had Sharke not written such a wonderful story, I would have cast it in the lot with all the other bad golf novels out there. There are life lessons more than golf lessons inside, including the drive to gain independence and what it means to honor yourself and family.
I just wish a golf novel could written without all those "Gods" watching down.
Rated by buyers -
A terrific book for both golfers and dreamers. Read it, then keep it in your golf bag subsequent to your 7-iron for good luck.
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