The Amateur

Even as a long time fan of Chris Bohjalian, whose work ranges from historical suspense to contemporary crime fiction to literary tales (and plenty else in between), I wasn’t prepared for the intensity of this story, the power of the narration, and the sheer brilliance of the book’s design. It’s 1978, and 18-year-old Mira Winston is a golf prodigy in a small, tony, Westchester town—it’s very Larchmont. Everyone, even Mira, expects that her life has been planned out for her, from Yale in a year to the LPGA after college graduation. Until a blazing-hot August morning when Mira is practicing at the local country club and drives a ball straight through the net at 150 miles per hour, slamming it into the head of high-school junior Kenny Foster, killing him immediately. A horrible accident? Yes, a horrible accident: somehow, there was a hole in the net, which allowed the ball easy passage. But as the story slowly unfolds in the months to come, and as Mira awaits trial, people’s opinion of the golfer starts to shift. Did you know Mira was having an affair with a man three decades her senior? And that Kenny’s younger sisters were consumed by grief? And that Mira has a history of recklessness, although it may be constructed? Slowly, Mira is flipped in public opinion from teen in trouble to woman in despair. But what keeps this book so honest, direct, and yes, at times, humorous is the first person voice of Mira, taking readers to another era we are unlikely to ever forget.