Excellent essay in the Wall Street Journal

[Peter Pallotta]

Sorry, I don't know how to do 'links' to these things, but Don Snyder (filling in for John Paul Newport) has a wonderful essay about taking his 18 year old son to Carnoustie. To me, it was one of the best essays of it's kind I've read in a long while. It's in Saturday's "Weekend Journal" section; but I haven't check if it's on line yet -- though other essay have been in the past. If you can find it, it's well worth the read.

Peter

[tlavin]

Here's the link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119585817287802443.html?mod=weekend_journal_primary_hs

I seldom read the Wall Street "Urinal" because of its righty slant, but the Weekend Journal is always quite good.

[Dan Kelly]

It's an interesting essay, but I don't really, truly believe it.

Always the editor. Generally the skeptic.

[Peter Pallotta]

Ah, Dan --
and I bet I know exactly where your skepticism lies, i.e. in that too-neat little ending that has the son repeating verbatim the words from his father's (earlier) dream. Yes, like an unexpected phone call to a golf writer lost on the links, it raises the red flag; but I let Mr. Snyder get away with it, mostly because everything else seemed to ring so true, especially the father's concern for a son who'd given up.

Peter

[Rick Shefchik]

I had the same reaction. It hit a few notes that didn't ring true for me.

I also wished that the son had shot 87 and never made the college golf team, but still figured out that fighting the good fight against the harsh elements of life is still worth it for its own sake.

[Peter Pallotta]

Rick Shefchik meet Dan Kelly. Mr. Kelly meet Mr. Shefchik. I think you should get along famously.

Geez, you guys are a tough audience  

Peter

[Rick Shefchik]

Peter,

We discovered that about each other 20 years ago.

[Dan Kelly]

I think you should get along famously.

We're more likely to get along obscurely -- though we're still holding out hope for Rick.

[Jason Connor]

He lost me at paragraph 3

"Last winter Jack turned 18, but I kept seeing him when he was 5 years old on the driveway skating rink I'd made."

People make backyard skating rinks all the time in winter.

But who puts down a sheet of ice on their driveway!?  Seems foolish to me.  So impractical it seems fictional.

[JESII]

He lost me when he said something about a child's inner problems being unfixable...

[John Pflum]

Geez, you guys are cynical.  

Next you'll be telling me that Babe Ruth didn't point his bat over the fence and then crush a home run.  

[Dan Moore]

For the skeptics.

http://www.utrockets.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=89677&SPID=10714&DB_OEM_ID=18000&ATCLID=1256279&Q_SEASON=2007

[Dan Kelly]

For the skeptics.

http://www.utrockets.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=89677&SPID=10714&DB_OEM_ID=18000&ATCLID=1256279&Q_SEASON=2007

Dan --

We weren't doubting that the kid exists! Or that he can play a bit, either.

We were doubting (at least I was) many of his writerly father's writerly details.

Dan

[Rick Shefchik]

Don Snyder would have to have a professional death wish to fabricate a verifiable detail like his son making the Toledo men's golf team.

It's the stuff that can't be verified that hit a false note with me. But maybe it's all true -- including the 73.

[Peter Pallotta]

Well, anyone can make anything up I guess, including making a 'fiction' out of one's own family life and deepest familial bonds. I'd like to think that isn't the case here, because I find that thought really unpleasant. And so, assuming that it's all true, I admire Mr. Snyder putting his hopes and fears and failings out there so honestly. It sure beats another story about four old friends getting together for their annual golf trip and finding that they've all aged (and that they shouldn't share accomodations anymore because of the snoring).

Peter

[Dan Kelly]

Well, anyone can make anything up I guess, including making a 'fiction' out of one's own family life and deepest familial bonds. I'd like to think that isn't the case here, because I find that thought really unpleasant. And so, assuming that it's all true, I admire Mr. Snyder putting his hopes and fears and failings out there so honestly. It sure beats another story about four old friends getting together for their annual golf trip and finding that they've all aged (and that they shouldn't share accomodations anymore because of the snoring).

Peter

Peter --

I usually suspect that those pieces, too, are semi-fictional -- and I fault them for it. (Yes, I'm very, very hard to please.)

Maybe I'm missing it, but I don't see anything there about Mr. Snyder's "failings." I'd probably like the piece better if I did.

(This thread reminds me of a time, 20 years ago, when I was editor of a magazine that ran an annual writing competition. We'd get several hundred entries, and read them all, and then circulate to one another our thoughts about the best several dozen pieces. Those were good -- albeit long -- days.)

Dan

[SPDB]

The only "fact" I found implausible was the bit about the wind bent flags sweeping the green. The rest of it seems perfectly believable. Moreover, as this is not news or reporting in the strict sense, who cares if there is a bit of embroidery to it?

[Dan Kelly]

The only "fact" I found implausible was the bit about the wind bent flags sweeping the green. The rest of it seems perfectly believable. Moreover, as this is not news or reporting in the strict sense, who cares if there is a bit of embroidery to it?

I do.

[Kevin_Reilly]

The only "fact" I found implausible was the bit about the wind bent flags sweeping the green. The rest of it seems perfectly believable. Moreover, as this is not news or reporting in the strict sense, who cares if there is a bit of embroidery to it?

I do.

As do I...otherwise, where does the embroidery stop and the "truth" begin?

Not to add to the cynical dogpile, but who dreams of the Championship Course at Carnoustie?  Was TOC too much of a cliche?

[Matt_Cohn]

The whole story is just kind of...weird.

[SPDB]

Dan,
I care about journalistic integrity ardently, but in this thread people are questioning some pretty absurd details of the article. In a personal piece that relies pretty heavily for its motif on "dreams" and a father's anxieties, I'm not sure where to begin on the fact checking. An email address was provided, why not follow up?

[Rich Goodale]

If the basic story was really good (and I'm not sure it is), it deserved a New Yorker length and depth essay, which might have been able to tie all the loose ends together.  Right now it's:  kid gets into a funk, dad joins the funk and remembers a dream, both go to Carnoustie and play a game of golf, it is windy, kid shoots 73, they come back home, kid gets a job at Inverness and then a scholarship to Toledo.  It can't be more than 500 words, and if you're going to do that you need to write very carefuly and focus on one theme and a few salient and real facts, which Snyder has not.  B-/C+

[Dan Kelly]

Dan,
I care about journalistic integrity ardently, but in this thread people are questioning some pretty absurd details of the article. In a personal piece that relies pretty heavily for its motif on "dreams" and a father's anxieties, I'm not sure where to begin on the fact checking. An email address was provided, why not follow up?

Sean --

Why not follow up? Because I have no interest in following up -- any more than I had any interest in following up with Mark Frost about "The Greatest Game."

This is a minor little essay -- and if it's not precisely and completely true, it's not hurting anyone, anyway.

All I'm saying is: God is in the details -- and so is the devil.

When flagsticks are bending over to the ground ... why should I believe any of the other details?

And if I don't believe the details, why should I believe the core of the story?

I want essays to be precisely and completely true. Anything else is fiction -- which can be a fine thing, so long as it doesn't masquerade as fact.

Dan

[Peter Pallotta]

"I want essays to be precisely and completely true. Anything else is fiction -- which can be a fine thing, so long as it doesn't masquerade as fact."

Dan - fwiw, I agree completely. From a writing standpoint, it's interesting to see how a writer who isn't careful enough or good enough can easily exaggerate the various tropes and conceits he's using in the service of that truth-telling. The reactions to this essay are also intersting: I may be more easily fooled, or, just as likely, was happy yesterday to allow myself to be fooled (if that's what was going on). Hmmmm

Peter

[Dan Kelly]

The reactions to this essay are also intersting: I may be more easily fooled, or, just as likely, was happy yesterday to allow myself to be fooled (if that's what was going on). Hmmmm

Now, see, that there seems precisely and completely true.