Overview

FLATBELLIES 25th Anniversary Edition!One of the ""Top Ten Golf Books of All Time,"" as voted by a panel of 12 East Coast sports writers - Published in the Washington Times, April 2001Any time anybody thinks about memorable and moving ""coming of age"" stories American Graffiti, Hoosiers, and Stand By Me immediately come to mind. Now the foursome is complete. Alan Hollingsworth's novel, Flatbellies, is a fictionalized memoir of his teenage years in the heartland of America. Set in a small Oklahoma town in the contentious 1960s - a place that was simple but a time that was confusing - Flatbellies is partly about the seemingly unreachable goal of a high school golf team trying to win the state championship. Most of all, though, Flatbellies is the story of Chipper, Jay, L.K., Buster and the unforgettable Peachy and their friends as they learn to deal with love, loss, friendship, fear, triumph, tragedy, growing up and growing old. And just when you think the author cannot come up with any more unique characters, someone named Smokey Ray Divine struts onto the first tee at the local golf course, and a streetfighter nicknamed ""Neander T"" cruises menacingly through the local teen hang-out. Flatbellies is a charming and beautifully written novel by Alan B. Hollingsworth. You will hate for this book to end, but you will love the way it does. ""More than just a Hoosiers for golf, Flatbellies succeeds thanks to Hollingsworth's engaging characters and what this reviewer recalls as accurate depictions of teen situations and feelings. ...Non-golf fans needn't shy away from Flatbellies..."" --Mike Snider, USA Today

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Reviews

""Compelling...A coming-of-age classic - think Stand by Me, The Wonder Years, American Graffiti, and A Christmas Story meet on the first tee of a dusty muni in El Viento, OK., for a fourball in Smalltown, USA. ...Almost from the start, you'll feel like the sixth member of the gang, because Hollingsworth can turn the most hardened cynic into a sentimental sap."" --Barker Davis, Washington Times ""Flatbellies reads like a combination of American Graffiti and Hoosiers put on pages with humor and wit. It's a wonderful story about relationships and about how a kid can make a compassionate impact on people from a variety of social classes. I loved it."" --Doug Ferguson, Associated Press, 2019 PGA Lifetime Achievement Award In Journalism ""Flatbellies"" made me relive my whole childhood - especially the parts I wish would have happened."" --Kurt Kragthorpe, Salt Lake Tribune ""It's the characters from Stand By Me grown up, introduced to peer pressure and the pressure of small-town life at a big-time crossroads in American history...you get to go along for a wonderful ride."" --Brian Robin, Los Angeles Times ""I found myself both laughing and crying... funny, poignant, inspiring, and absolutely terrific!"" --Bob Fagan, Golf Today Magazine ""Equal parts Stand By Me and Missing Links, Flatbellies is a rollicking, lyrical tale of teen angst, rebellion and redemption set in the mid-1960s. ...Propelled by seamless, sophisticated writing, unpredictable plot twists, and well-developed characters, Flatbellies blends its robust morality tale with a touching, quirky love story and a healthy dose of beer-fueled humor. ...a fast-paced, entertaining story that seizes and surprises the reader from its opening paragraph."" --James McCarten, GolfWeb at PGAtour.com ""Flatbellies is a nostalgic, evocative glimpse back through time at the way things used to be in America's heartland 35 years ago."" --George Kimball, Boston Herald ""...As the story unfolds, Hollingsworth touches upon some fond and deep memories about life in the mid-1960s in Middle America...There's much to enjoy in this engaging new novel."" --Fritz Schranck, (Delaware) Cape Gazette ""WOW! What a book. I can't remember the last time I've been so captivated by a book...As for the movie potential, I'd be one of the first in line for tickets and one of the last ones out so no one sees the tears that seeing that final chapter on the silver screen are bound to draw out."" --Rob Hernandez, Wisconsin State Journal ""A remarkable debut...(sports books) are not always this good, this funny, this moving. It's not a sports book. It's not a guy book. It's about life, and that's pretty universal."" --Ann DeFrange, Daily Oklahoman ""The skillfully crafted characters...enter their senior years dedicated to achieving the impossible, but love, loss and life keep getting in the way."" --Carol J. Burr, Sooner Magazine ""A charming and beautifully written new golf novel joining the elite coming of age stories of a generation. Set in a small Oklahoma town in the mid-1960s, it is a memorable and moving tale of the struggles and accomplishments of a high-school golf team and its quest to win the state championship."" --Golfread.com

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