Review of Who We Met on the Way to Stanford
Posted: 28 Mar 2023, 08:04
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Who We Met on the Way to Stanford" by Richard Sinay.]
Who We Met on the Way to Stanford is a father’s account of his son’s road to achieving his dream. Richard Sinay recognizes the talent for golf in his son at a young age. He hones this talent, practising on the country club courses, participating in tournaments and championships, and learning about the intricacies of the golf swing. Richard recognizes something else: his son, Brian, doesn’t love golf quite as much as he does. Brian sets his sight on Stanford, focused on attending this school above all else. Richard chronicles the journey to that goal and the people, both popular and not so popular, they met along the way.
There is a lot of golf terminology permeating the text. Readers are expected to have some bare familiarity with the sport, though I believe the average person won’t have a hard time getting into the swing of things—pun very much intended. I liked being introduced to the concept of the “Golden Ring”, player flameout, golf swing and the accompanying ‘lag’, as well as par—what it means to go over and under—the PGA Tour, and more. What I think might pose an issue (as it did in my case, anyway) was the deluge of statistical data and awards, championships, and tournaments that Sinay sped through.
I admired Brian’s bull-headed chasing of his dream to go to Stanford. I could relate all too well to his floundering after he achieved that goal and didn’t have another waiting in the wings. Apart from Brian, numerous other players were given room in the book to enable readers a peek at their golfing careers, whether long-lasting or not. Names like Michele Wei, Aaron Baddeley, James Oh, Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia, and more made cameos, showing how each impacted Brian’s journey and a little of their personal stories and achievements.
Underpinning the fabric of this book are messages relating to communication and expectations. Sinay expresses from the get-go that he always knew Brian never desired to play pro, the son not loving the sport to the extent that the father did. He repeatedly stresses, too, that he never pushed him to do so, veering away from the helicopter parenting he had both witnessed and heard of, which would often result in a complete abolition of a parent-child relationship. Despite this, I could sense some disharmony between what he expected of Brian and what Brian wanted for himself, inevitably resulting in some tension and breakdown in communication between the two, whose personalities, in Sinay’s own words, were never very open to begin with. The father-son relationship was interesting to read about from a psychological standpoint.
I did find quite a few mistakes in this book. These varied across the board, but they numbered significantly and convinced me that the book might not have been professionally edited. The writing itself isn’t bad at all, but the presence of these errors cannot exactly be overlooked.
Who We Met on the Way to Stanford gets a rating of four out of five stars. Only the editing quality would count as a negative in my overall review of the book, and that is the reason for the one-star deduction. Otherwise, I think this book would be suitable for fans of golf and memoirs. It imparts lessons to fathers, as well, especially on the topic of expectations one might hold for their children.
******
Who We Met on the Way to Stanford
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Who We Met on the Way to Stanford is a father’s account of his son’s road to achieving his dream. Richard Sinay recognizes the talent for golf in his son at a young age. He hones this talent, practising on the country club courses, participating in tournaments and championships, and learning about the intricacies of the golf swing. Richard recognizes something else: his son, Brian, doesn’t love golf quite as much as he does. Brian sets his sight on Stanford, focused on attending this school above all else. Richard chronicles the journey to that goal and the people, both popular and not so popular, they met along the way.
There is a lot of golf terminology permeating the text. Readers are expected to have some bare familiarity with the sport, though I believe the average person won’t have a hard time getting into the swing of things—pun very much intended. I liked being introduced to the concept of the “Golden Ring”, player flameout, golf swing and the accompanying ‘lag’, as well as par—what it means to go over and under—the PGA Tour, and more. What I think might pose an issue (as it did in my case, anyway) was the deluge of statistical data and awards, championships, and tournaments that Sinay sped through.
I admired Brian’s bull-headed chasing of his dream to go to Stanford. I could relate all too well to his floundering after he achieved that goal and didn’t have another waiting in the wings. Apart from Brian, numerous other players were given room in the book to enable readers a peek at their golfing careers, whether long-lasting or not. Names like Michele Wei, Aaron Baddeley, James Oh, Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia, and more made cameos, showing how each impacted Brian’s journey and a little of their personal stories and achievements.
Underpinning the fabric of this book are messages relating to communication and expectations. Sinay expresses from the get-go that he always knew Brian never desired to play pro, the son not loving the sport to the extent that the father did. He repeatedly stresses, too, that he never pushed him to do so, veering away from the helicopter parenting he had both witnessed and heard of, which would often result in a complete abolition of a parent-child relationship. Despite this, I could sense some disharmony between what he expected of Brian and what Brian wanted for himself, inevitably resulting in some tension and breakdown in communication between the two, whose personalities, in Sinay’s own words, were never very open to begin with. The father-son relationship was interesting to read about from a psychological standpoint.
I did find quite a few mistakes in this book. These varied across the board, but they numbered significantly and convinced me that the book might not have been professionally edited. The writing itself isn’t bad at all, but the presence of these errors cannot exactly be overlooked.
Who We Met on the Way to Stanford gets a rating of four out of five stars. Only the editing quality would count as a negative in my overall review of the book, and that is the reason for the one-star deduction. Otherwise, I think this book would be suitable for fans of golf and memoirs. It imparts lessons to fathers, as well, especially on the topic of expectations one might hold for their children.
******
Who We Met on the Way to Stanford
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon