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Waggle | 
 enlarge | Author: Joe Redden Tigan
Publisher: iUniverse, Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $8.90
You Save: $6.05 (40%)
New (17) Used (8) from $8.64
Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 543324
Media: Paperback
Edition: 0
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 201
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 4.9 x 0.6
ISBN: 0595416195
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780595416196
ASIN: 0595416195
Publication Date: March 9, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
An inordinately beautiful day surprises Chicagoland in July, 2003. No searing heat. No humid haze. Perfect. Real estate appraiser Conny Bromenn has recently turned 40, and the new fresh breeze has pumped him with a magnum of lucidity, though it struggles sometimes to sift through the gauze of befuddlement compiled over 40 years. Connys ready for a serious change. He needs to confront his long-standing lethargy in the community and search for deeper meaning in his lifebut can he let his golf buddies know his intentions without being laughed off the course? His newfound clarity tells him maybe. Risking their friendship, Conny proposes a new wager to replace their long-standing $5 Nassau, one in which the losers must adhere to certain pacts. Intended to initiate some sense of social responsibility within this group of 40-year-olds, these pacts quickly take on a life of their own with each passing hole. Conny and his friends start out just hoping to get a tee time in this unexpected weather, but end up turning a funhouse mirror on suburbia, their places in it, and what needs to be done
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 A very strange but very fun book September 15, 2008
I'll admit, there were times in this book where I wasn't quite sure what the author was driving at, yet I still got a kick out of what he was saying, if that makes any sense. And the book never got off its track, keeping with the message of how to improve upon things if you're not that happy with the status quo. Some of Joe Redden Tigan's ideas I get, some I don't, but the humor of the book kept me coming back. The golf bet I thought was a clever way of getting this message across, and I'm a golfer so that helps, but I wouldn't call this a "golf" book. Tigan's descriptions of golf are definitely spot on and then some, but they are mostly background. Other than some parts that are a little out there, I enjoyed reading it.
 Unlike a lot of stories about suburban complacency September 2, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Waggle doesn't merely set out to describe suburban complacency and say "See how awful suburbia is?". This book has remedies, not only for suburbia, but for anybody that still gives a dam. Joe Redden Tigan has used the backdrop of a far western suburb of Chicago being ravaged by commercial and residential real estate development to set the stage for consumerist blindness and all it can come with. His set-up is winding and subtle, but convincing, and very funny. Things have finally hit Waggle hero real estate appraiser Conny Bromenn in a deep enough spot to where he may want to actually do something about it. Like get involved. Seek enlightenment. His challenge is to convince his long-time friends and golfing buddies that they should join him in his quest to do things like participate in preserving the environment, beat back commercialism, outfox governmental bureaucratic oppression, and learn how to play musical instruments, just to name a few. Conny knows the only way he could get these guys to participate is if they lost a golf bet. And that's Tigan's ploy for driving his message and his book to a temporary resting place. The ploy may work for some but not all readers. Ditto Tigan's writing style. But they did for me.
 This is not the golf novel you've been waiting for... May 24, 2008
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
This could have been a good book. Really. It has a story that could have been really entertaining.
Unfortunately, the author has a quirky, sometimes ridiculous writing style. As long as he sticks to the golf, we're fine. He does a good job explaining things for the non-golfer without boring people who already know what he's talking about. Still, things get odd when he tries to get clever or funny.
You won't laugh when a golfer suggests that we should have spent money from the space program on teaching people to be like the Amish. If you're like me, you'll reread the section thinking you missed the joke somehow. It won't make sense the second time either.
Likewise, you'll be reaching for your dictionary trying to figure out words like 'aurae' and 'stamen' both misused over and over again throughout the book. To get an idea what I mean, use the Amazon search function to find 'aurae' in this book and check out the bizzaro sentences you get back. You can't even use contextual clues to figure out what word the author meant to use. Sentences with 'stamen' are downright indecipherable. Joe Redden Tigan needs a dictionary.
At one point, without any real connection to the story, the author writes, "Trees are not humid blue but are actually green and bright green." Huh? Get used to it.
This should have been a fun golf book but it is not. Use the couple of hours you'd have spent skimming this novel to work on your short game. You'll be happy you did.
 An involving novel about an awakening sense of social responsibility, highly recommended. August 6, 2007
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Waggle is a novel written by golf lover Joe Redden Tigan, for fellow golf lovers and suburbanites everywhere. One ordinary day in the summer of 2003, real estate appraiser Conny Bromenn decides to inject some change and meaning into the self-absorbed life he shares with his community. He decides to motivate his Saturday morning golf foursome by replacing their usual wager per hole with certain "pacts" that the loser pledges to adhere to. Hole by hole, the group of 40-year-olds is forced to reexamine their place in the world, and what they need to do. An involving novel about an awakening sense of social responsibility, highly recommended.
Not just for golfers! May 30, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I don't golf but many of the men in my life do...and some are pretty good at it. That aside, I loved this book! Hillarious, touching, colorful and intelligent, it is a thoughtful novel about life...on the golf course and off. This is an author who gets the whole notion of wanting to really amount to something in the grand scheme of things. Buckle up for this one! It's a great ride!
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