Sometimes a day is so beautiful as to clear a person's head. For Conny Bromenn, the reluctant hero in Joe Redden Tigan's premier novel "Waggle," that day is July 28, 2003, a perfect day for golf. Bromenn's game and conversations with friends on the golf course unfold in a story filled with humor, social awareness and plenty of tortured golf pointers. Conny Bromenn is a real estate developer, about to turn forty, who feels ambitious and hopeful on this incredibly gorgeous Chicago day. He has decided that the rampant development overrunning the Chicago suburbs has gone too far; that it's time for him to get involved in the community and start thinking outside of himself.

Waggle

Joe Redden Tigan
iUniverse (2007)
ISBN 0595416195
Reviewed by Cherie Fisher for Reader Views (4/07)


Calling all Golfers!  “Waggle” is the answer to a golfer’s dream of a great novel.  You don’t have to be an avid golfer to enjoy this book either, because first-time author Joe Redden Tigan does an excellent job of explaining the strategy around the game.  I thoroughly enjoyed the story as a novice to the game – well, I am not exactly a novice since I have been playing for several years, just facing up to the fact that I lack talent when my golf instructor told me a couple of summers ago that I was job security.  

The book is full of golf terminology, including the title.  What is a Waggle?  The Golfer’s definition is “Waggle - is to make small movements of the club head back-and-forth at approach, prior to grounding the club. Waggling is common with woods and any iron used off a tee. It can be a nervous habit, or it can be an intentional movement designed to help the golfer trigger the swing or to help the golfer achieve the tempo they are looking for.” 

I especially enjoyed Tigan’s lead-in to every chapter.  He does it by describing each hole at the fictional Triple-the Pines public golf course in a hilarious way.  For example, Hole #12 “Those who mockingly refer to the smaller march that comes into play on this hole as ‘Black Bog’ due to greens keeper Phil Black’s unfortunate late-night mishap with a front end loader here will obtain a keener understanding of karma as they walk off the 12th green only to find that the 13th hole is engulfed by even more of it.  Chicago Golf.” 

The entire story takes place on July 28, 2003, an extraordinarily perfect day for golf in Chicagoland.  Conny Bromenn, after contemplating the perfect weather conditions decides that this may be the day that he will break 75.  Conny and his foursome are all in the real estate business and are all around 40.  As Conny is nearing his 40th birthday he begins to contemplate making his life more meaningful by giving back to the community.  So when the normal $5 Nassau wager is brought up, Conny decides to broach the subject of social responsibility by making pacts instead to help the community instead.  As the group agrees to this approach, the pacts definitely take on new approaches with each passing hole. 

This short book is a very enjoyable read.  “Waggle” would also make a great gift for all of you who don’t know what to get the golfers that you know for their birthdays, Father’s Day and holidays.