Book Follows Brothers’ Quest to Answer Existential Questions
If you like golf books, then you’ll like “Mr. Wizard,” the debut novel by veteran golf writer Jeff Wallach, whose story follows the adventure of two brothers seeking to learn where they came from.
Novelist Jeff Wallach is a veteran golf writer.
The brothers, Phillip and Spencer Elliot, learn through DNA testing that their supposed father is not who they thought.
That revelation is the jumping-off point for a genetic treasure hunt as they follow clues that may or may not have been left by their wild mother, Jenny — herself a master of misdirection.
The action takes place in 1970s Long Island, current-day Manhattan and Ireland. The book features plenty of scenes at golf courses and clubs in both New York and Ireland; movie and musical references; a women’s golf champion who also plays drums in a band called Gorsey Park; and the world’s driest Alzheimer’s joke.
Along the way, the brothers confront deeply personal questions: Are they pure products of genetics; formed more completely by upbringing and social interactions; victims of randomness; or some combination of these factors?
“Mr. Wizard” is available from Open Books this month and at Amazon.
“My experiences researching stories for golf and travel magazine for the past 35 years have made a 
strong impact on my fiction,” explains Wallach of his initial work in this genre.
“Mr. Wizard will be most interesting to folks who grew up in the 1970s; people who love to travel; golfers; those interested in ancestry; and readers who like a good mystery with a surprise ending,” Wallach said.
Wallach is the award-winning author of four non-fiction books as well as nearly 1,000 articles, essays, reviews, and columns in The New York Times, The Oregonian, Sports Illustrated, Men’s Journal, GOLF Magazine, Men’s Health and Health, Money Magazine.
“Jeff Wallach is a prodigiously gifted writer — insightful, funny, and always surprising. ‘Mr. Wizard’ twists and turns like a double helix,” says Terri Cheney, New York Times bestselling author. “When you finish, you’ll want to go back to the very first page and experience it all over again, just to see how Wallach pulled it off.”
By New Mexico Golf News Staff
