Review of The Amateur by Chris Bohjalian

I was most interested in the fascinating premise and the exploration of guilt and responsibility after a terrible accident. I didn't enjoy the peeks into the future, which for me took the drama out of the fraught events that drive the story. And I was disappointed to have easily guessed the facts at the heart of the minor mystery. But I love Chris Bohjalian and many of his other books, so I'll happily read his next novel.

Mira Winston is 18 years old in 1978, hitting golf balls at the country club on a summer day when she drives a ball into a practice net--but the net breaks, and a nearby caddy is struck in the temple, a deadly blow.

After the accident, the golf prodigy turns to all the wrong places while trying to cope with her grief, and her affluent community passes judgment on her messy attempts to find solace.

The premise of this novel is fascinating, and I thought the strongest part of the story was the early portion surrounding the accident and immediate fallout.

The foreshadowing of Mira's future success in both career and love took the high-stakes feeling away from the events and deliberations that occur in her youth. And I guessed the facts surrounding the minor mystery surrounding those events early on, which was disappointing.

I thought Mira might be headed toward a period of sexual empowerment and her owning of it (after turning to the numbing effects of drugs and alcohol), but she offered up a more valuable personal evolution; she began to understand the power mismatch and the pedophilia at the heart of her first young relationship. These realizations were some of the most powerful in the book for me.

When she meets her future love--Bohjalian reveals this eventuality early on, so I'm not spoiling a surprise--I wasn't at all convinced that he would be taken with Mira. She is, she readily admits, a mess emotionally, often drunk and on drugs to blot out reality, and, ultimately, she is not sure she wants to live. He is older and has been through war, doesn't drink or use drugs, and doesn't seem to have a savior complex. It was a relationship I wanted to buy into more easily.

I was most interested in the story's exploration of mortality, terrible chance accidents, culpability even without responsibility or liability, and living a life after having dealt a blow to a family and a lost one's loved ones that can never be resolved.

I read a prepublication edition of this novel courtesy of NetGalley and Doubleday Books.

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Chris Bohjalian is also the author of books such as The Jackal's Mistress, Hour of the Witch, Skeletons at the Feast, and others.