The YIps

by Nicola Barker

Yips - nervousness or tension that causes an athlete to fail to perform effectively, especially in missing short putts in golf.  The Free Dictionary

This book was a Man Booker listed item this year.   I read it because of some reviews talked about how clever/quirky it was.

It is a long book, over 500 pages.  I generally avoid books that long, I find them hard to read.  I found it very labourious to read the first 300 pages, because I so disliked the main character, but after that I got hooked on the antics of the kooky cast of characters.  The writer has a fabulous way of expressing things.

The book is about a washed up golf pro who is totally self-centred, rude to all those who care about him and help him, and totally oblivious of the needs of others.  He cannot show any concern or sympathy for anyone.
In the story we meet his long-suffering agent, whom he fires; several of his "hanger-ons".  We also meet a young woman who works in a bar at a hotel and her workmate who has survived cancer 7 or more tiimes.  We also meet the workmates wife, a minister who is going through a crisis of life/faith.  The most tragic characters are a family that Ransom has devastated but to whom he feels no sorrow or responsibility -- he injured an old woman in a car accident and now she is demented and drives her daughter and son crazy.  The daughter is a talented tatoo artist who is agrophobic.  A muslim sex therapist and his burka wearing wife contribute to the humour and craziness of the plot.

Ransom's agent is giving birth to her third child, father unknown, she has complications in her delivery.  While it appears her devotion to him is more than to his talent, he shows no interest in her condition, just in getting publicity.

All the characters interact with each other in different ways, most of them are suffering from angst or anger, and things get weirder as the story goes on....  They seem to be sad about how their lives have turned out or lives not lived, one of the women, a Minister, is relieved when she finds out her husband has had an affair because he is no longer a saint.

It was a frustrating book, because of the egotisim of the main character, ridiculously funny at at times; the lives of most of the characters don't seem to change for the better, but the jerk main character "gets the girl".  However, it was certainly entertaining by the end.