In Search of Burningbush

by Michael Konik

Book Overview

Author often appears as a commentator at poker tournaments broadcast by Fox Sports Hardcover edition was reviewed favorably by Sports Illustrated, USA Today, and several other major publications This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0071435212
• ISBN13: 9780071435215
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Length: 279 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.4" x 7.4"

Customer Reviews

In Search of Burningbush

"In search of Burningbush by Michael Kunik is a revealing tale, more about life than golf. It is a memoir of Kunik going to Scotland to play golf with an extremely passionate golfer who loves the game more then anything. Don Naifeh is the name of the man and is a poker dealer in Las Vegas. There is one problem with him. He has Osteoporosis or "brittle bone disease". This makes him extremely fragile. One trip and he's in the hospital with a couple of broken wrists and a fractured rib. Don is also a member of the "Shivas Irons Society" which is a club that almost worships Michael Murphy's "Golf in the Kingdom". Murphy's books describes a man from India that goes a links somewhere in Scotland and meets a man named Shivas Irons who does all these amazing things, such as making hole-in-ones in the dark and many other impossible feats. The story takes place during the 1800s. Michael Kunik is a travel magazine editor who gets to go anywhere in the world for extremely cheap. When he meets Don at the World Series of Poker in Vegas he immediately sets up a tee-time. Not soon after their first outing talk about Scotland begins and how Michael has been there many times and Don has never been. With in a month they are on their way to Scotland. Don is in heaven and Michael is just happy that Don is happy. Don is always on the look out for the course from "Golf in the Kingdom", called Burningbush. At the end of the book the two golf nuts find and in the process learn a lot about themselves and each other. I believe that Kunik was trying to teach more life lessons than golf lessons. Every part of the book had some connection to everyday life. Kunik definitely accomplished what he was trying to do and taught me more than a few life lessons. I did not find any weaknesses for "In Search of Burningbush". I found that this book was beautifully written and reads just like fiction. I liked this book because it was about so much more than just golf. The life lessons taught in the book are fundamental for, not just golfers, but everyone.

Deeply Moving Story

This book only pretends to be about golf in Scotland. It's really an elegant exploration of Life. If that sounds heavy, it's not. Konik is one of the most graceful writers I've ever read. He has a way of exploring Big Ideas in a gentle and conversational way. You're reading about looking for a mystical golf course or two mismatched buddies trying to win a match on St. Andrews, and then you realize, "Wait a minute: he's really talking about what life is like for all of us." I've read this book three times, and each time I get something new from it. You can enjoy this touching story on so many levels. It's a great travel book, it's a great sports book, and it's a great "relationship" book. It's in a category of its own. "In Search of Burningbush," in my opinion, is Konik's best book, and one of my all-time favorites.

Burningbush Connects with Golfers

This book not only captures the true meaning of friendship; it defines how friendships are formed and enhanced by the great game of golf. Add Konik's deep appreciation for the Scots' gift of golf to the world and you have a work that is a great read and a must for all golfers from duffers to scratch players.

Read This Book!

I just finished In Search of Burningbush and felt compelled to write. The author's true voice and passion for golf come through in every chapter, and many of the passages describing the Scottish links and countryside are simply beautiful.I was also drawn to the spiritual aspects of the author's quest as I am in a mid-life search for my "Burningbush". In Hinduism, I have read, the main thrust of the belief system is that people think they want certain things such as pleasure and worldly success. But ultimately, in this life or another, even noble life pursuits become unfulfilling. What people really want is something else - infinite being, infinite awareness, and infinite bliss. We can only get brief spatterings of true joy; we feel as though some great harmony exists in the world, then our bodily limitations take over. Golf is like that. We feel the sensation of perfect body and soul in a golf shot, but then it is instantly extinguished as we remember the double bogey on the last hole. I wish the feeling would last forever. As I read this book, I sensed the same longing. I think what many of us are looking for is there, just past our conscious selves. When our bodies are quiet and our minds are still, the door opens for an instant. In that instant is an eternity that we simply cannot comprehend. As I write this review, I am looking at a picture of the Old Course at St. Andrews hanging on the wall of my den. I bought the picture many years ago because it looked like a great den picture. But now, after reading In Search of Burningbush, I think something else may have drawn me to that picture - a type of "connection" I am sure Don (the main character in the book) would say. Someday I hope to play the Old Course and discover, if only for an instant, the metaphysical connection explored so beautifully in this book.

The Search

If you've played a perfect round of golf, you don't need this book. If you've hit one perfect shot in your life and been satisfied never to try for another, you don't need this book.If, however, you have ever walked off a green ready to quit the game altogether (I paid money to be here?) only to walk down a fairway two holes later wondering if you might make a run at the PGA Tour after all, then Michael Konik has written the golf book for you.Mr. Konik's world is a world of very high highs and very low lows. Apparently, there have been "afternoons" (plural) of lovemaking and wine, nights of high-stakes poker, weeks of world travel and miles in fast cars. But there has also been divorce, betrayal, and serious heartache. He has come close perfection, he has lost it, and he is out there in search of it again.The perfection Mr. Konik seeks this time is the ultimate pilgrimmage to the birthplace of golf with Don, the ultimate "golf buddy" Konik has been searching for since childhood. He wants the golf to be pure: he wants to walk the hallowed courses with someone who appreciates them as much as he does. But he also wants the relationship with Don to be pure, special, and deep. If Thoreau's "mass of men" lead lives of quiet desperation, Mr. Konik is not one of them: his desperation is loud. He desperately wants Don to have a magical time. He desperately wants to have a magical time while Don is having a magical time. He charts the golf-trip itinerary in great detail, and calls on his travel-writing contacts to be sure that he and Don will have the right caddies and play the right courses. He prepares a tremendous gift to his friend Don, who would never have the chance to experience like this if it weren't for Michael.It is what happens next that makes the book special and causes reveiwers to say it is about more than golf. Perfection, again, eludes Mr. Konik, usually in direct proportion to his effort to find it. Konik tries too hard, he realizes, and he knows it makes him insufferable as a golfing partner, let alone as a buddy. "I hate myself for it," he says.Thus the metaphor linking golf to life is complete. Nothing is easily or permanently perfect (except, perhaps, Mr. Konik's ear for the thick dialect of the Scots, which he reproduces with laugh-out-loud accuracy). The journey, which was to have been the ultimate golf trip, has considerable highs and lows. Throughout, Mr. Konik confesses to his own imperfection and tries to understand Don's. When writers --and friends-- are that honest, we end up pulling for them to the end.