The Amateur by Chris Bohjalian is a character study wrapped in a mystery about an accident and the scrutiny that follows. It is more literary fiction and character study than mystery. The Amateur is a very slow burn mystery but much more a character study.
Mira is the focus of the story. She is an 18-year-old golfer on the rise in 1978, with a scholarship to an elite college, until her life is derailed when a ball goes through a practice net and kills a caddy. Soon, all of Mira’s choices are analyzed. She feels blame even though, to everyone else, it was an unpreventable accident. Or was it?
Mira’s character is not always likable, but I feel Bohjalian did a good job of explaining where she came from. She is spiraling while still being a young adult dealing with complex emotions.
The novel is told through Mira writing a memoir about the event and everything surrounding it in the present day. Because of this, the story uses words like mansplaining and other modern-day words. I thought this way of telling the story worked well for the most part.
One of the big plot points deals with Mira dating a man her father’s age. This is in the blurb for the book and is not a spoiler. The “relationship” is scrutinized by others, but Mira in the future keeps talking about how good the sex is, and it almost feels braggy. She is still dealing with the predator-prey “relationship” of it all years later. But it was the only portion that felt like maybe it was written by a man. Lolita is brought up a lot and she gets a tattoo to take back a little power.
The court case about blame and responsibility was written very well and was my favorite part of the book. It had great courtroom drama with a couple of twists and turns. I loved the psychology of both sides of the case.
The pace is slow at the start. Bohjalian is a good writer and tries his best to keep it interesting, but he doesn’t always succeed. I felt the first 50% did a bad job of getting to the point and picking a direction. It recycles different scenarios that lead to the same result. The novel finds itself in the back half. It moves very fast and is super compelling, but it feels almost too late.
The ending was good. I figured out the big turn, but I was still satisfied watching it all play out.
The Amateur was first published on August 4, 2026, by Doubleday.
Why did I read The Amateur by Chris Bohjalian?
I really liked the writing in his book Hour of the Witch. It put a great spin on the past with modern sensibilities. The writing and the twist were great. It was on my best books read list of 2021.
I saw The Amateur on NetGalley and was shocked I got accepted after requesting it, but I did thanks to Doubleday and NetGalley. My goal this year was to read books I thought would make the Goodreads Choice Awards list, and The Amateur was one of them.
Plot Summary:
Mira is doing what she does almost every morning, hitting a golf ball with her driver into the practice net. But in a one-in-a-million shot, the ball hits the net, tears through it, and hits a caddy who was waiting in the assignments line. The caddy, a 17-year-old Mira knew a little, dies.
Mira does something terrible by laughing because she doesn’t think he is hurt, and he falls in a funny way. After his death, Mira’s life is examined. She is having an affair with a far older man and doing drugs. Her scholarship disappears. This perfect life she had set up all starts to fall apart.
What I Liked:
The courtroom drama was written very well. I think if some of the book had been framed around the court case, then I would have liked it a lot better.
I loved the story of how she found her person and current husband in the book.
I do love the Easter eggs involving Bohjalian’s own writing. Since Mira is writing this memoir, she is also an author and has written all the books Bohjalian has written. It was fun and purely for the fans.
I liked the ending. Even though I figured it out, it was good writing and still gave me the feels when everything was revealed.
I did love the scenes between Mira and her mother and what they have in common. I would have liked to see the mother open up more.
I did love the bit where Mira cannot watch Animal House because of someone getting hit in the head by a golf ball in the scene. That is such an interesting trauma to have.
What I Disliked:
The way sex was bragged about. It was okay when she was young, but writing as an adult felt wrong. She talks about the sex and says how good it was but never says, “I only felt that way because I was a child.” There was no rethinking of the event, at least to my eyes.
This book does have a suicide scene, and I felt this book handled it better than most, but I still wanted more internal thoughts.
The first 50% of the book had a couple of good moments, but it floundered to find a point and a direction. Things and actions kept getting repeated.
Recommendation:
I do not think The Amateur is a bad book. It is a good book trapped in bad framing. It is crazy how good the courtroom scenes are to me.
I think this is a book that will work for readers not expecting a mystery. I think if I knew this was mostly literary fiction, I would have enjoyed it more. I think it was an interesting character study of having your life derailed by an incident.
I have not read Lolita but the book makes a lot of references to it. I know that Lolita told by a male writer, so this novel could be a flip on that.
It is a book that asks the question: did I have to go through all this hardship to be the writer and have the life that I do now?
Rating:
The Amateur by Chris Bohjalian
3 out of 5 stars
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