Book Description

What makes someone great? For David Horvath, life hasn't turned out exactly as planned. At 39, he's single, unemployed and living with his grandmother, Beatie, in Rochester, New York. Although most of his days are spent drinking at a downtown bar with a group of fellow outcasts, he still clings tightly to the belief that he will achieve greatness, just as his late mother predicted. The problem is he can't figure out how.

David doesn't realize it, but when Beatie tells him she's ready to die and wants his help, it's a blessing in disguise. For this request inspires David to try to change Beatie's mind by bringing the Academy Awards to Rochester; and puts in motion a plan to revive her spirits, his city and the lives of all those who live there. Along the way, he battles self-doubt, loneliness and Cornelia Candee, Rochester's evil mayor, who tries to steal his idea about the Oscars and use it as a way to turn the city's historic High Falls into a waterslide park.

Acknowledging the inevitable gap between our dreams and the reality of our lives, Goliath Gets Up examines the journey we take trying to bridge that gap and make a difference in the world. What makes someone great? Come along with David and find out.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Starbuck O'Dwyer, a native of Rochester, New York, is a graduate of Princeton, Oxford and Cornell. His critically-acclaimed novel, Red Meat Cures Cancer (Random House/Vintage Books), won two national writing awards for humor and was a featured selection of the 2007 One Book One Vancouver reading program. His writing, which has been described as "comic genius" by Kirkus Reviews, has been featured in publications and forums as diverse as Entertainment Weekly, Flaunt, Toro, Japanophile, the Journal News, PW Daily and the Boston Globe, and he has appeared on over 350 radio and television programs including guest spots on ESPN, Voice of America and NPR. His collection of stories, How To Raise A Good Kid, was a finalist in the 2012 Indie Reader Discovery Awards (parenting) and a finalist in the 2011 Book of the Year Awards (essays, humor) sponsored by ForeWord Reviews. Similarly, his novel, Goliath Gets Up, was also a finalist in the 2012 Indie Reader Discovery Awards in the humor category.