THE GOOD TIME GOSPEL BOYS

by Billy Bittinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 16, 1986

Bittinger's first is an unoriginal soap opera about a small Southern town with skeletons of murder, miscegenation and incest rattling in every closet. It's 1940, and the placid little town of Taylor Springs, Kentucky, is gearing up for the arrival of the Good Time Gospel Boys, a swinging group of revivalist singers who have been making an appearance every year for the last 20 years to stir up the slow-flowing Southern juices. Not that much stirring is needed, really--beneath the surface, Taylor Springs is a boiling cauldron. There's the gargantuan Lucille Byrd, who has a fling with all four of the Gospel Boys every year in the back of the bus. And there's also father, Dr. Roger Byrd, murderer (of his wife and a little Irish serving girl), child abuser (of Lucille), and secret father of his black chauffeur, Khaki. And lucious Lizzie LeCompte, bat-witted nymphomaniac wife of a local preacher. Not to mention a couple of seemingly proper spinster sisters who were once, respectively, lesbian and heterosexual powerhouses. The predictable grand finale has a crazed Lucille staggering from the collective embrace of the Gospel Boys to murder her father after catching him about to rape a local teeny-bopper. Bittinger's undistinguished prose gains power only when she's describing--with great, mouthwatering intensity--groaning tables full of good Southern cooking. The rest, though, is just the usual burgoo.

Pub Date: Feb. 16, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1986

Categories: FICTION