THE FLIM-FLAM MAN AND THE APPRENTICE GRIFTER

by Guy Owen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 25, 1972

A return of the flim-flam man (1965), perhaps somewhat more sentimental and less successful than the original, but nonetheless an entertaining novel in the southern style, full of tall tales and moonshine whiskey and revival meetings. Curley Treadaway, the flim-flam man's young sidekick, gets bailed out of jail (for swindling, selling ""potent"" medicines and the like) by Bonnie Lee Packard's father, only to find that what awaits him is no honeymoon with his true love, but something little worse than a chain gang, as he works for half the folks in Ellers Bend to pay for his misdoings. By and by, his good graces and shenanigans charm everyone and he's on the road to redemption and respectability, when -- lo and behold -- who shows up but Mordecai Jones, the Flim-Flam Man. And off they go to see the world and, incidentally, make Curley a singing star. After a number of spectacular hijinks -- conning the stingy and outwitting the law -- Curley does walk a rather cheerless road to fame and stardom -- until Bonnie Lee tricks the trickster into domesticity. An amusing novel, with no pretensions as to its seriousness.

Pub Date: Oct. 25, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1972

Categories: FICTION