CRAZY HEART

by Thomas Cobb ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1987

This likable, easy-going first novel profiles an aging country-music star fallen on hard times who's also trying to make up for lost time, and finding out it may be too late. Otis Arthur Blake, Jr., better known as Bad Blake, once a Nashville headliner, is now older (56), fatter, and plagued by hemorrhoids. But ""The Wrangler of Love"" still takes his show on the road, even if it's ""in a fucking bowling alley, right in the fucking middle of fucking nowhere Colorado."" Blake can be mean--he ""was Bad long 'fore any niggers thought to be""--but he's mostly a charmer, lovin' and leavin' 'em all across the Southwest. We're talking cheap hotels, and one-night stands, and lots of booze to kill the painful memories of all the mistakes he's made--his four wives, his long-lost son, and all that money wasted. In his drunken reveries, Bad thinks of the good times: the road in his glory days, his first gigs, the church music that inspired him, and that golden moment when ol' Hank Williams himself told him, ""You can pick some guitar there, Slim."" Now rumored dead, Bad hits a streak of good fortune, beginning with a chance to open for the ever-popular cross-over star, Tommy Sweet, whose highly commercial ""product"" makes Bad ill. At about the same time, Bad, a ""professional romantic,"" meets up with a fine lady who catches his fancy, stimulates his long-dormant songwriting muse, and convinces him to find his son. But nothing works out the way Bad hoped, mainly because he can't cut out the juice, even after A.A. and Antabuse. Cobb fills out this familiar tale with lots of downhome sententiousness and honkytonk wisdom (""Keep your wrist steady, and don't marry nobody"") as well as the clichÉs of such. Technical talk (""It is a basic tonic-dominant-subdominant progression in D. . ."") also makes for some flat patches in this lyrically bittersweet portrait.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1987

ISBN: 0060915196

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1987

Categories: FICTION