FAST COPY

by Dan Jenkins ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 2, 1988

Sharp, spicy, and very funny stuff about college football, Time Magazine editors, Texas Rangers, old-time radio, and cynical, nicotine-stained, Front Page-style journalism--in the distinctive voice of the author of Semi-Tough, Dead Solid Perfect, Baja Oklahoma, and Life Its Ownself In 1935, Betsy Throckmorton, newspaper heiress, has returned from Manhattan and Time Magazine to her hometown of Claybelle, Texas, to edit the Claybelle Times. Standard, her daddy's paper, while her Yalie husband, Ted Winton, takes over radio station KVAT (home of swing band ""Booty and Them Others""). This leaves her daddy, Ben, known locally as Football Silly, free to follow the S.M.U. and T.C.U. football teams to the Rose Bowl and Cotton Bowl, respectively. The big story Betsy uncovers is that of Texas Ranger Lank Mired, who has killed a passel of bank robbers and publicly turned down the reward of $5000 a head. Betsy suspects Lank of setting up the shootings, though, and Betsy's husband Ted is killed when he discovers she's right (not overly traumatic, because Betsy's still-single high-school boyfriend is funnier and smarter than Ted; besides, he's Texan). After a suitable period of mourning, Betsy exposes Allred. The plot serves its intended purpose of moving us at a nice clip through Jenkins' loving, nasty, bristling, and shamefully funny presentation of Texans, football and journalism. The humor is often as not what some would call off-color, and if they chose to, Jews, blacks, Mexicans and women of any background could certainly take offense. But this is delightfully funny nonetheless: a real treat for fans of Jenkins' previous novels.

Pub Date: Nov. 2, 1988

ISBN: 0875652409

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1988

Categories: FICTION