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THE DOUGHNUT DROPOUT by E. W. Hildick

THE DOUGHNUT DROPOUT

By

Pub Date: May 5th, 1972
Publisher: Doubleday

Adam Donor Trenchard's 12th birthday is the signal for his grandfather to begin training him for a career in the family specialty of championship eating. Adam finds that the world of big time eaters is full of cheats and bribes and gamblers and ruthless competition, but he goes on to win the coveted Golden Doughnut in the nationals before biting it out for the glory of his country with the Russian champion Igor Slobowsky. By this time both contestants have had their fill of doughnuts and the story ends with the two of them conspiring in a slowdown, the Nigerian judge declaring a tie, and Igor defecting to Adam's town of Cakeville where he fits in so well the kids call him Igor Beaver. It's a heavy diet with little spice or sustenance, and you have to be a glutton for unleavened trivia to ingest all the pages-long lists -- of sweets and starches at Adam's party, of training rules and contest procedures and opponents' eating styles -- that pass for a spoof on the sports scene.