PRIDE OF THE BIMBOS

by John Sayles ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1975

Like Bang the Drum Slowly, this may also take some time getting there. It also might be the unlikeliest book you ever thought to like--taking place in ""mo-tels"" and trailers and cafes and cathouses in tank towns throughout Georgia; consarned with a softball team which plays in drag known as the Bimbos; with carny folk and strippers and a Jesus hustler and a Specialist in Epidermic Art; with a big black buck called Dred who's driving around in a burgundy Coupe de Ville looking to kill the midget who destroyed more of him than the leg he shot up; and that midget, Pogo, who's the pride of the Bimbos and the shiningly original triumph of this book. Pogo's an ex-detective, now the ""smallest strike zone east of the Pecos,"" and the walking-tallest spirit around--leading a ten-year-old youngster of one of the players by the hand and initiating him into the secret of life. The secret here has everything to do with male bonding and machissimo. Your balls have got to be more than in your eyes even if they're backed up by a tattoo or a gun--you can become ""real in killing"" or in dying gracefully alone, taking your medicine straight from the bottle while looking down the hole of a toilet when you know you've reached your last inning. There are hugely funny scenes: in the locker shack with its literature promising instant hair or virility; in a quick trip through Spook Hollow now deserted with only its cheap smells of fried hair and Congolene lingering on: on a field where the Bimbos face nothing but ""wall-to-wall niggers"" and weeds and they get out alive only after Pogo stages his midget ""eepalipsy""; or in another jerk-water where his clothes have been divested to drape the local statuary--a Cupid; etc., etc. Mr. Sayles is a writer with more talent in the knuckle of his little finger than we've met in many a long season--full of spit and humor and affection. Let's hear it for 'ira from the folks out there.

Pub Date: July 1, 1975

ISBN: 1615576401

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atlantic/Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1975

Categories: FICTION