THE RETURN OF LANCE TENNIS

by Laurence Snelling ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 2, 1965

Mr. T./went to sea/in a pea/green boat.....the boat sank. He didn't fare as well as his cousin Sebastian (The Ginger Man) Dangerfield. They both started as graduate students alternately cowering and righteously rebelling against the dilemma of the hapless male, but while Dangerfield roared, Tennis...well, he plotted. It's male type fun and games when Tennis is seen (Norton Wilkins) ""marveling again at the infinite resourcefulness of a sadistic fate."" The ""fate"" is in the accusing form of his Wife Althelia, a disaster brought on by a prolonged stay at a Tennessee. military base. Overwhelmed by the nuisances of life...work...wife...thesis...plus an abiding lust for his adviser's wife, Norton pleads insanity and flees (after forging a check for funds). He enters ""the scene"" in New Orleans, charismatic gate-way to Mexico and the home of Eugenie Ryker (the adviser's wife). An extraordinary talent...for plagarism...enables Norman to be transformed into Lance Tennis, poet, playwright, novelist, Beatnik supreme who becomes the ""leading literary light"" of that fine city. But fraud, however joyous, will out and Lance, haunted by detectives, wife, the ubiquitous adviser and the ghost of Ezra Pound faces final exposure. But our hero escapes to Mexico in the nick and with a lovely mealticket. We leave him squirming under the pressures of writing a non-existent novel...Antics for good sports and fine fellows, not as spicy as The Ginger gan but a talented first with some fine black humor.

Pub Date: Sept. 2, 1965

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Holt, Rinehart & Winston

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1965

Categories: FICTION