FARMER TICE #2

Donley (Farmer Tice, 2016, etc.) offers more tales of a bumbling farmer in this sequel.

No matter what he does, Farmer Tice of the town of Hokum always seems to make a fool of himself. Life for him seems to be one long string of blunderings, from his inability to fight his way out of a literal paper bag to his ongoing war with his wife, Honeybunch. At one point, he goes to the county fair only to find himself stranded at the top of a roller coaster. The incident might not have been so bad if Tice hadn’t urinated in his pants and been laughed at by a large crowd. Another time, Tice tries to get rich by peddling women’s hair elixir only to have customers ending up hairless and eager to sue. For all of Tice’s efforts, he usually winds up being forced to sleep in a barn or, if he really gets into trouble, jail. But although readers know that things won’t end well for the farmer, they won’t be able to predict what mischief he’ll get himself into. This installment of Tice’s misfortunes is slightly less crude than the first (although bodily functions still play a large role). However, it’s far more eccentric: Tice manages to wind up in England at one point, and at another, he even hosts a massive, Woodstock-like environmentalist rally on his farm. However, some of the protagonist’s mishaps prove to be more tedious than creative, as when he faces difficulty dealing with snoring ranch hands and when his truck gets towed, due to a parking violation. Tice never learns from his mistakes, but his ceaseless endurance may, in its own way, be motivational for readers. If only the poor farmer would think about what happened the last time he ignored obvious “No Parking” signs.

A truly oddball account of one man’s willful ignorance.