FREDDIE THE PIGEON

by Seymour Leichman ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 2, 1972

Get this. A culturally-advantaged talking pigeon named Freddie sets out to rescue his friend Sam who, along with 40 other boy geniuses have been kidnapped by the Sinister Dr. Sydney and imprisoned at the Happydale Pigeon Farm near Bayonne, New Jersey. Then Freddie's other friend, Reginald Gruffins, a wino painter who turns out to be Dr. Sydney's twin brother, is also kidnapped, but Freddie gets all the help he needs from Felicia Doiley, a black angel who specializes in changing her enemies into giant pink french fried potatoes, Horace Gruffins alias the Mysterious Mr. Chvik alias Mr. Red Nose no-names-please Trench Coat (actually the third twin/triplet) and a shopping bag lady from Riverside Park named Miss Vera Cleaver. Complicating (?) the plot are a troop of CIA spy/counterspies -- including a chap named Birdwell who wears a Mets uniform and one Litness, the catlike bird man. This surrealistic melodrama takes on some aspects of a fractured American Dream since the characters are inspired by the likes of John Wayne and Tom Seaver, but the animating wit is less satire than burlesque. Leichman keeps the outrageous one-liners and plot convolutions spinning at a frantic pace, and, if some of the jokes sit as heavily as those flamingo-hued french fries, in the aggregate they'll energize the wide open sense of humor.

Pub Date: June 2, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1972

Categories: FICTION