Thu 14 Sep 2023
Reviewed by Barry Gardner: KINKY FRIEDMAN – The Love Song of J. Edgar Hoover.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[6] Comments
KINKY FRIEDMAN – The Love Song of J. Edgar Hoover. The Kinkster #9, Simon & Schuster, hardcover, 1996. Ballantine, paperback, 1997.
Reviewing Kinky Friedman is a tough row to hoe. So much of his appeal is in the flavor, and flavors are about as hard to describe with words as emotions. You’ve just got to taste it know if you like it
Kinky’s problems begin when a woman comes to him with a tale of a missing husband she wants him to find. She was referred to him by a friend, and being at loose ends, as he generally is, he decides to see what he can do. He finds that she’s involved in unexpected ways with more than one of his friends, and that the real story is both elusive and complex. Before it’s over, he’s been shot at in Washington, set on fire in Chicago, and confused everywhere.
What can I say? Nothing I haven’t said before, I’m sure. If you like Friedman’s books, you like them for his thoroughly irreverent and politically incorrect attitude, and his wry, telling, and amusing way with one-liners and aphorisms. The man is stone funny, or at least is to me; I know people who can’t abide him in the smallest of doses.
His plots more often than not aren’t , or at best are farcical. You don’t read Kinky for plots. You read him for characters, and his books are filled with colorful ones. I go back to what I started with: you just have to try him and see.
September 14th, 2023 at 6:54 pm
Agreed on how funny he is, and I laughed through this one, but honestly didn’t particularly care if I read another one and didn’t. The gag just didn’t seem worth repeating endlessly.
I’m glad I read it but wasn’t moved to repeat the experience.
September 14th, 2023 at 7:52 pm
Having lived here in New England since 1969, and in Michigan before that, it is difficult to accept the fact that Kinky Friedman wrote 18 of these. The most recent, and probably the last, came out in 2005.
It may be a Texas thing. They were probably ignored in the whole rest of the country.
Here’s a complete list:
1. A Greenwich Killing Time (1986)
2. A Case of Lone Star (1987)
3. When The Cat’s Away (1988)
4. Frequent Flyer (1989)
5. Musical Chairs (1991)
6. Elvis, Jesus and Coca Cola (1993)
7. Armadillos and Old Lace (1994)
8. God Bless John Wayne (1995)
9. The Love Song Of J. Edgar Hoover (1996)
10. Road Kill (1997)
11. Blast From The Past (1998)
12. Spanking Watson (1999)
13. The Mile High Club (2000)
14. Steppin’ On a Rainbow (2001)
15. Meanwhile Back at the Ranch (2002)
16. Curse of the Missing Puppet Head (2003)
17. The Prisoner of Vandam Street (2004)
18. Ten Little New Yorkers (2005)
I see Barry didn’t mention how J. Edgar Hoover got involved in this one. It is better perhaps not to know.
September 15th, 2023 at 2:16 am
I had always thought Friedman was a country-western twanger of some sort. Like, western swing, or western be-bop, cowboy be-bop style. And that he made a gubernatorial bid too. Is there some other Texan with that kind of tangent?
September 15th, 2023 at 6:06 am
Lazy,
Same guy. Just a trailer park renaissance man of sorts. His country music and his politics generally display a similar degree of humor. See, for example: https://youtu.be/oQ_T1jLPbAE?si=4Ny0Jo3FD73FMqqW
September 15th, 2023 at 10:16 am
I’ve never made it through one of these novels, but I’ve read several collections of Kinky’s essays and articles and loved them. Here’s my review of the best of them, from ‘way back in 2005:
https://jamesreasoner.blogspot.com/2005/09/texas-hold-emkinky-friedman.html
September 15th, 2023 at 7:15 pm
James Reasoner, the essays yes, the novels not so much.