From Publishers Weekly
Culled from Bodett's syndicated radio show, these 28 interconnected stories are reminiscent of Garrison Keillor's tales from Lake Woebegon. Here, the setting is End of the Road, Alaska. In short sketches we meet Doug McDoogan, town liar, who is enriched when the art world creates an incomprehensible demand for his "whittlin'." Bud Koening, on his 60th birthday, determines to write the poem about Alaska that he's been putting off for decades. Norman Tuttle, a 12-year-old experiencing his first crush, asks his dad about the facts of life; Tamara Dupree, "vegetarian activist," feuds with a stray cat. Contests are held to see who can guess how soon snow will cover up a signpost, and Stormy Storbock and Ed Flannigan drive cross-country in a lime-green firetruck. While the collection is "old-fashioned" and "homespun," it is also unoriginal, flatly written and predictable, and many of the tales are xenophobic and misogynistic. Bodett's blatant sentimentality is expressed with such gusto, however, that his efforts may well have commercial appeal. First serial to Redbook; Literary Guild featured alternate; author tour.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Bodett, a commentator on National Public Radio and spokesman for the Motel 6 chain, has assembled 27 fairly short pieces, call them fragments, sketches or anecdotes, about life in End of the Road, Alaska, "a remarkable little vicinity plugged full of familiar people." He has nothing very startling to tell about the goings-on: some of the boys got together and gave Clara, who runs the only coffee shop in town, a new urn; Ed, "the roughneck road-grade operator," went bowling with Tamara, "our local vegetarian activist"--that sort of thing. The book just chats away, like a garrulous friend whose visit has been expected and who has now come. And the chatter is good, full of news, gossip, and pleasant humor. With this book, superior to its predecessor, As Far As You Can Go Without a Passport ( LJ 2/1/86), Bodett earns himself shelf space alongside Garrison Keillor.
- A.J. Anderson, Graduate Sch. of Library & Information Science, Simmons Coll., BostonCopyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
