Mary Lou Sullivan

Being a life-and-times of Texan country music provocateur Kinky Friedman. This account is very much based in oral history; specifically Kinky-driven, it also contains liberal snippets from interviews with others. The first half of the book covers Friedman's youth and musical career; single chapters follow devoted to his comedy mystery novels, his sparse musical output over the past forty years, his animal welfare activities, entrepreneurship, and political campaigns, most notably for governor of Texas. Friedman is, unsurprisingly, an amusing, entertaining, and insightful narrator of his life, and the author picks up the torch of defending him from the largely specious charges of political incorrectness which have dogged him since his relentless deployal of racial and ethnic stereotypes and expletives to satirize bigotry.; thus the book is a rollicking read with many a serious point to be made. Even as a fan, I could have done with a shorter book, as one longish chapter is devoted to Friedman's jetset celebrity years in the late seventies and early eighties wherein the author relentlessly namedrops every eminento who appreciated Friedman's music and loved him as a drug buddy. Yes, it's important to realize the wide influence of Friedman's creativity, but as far as I'm concerned, she could have mentioned these people twice or thrice and then moved the story along, and, especially, not felt compelled to offer a mini-biography of dozens of celebrities such as Bob Dylan and Jno. Belushi whom most people know well enough for purposes of understanding a biography of somebody else.… (mehr)