Stars and Bars (original 1984; edition 1984)

Stars and Bars in one of Boyd's early novels. The story of a rootless English art expert, Henderson Dores, who has secured employment in the USA to aid his efforts to rekindle his relationship with his ex-wife, it comically recounts the tale of a disastrous trip to the American south to secure art works for his employers to sell. Things go from bad to worse as along the way we're introduced to the ex-wife's teenage daughter, a reclusive millionaire, the latter's near homicidal son and eccentric daughter. The style of writing Boyd uses in this novel is one he developed and refined for his later masterpieces like The New Confessions or Any Human Heart. Similar too is nature of the lead character: an intelligent British man searching for security and a fulfilling existence, yet somehow unable to seize control of the the events in which he becomes enmeshed. ( )

I discovered William Boyd quite a few years ago and was very impressed with the two novels I read. Then he fell off my radar screen. Recently, I've begun reading more of his novels and I have yet to be disappointed. In Stars and Bars, Henderson Dores is unhappy with his life and after a brief self-analysis, decides all his problems are the result of his English tendency to "shyness", an extreme timidity in asserting himself. He admires Americans as the consummate models of confidence and self-assertion. He takes a job in New York with a private art dealer and attempts a reconciliation with his American ex-wife while simultaneously beginning an affair with another American woman. He is sent to a rural area of Georgia to acquire some valuable paintings and finds himself in a series of disastrous but humorous events which spiral out of his control. I was reminded of Bellow's Henderson the Rain King, where bizarre circumstances seem to bring out the man's every weakness. If you like British black humor, you'll enjoy this. ( )

Somewhat funny, good description of "white trash" America. ( )

An amusing novel. I laughed plenty, but it packs much less punch than most of his other books. ( )

Quite funny, but not up to the standard of his later work. ( )